Better Off Dead

SHAWN O’BRIEN #3

By William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone

Pinnacle Books, March 2016

On the West Texas border a behemoth is bellowing smoke, fire, and death. This monster is the infamous Abaddon Cannon Foundry, whose weapons of war have spread death and destruction around the world – and made a few men in Big Buck, Texas, incredibly rich. Now, a Mexican-born teenager has disappeared into this fortress factory, where men work and sweat as slaves. This boy’s sister wants to learn her brother’s fate, and she happens to know a man named Shawn O’Brien, the Town Tamer.

Shawn rides to Texas to find the missing boy. What he discovers in Big Buck will spark a ferocious, bloody battle with the greatest evil the West has ever known: masters of war who laugh in the face of anyone who defies them. Until Shawn O’Brien raises his six-gun. Then the laughing stops.

The Shawn O’Brien books are a spin-off series from The Brother’s O’Brien series and one of the other brothers will have a major part to play in this book, this being Jacob O’Brien.

Jacob goes undercover into the Foundry and will witness some horrific scenes that illustrate what many imagine Hell to be like. These very descriptive and visual passages bringing to mind the art of painters such as Jacob Isaacsz van Swanenburgh and Pieter Bruegel.

The book also seems to borrow from the steampunk genre too in the clothing that those who support the Foundry wear and the weapons that they are developing. I don’t really want to say any more about those weapons so as not to spoil the story for anyone aiming to read it, but these weapons are of interest to leaders of European countries as it seems conflict there is becoming inevitable.

With the Foundry run by a seemingly madman with an army behind him, never mind weapons of the like the West has never seen before, the odds against the two O’Brien brothers and their small band of allies being able to succeed in their mission is extremely doubtful from the start.

If you want a violent, action packed read where human life is seen as disposable on a madman’s whim, then this very fast paced story should be right at the top of your reading list.

Shawn O'Brien, Town Tamer

By William W. Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone

Pinnacle, March 2014

Unlike his brothers Jacob, Sam and Patrick, Shawn O’Brien isn’t content to settle down on the family ranch in New Mexico territory. With his razor-sharp eye, lightning-fast draw, and burning thirst for justice, Shawn is carving out a reputation of his own. As a town tamer he takes the most dangerous, lawless towns in the West and makes them safe for decent men, women, and children.

When a stagecoach accident leaves Shawn stranded in Holy Rood, Utah, it doesn’t take long to realize he’s landed in one ornery circle of hell. Ruled by a cruel and cunning crook-turned-merciless dictator named Hank Cobb, Holy Rood is about as unholy place as any on the frontier. Anyone who breaks Cobb’s rules is severely punished. Anyone who defies Cobb’s hooded henchmen dies by rope, stake, or guillotine.

But Shawn O’Brien isn’t just anyone. He’s the town tamer. And this time, he’s going to paint the town red…

This is the first book in another new series from the Johnstone’s. Shawn O’Brien, Town Tamer is a spin-off from the series The Brothers O’Brien.

The stagecoach ride into Holy Rood along a road lined with human skulls sets the mood of this book perfectly. The destruction of the coach sees its occupants thrust into a living hell that painted all sorts of vivid images within my mind. Cobb’s plays on peoples’ fears of witches, and the wrath of God, to spectacular effect for his own greed.

The horrific acts O’Brien witnesses and learns about fuel his resolve to destroy the hold Cobb has over the citizens of Holy Rood and this all means this book is packed full of exciting action which also reveal some strange goings on too, such as how can a dead man be living again?

The author switches between characters often. As well as some excellent male roles there are some terrific female leads too, such as Sally, a girl O’Brien saves from being burned at the stake. Of the male characters I would single out Mink Morrow, a going blind gunfighter, as one of the best. A man who you’re never quite sure whose side he’s going to support, if any.

At the beginning of this book O’Brien isn’t a town tamer but it’s after the violent acts in Holy Rood that he decides this is something he could be good at and this sets up the theme for the coming books in the series, books that I fully intend on reading.

The Brothers O'Brien

By William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone

Pinnacle, February 2012

The War Between the States has ended. Now, driven from Texas by carpetbaggers, former CSA Colonel Shamus O’Brien sets off for a new frontier – New Mexico. Here, where land is cheap, bandits shoot to kill, and rustlers rule the night, it takes more than one man to run a ranch. So he offers a partnership to his eldest son, Sam, with equal shares going to his sons Patrick, Shawn, and Jacob. Together, the brothers O’Brien will defend their homestead, the Dromore, in the violent, lawless land…and when necessary, administer their own brand of frontier justice.

The Brothers O’Brien is the first in a brand new series from the Johnstone family, and like any pilot episode this one has a fair portion of the book taken up with Shamus O’Brien’s background and telling how he built up the Dromore. Right from the beginning we meet a young woman who will also have an important role to play in this fast flowing and tough story that for the first part leaps through the years effortlessly as the author tells the important incidents that shape both the O’Brien’s and their ranch.

Once the brothers are grown-up and become partners is when the story really picks up a gear as a brewing range war threatens to spill over and bring disaster to the Dromore. The brothers O’Brien ride to try to stop this without getting involved within the war.

The number of brothers means the author concentrates on one or two more than the others (something that I expect will change book to book) and here the main character is Jacob, the only brother who doesn’t want to remain on the ranch. He’s content to drift and live by his wits and gun, this latter ability making him much needed in settling the range war problem. Tenderness within him is shown when he adopts a kitten and this contrasts well with his tough side.

The story also becomes more complicated when a second extremely strong scheming woman is introduced who looks set to get the better of the O’Brien’s and anyone else she comes up against. She is a master at playing people against one another.

There are other characters out to get what they can too, and all these plotlines means the story moves through a series of exciting twists and turns before everything is resolved.

The Brothers O’Brien is a fast moving, action-packed, story that proved to be very difficult to put down and left me looking forward to the second book, Shadow of the Hangman, which should be out in a couple of months time.