DEAD SHOT

 

LUKE JENSEN, BOUNTY HUNTER 2
DEAD SHOT
By William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone
Pinnacle Books, July 2013

Luke Jensen brings a body to Rio Rojo. After all, it’s his job, and he’s going to get paid. But before he can collect the bounty for killing a killer, two notorious criminals hit the Rio Rojo bank. Now Luke can’t get paid unless he catches professional bandit Gunner Kelly and his Apache sidekick Dog Eater. Unfortunately, a would-be man hunter is after the money-toting outlaws too, and young Hobie McCullough is mostly a menace to himself. With a green kid to protect, renegade Mexican soldiers, and a beautiful runaway bride crossing Luke’s trail, the blood hunt takes one deadly detour after another…until Luke ends up smack dab in a nest-of-vipers outlaw hideout. There, he discovers the true identity of Gunner Kelly, what kind of ungodly terror he has planned, and just how dangerous being a bounty hunter can be…

Even though this book reads like a number of different incidents that see Luke Jensen fighting for his life, each of the story threads is held together by the hunt for Gunner Kelly and Dog Eater. The need to sort out each crisis Luke finds himself in quickly so he can continue to track the outlaws, glues everything together well. Each segment has its own strong storyline and is filled with memorable characters, some of which will turn up later to cause even more deadly problems for Luke.

Luke is a determined man. A man who won’t let anything get in the way of his goal. He’d happy ride around the troubles he comes upon so he can just get on with his task of taking down Kelly and the Apache. But Hobie doesn’t let him as he feels it’s his duty to help people in distress and Luke has no choice but to help.

The lengthiest part of this book is the story of the runaway bride. Why is a band of gunmen trying to kill her? Luke is not sure that is what they are trying to do and is soon proved right. This section of the book features as dramatic stagecoach ride before Luke, Hobie, the bride-to-be and other stagecoach passengers find themselves trapped in a dead-end canyon which provides an exciting how are they going to get out of that situation. In fact, the book contains a lot of cliff-hanger endings to chapters and scenes that ensure the reader will keep turning the pages. 

Action sequences come regularly and the fights are fairly brutal at times. Characters are nicely fleshed out making you care about their future or want to see them get their just rewards. Pacing is excellent too. Even though some of the story threads were resolved as I expected, there were also some surprises that caught me off-guard. 

Hopefully it won’t be as long before I read book three, Bloody Sunday, as it was between reading the first book and this one. 

An Arizona Christmas

By William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone

Pinnacle, November 2017

Like most families, the Jensens gather together to celebrate the holidays. This year, since half the clan is scattered across the American West, they've decided to split the difference and meet up in Tucson. Matt and Luke will be there, for sure, and maybe Ace and Chance, too. That leaves Sally, Preacher, and Smoke Jensen, who've reserved three seats on a westbound stage to make sure they don't miss out on the festivities. What could possibly go wrong? 

Mother Nature is the first to strike, dusting up the trail with a sandstorm as blinding and deadly as any northern blizzard. Then comes an Apache ambush, forcing the passengers and drivers to seek shelter in a cave. Even if Smoke and Preacher manage to shoot their way out of this, they have another big surprise waiting--a ruthless gang of outlaws after the cargo of cash on the stage, happy to slaughter anyone who tries to stop them. If the Jensens hope to save Christmas this year, they'll need to save their own lives first . . .

The seventh Johnstone book set at Christmas and the first one I’ve read. Great to see the author bringing together some of the Johnstone’s greatest characters but as expected the trail to their Christmas rendezvous doesn’t run smoothly.

Most of the story concentrates on the dangers facing Smoke, Sally and Preacher as they journey together first by train and then stagecoach, and it’s whilst travelling on the latter that most of this tale revolves. The stage is also filled with a number of interesting characters too and the author often switches between them as well as those attempting to stop one of them reaching Tucson.

With outlaws, Apaches, and Mother Nature out to destroy the stagecoach and its passengers the book offers plenty of action and there is an impressive body count. Once the travellers are pinned down in a cave the tension mounts as you’ll be wondering just how they can possibly escape.

One thing I particularly enjoyed was the names of some of the characters, Ballard and Tuttle for instance which many long-time readers of westerns will recognize as past authors of the genre. A nod to those old time pulps which is strengthened by the comments in the last part of the story about newspaper reporters and writing for those pulps.

If you’re looking for a fast read that is packed with gunplay then this is certainly worth adding to your ‘want to read’ list. 

  

Luke Jensen, Bounty Hunter

By William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone

Pinnacle, September 2012

The last days of the Civil War. With Richmond under siege, Confederate soldier Luke Jensen is assigned the task of smuggling gold out of the city before the Yankees get their hands on it – when he is ambushed and robbed by four deserters, shot in the back, and left for dead. Taken in by a Georgia farmer and his beautiful daughter, Luke is nursed back to health. Though crippled, he hopes to reunite with his long-lost brother Smoke, but a growing romance keeps him on the farm. Then fate takes a tragic turn. Ruthless carpetbaggers arrive and – in a storm of bullets and bloodshed – Luke is forced to strike out on his own. Searching for a new life. Hunting down the baddest of the bad…to become the greatest bounty hunter who ever lived.

This is the first in another new series from the Johnstone’s, the third this year if my memory is correct. Here we find out what really happened to Luke Jensen, his fate having been mentioned way back, briefly, in the early Mountain Man books about Smoke Jensen, in fact for fans of Smoke this book is a must read as he has a role to play here too.

Bounty Hunter is divided into four parts, each dealing with a different period in Luke Jensen’s life, such as trying to get the gold out of Richmond and his recovery from being left for dead.

The author tells the story at a rapid pace and it’s filled with exciting incidents, be they fast furious fights or gripping struggles to survive, for me one of the best of these being Luke’s desperate attempt to save himself from drowning without the use of his legs.  

For those who like a touch of romance in their books then this one won’t disappoint, although it’s obvious from the blurb this isn’t going to end happily, but it didn’t end as I expected, so its finish came as a surprise.

With plenty of cliff-hanger scene and chapter endings along with strong storylines this is a book that urges you to continue reading, and it’s one that has left me looking forward to the next.

Finally, a comment about the cover, the image shown above is the book I have and if you compare it to the pictures shown at various Internet bookstores you’ll see it has had the gunmen in the background removed. Makes me wonder why? Any ideas?