A GOOD DAY FOR A MASSACRE

 

SLASH AND PECOS
Book 2 of 6
A GOOD DAY FOR A MASSACRE
By William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone
Pinnacle Books, July 2020

Life on the straight and narrow is easier said than done for a pair of crooks like Jimmy “Slash” Braddock and Melvin “Pecos Kid” Baker. But these reprobates are doing their damnedest to make an honest go of it. They’ve managed to safely deliver a church organ to a mountain parish when their sometime employer – Chief U.S. Marshal Luther T. “Bleed-‘m-So” Bledsoe – recruits them for a job only fools would take.

Marshal Bledsoe wants them to pick up a shipment of gold in the mining town in the Sawatch Mountains. Here’s the catch: Slash and Pecos’s wagon is just a decoy. When a ruthless gang ambushes the real gold shipment, it’s up to Slash and Pecos to go after the trigger-happy bandits. And they won’t be alone. A lady Pinkerton, Hattie Friendly – who is anything but – survived the ambush and is hellbent on getting the gold back. Even if she has to team up with a pair of ornery old cutthroats like Slash and Pecos….

The author has come up with a very engaging pair of lead characters in Slash and Pecos. They’re tough, they bicker and can get into all kinds of trouble without trying. Their outlaw days are over and they’ve been granted an amnesty, trouble is not many people know about this. Teaming them up with Hattie makes for some lively exchanges of dialogue which often had me laughing out loud.

The story is fast paced and action packed. The body count is high. As well as knives, pistols and rifles, Gatling guns are used to devasting effect. Slash and Pecos get thrown in jail too by a lawman who doesn’t know they are free men now. As well as Hattie, there are other strong roles for female characters. Slash is looking to pop-the-question to one of them….if he can conquer his nerves. Trouble is he might just have a love rival.

Having only read two of the books in this series, Slash and Pecos have already made a strong impact on me and have become two of my favourite characters to come from the Johnstone’s. 

American readers can get a copy here.

UK readers can get a copy here.