Preacher's Strike by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone is another western with some european connections. This time it's not vikings but people from a mde up duchy close to germany. It is a classic Preacher story starting in St. Louis with someone needing his help going out in the wilderness. It has what one expects in a western and it is entertaining as it usually is with Preacher, I would however read more about him in a later time. I must thank Netgalley and kensington Books for the advance copy.

There is no such thing as a bad Johnstone western. Each series is built around main characters whose belief in the law and family is absolute, even if they've had to be reformed to get there. From Preacher, the original mountain man to the Jensen family to Perly Gates, to.....well, you get the point. Many times, characters from one series will show up in another as supporting hands. The communities are true to the era, clothing, guns, food and troubles are all what you'd find if you looked them up in the history books. No two stories are the same, each character or set of characters is unique and so are their stories. The writing is skillful, readers are pulled into the story and you will laugh and cry right along with the characters. I made the mistake of picking up a Johnstone western my uncle was reading. Ive been hooked ever since. Now I share them with my reading family and will continue as long as new Johnstones are released.

Of all the westerns from the William Johnstone Universe, the Preacher stories is my favorite and this one--Preacher's Strike (Pinnacle 2024) didn’t disappoint. Preacher is a legendary and timeless mountain man, part of an extended family in Johnstone's Universe that includes ranchers, bounty hunters, former outlaws, and more. In this story, Preacher is hired to help a European royal find his cousin who was swept away by a shyster with promises of a life to exceed the boredom of her royal entrapments. When they disappear into the young nation of America, her cousin sets out to find her, rescue her if need be. The clues are thin but Preacher has worked with less. He sets out into the wild untamed wilderness with a personally-selected team of similar mountain men type folk, picked because a rough, dangerous world is nothing new to them. As promised, they run into everything that makes these Johnstone classic westerns the best around including Preacher's unexpectedly clever conniving to solve problems.

Overall an excellent read with lots of surprises and enough left at the end I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn't a sequel.