Preacher & MacCallister

 Fort Buzzard

by

William W. Johnstone

&

J.A. Johnstone

They were innocent men, slaughtered in the Rockies. A party of land surveyors who met their grisly fate at the hands of the Crow Indians—or so it seems. Some folks think the story is a lie. And now it’s up to U.S. Army Lieutenant Ron Stanton to figure out what really happened up there in those desolate, blood soaked mountains. As his guides, Preacher and Jamie McCallister agree to retrace the footsteps of the doomed party—come hell or high water—but first they’ll have to pass through a particularly nasty piece of purgatory known as Fort Buzzard . . .

Fort Buzzard—officially Gullickson’s Fort—earned its nefarious nickname because of the human vultures it attracts. Namely the brutes and brawlers hired by Gullickson to protect his interests. When a nearby trading post is suddenly attacked—and two young women carried off by Indians—Preacher and McCallister smell a rat. The Crows swear they’re not responsible for the attack, the abduction, or the mountain party massacre. Preacher and McCallister believe them—but proving it won’t be easy. This road to justice only leads to more dead ends—and the biggest, bloodiest showdown in Rocky Mountain history . . .

Once again, Preacher and Jamie MacCallister ride straight into danger. This time they’re escorting a group of soldiers sent to uncover the truth behind the massacre of a survey team—supposedly at the hands of the Crow. But nothing about this mission is as simple as it first appears.

Trouble finds them early when they cross paths with a trader and his two daughters. Emma, fiery and stubborn, immediately clashes with Preacher—especially after he tosses her into the river. Her sister Jenny, couldn’t be more different.

Before long, the trading post is attacked, and the sisters are taken captive. Forced to split up, Preacher heads out to rescue the women, while MacCallister and Lieutenant Stanton push on to Gullickson’s Fort in search of answers about the murdered surveyors.

What follows is a double‑barreled burst of frontier action, with both men delivering justice the only way they know how.

The author once again delivers a top‑notch story. The pacing is tight, the writing flows effortlessly, and the characters—especially Emma—keep the pages turning. She may be headstrong and exasperating, but she’s unforgettable. Jenny provides a perfect contrast, adding balance to the cast.

If this truly is the final book in the series (as of 2024), it’s a strong finish. Still, I can’t help hoping there’s more to come. A great read. 5/5

Box Set

  Nine Smoking Guns

By

Brent Towns

Get it here!

Kilraine!

Kilraine: the fast gun who left to protect his family; Grace Jefferson: Kilraine’s wife who was shot when their ranch was raided by night riders; Lucy Jefferson: the daughter he’s never seen; Sam Jefferson: Grace’s father – they murdered him claiming self-defence; Carver Giles: he killed to have it all; Eli Carter: the brave young man who stood up for the town; Utah Williams: Giles’ hired killer….

…. A cast of characters larger than the West itself comes to life in a classic tale of good against evil, in which the final showdown would pit three guns against a living ghost and possibly tear a family apart forever.

Lightning Strike

His name was Billy Swift and he wore a brace of .45s, grips inlaid with silver lightning bolts. They said he was dead, but now he's back . . . For five years it was thought that the gunfighter known as "Lightning Swift" was dead. He'd just crawled off into the desert to die after being wounded in a gun battle with Harley Mossop and his gang. How wrong everyone was. Someone shot the man who saved his life, so the Lightning Colts have been strapped back on. Soon the air is filled with the smell of burnt powder as the gunfighter with the lightning-fast hands returns from the grave. He's mad and is not going to stop until the person responsible is planted in the ground. Then from the past looms a killer. The famous Lightning Swift may not be able to outdraw this one. His name: Laredo Mossop, king of the fast-guns!

Saracen!

Blaine Saracen has returned home to Texas to find his parents dead and his sister taken by Black Ted Allen. So begins a long quest to find his sister. In the course of his journey, Saracen is caught up in a bloody showdown, having saved the lives of two United States Marshals, then is given the job of transferring a prisoner to Fort Smith. While Saracen is gone, Allen reappears with a vengeance, killing and robbing. But the outlaw's luck runs out when he is captured, only to be freed while being transported for trial. Though once Saracen gets word of it, nothing will stop him from getting the man who killed his parents and took his sister.

The Fury of El Tigre

El Tigre - the Tiger. That's what the Mexicans called him. His name was Jim Curtis, and he was a product of the Civil War, who went to Mexico to fight in the Revolution. Now, he just roams the West, riding from one town to the next - a drifter with no home. Then fate intervenes, in the form of a woman named Mary-Alice, and Curtis is soon up to his neck again in someone else's war. Only this time it has brought him face to face with an old friend. The killers think they can beat him. But they've never come across the fury of El Tigre!

The Other Madden

There is oil on Madden land and Bren Deavers means to have it. But when Joe Madden is killed and sent home wrapped in barbed wire, things heat up. For the Maddens are fighters and Elmira and Emily are going to do just that. But Joe also had a brother. One nobody talked about. The dangerous one. They just referred to him as - the other Madden!

Brothers of the Gun

Buford Lance fought for every inch of his B-L connected ranch, so he'd be damned if he was going to hand over a large portion of his Cottonwood Creek range to homesteaders. Instead, he decides to fight again. This time, he hires two of the best guns in the business.

Lucas Kane: The Gun King. They said he was invincible, that there was nobody faster.

Jordan Kane: The Prince. Next in line for the throne. He'd take on any job. It was said that he'd shoot his own mother if the price was right.

One, an out and out killer, the other, his polar opposite who could never commit murder no matter the price. When Lucas Kane refuses the job, Lance has him bushwhacked. It begins an infamous blood-letting talked about for years to come and leads to the change of a town's name in an effort to forget. Ultimately, it draws two brothers into a showdown where only one can walk away.

Will the 'Gun King' keep his throne? Or can the 'Prince' finally get to wear the crown he desperately covets?

Brolin

When Red Mike Stall hijacks the westbound train with the help of his gang and attempts to murder everyone on board, he's shocked to find Brolin, a gunfighter thought to have been dead for ten years, among the passengers. Effecting an escape, Brolin dogs Stall's bloody trail with the help of Emmett King, a greenhorn store owner who lost his son to a stray bullet from the outlaws. In the final showdown, can a dead man win the day? Or will a killer continue his murderous rampage?

Long Trail to Redemption

A U.S. senator and his family have been kidnapped by bandits and imprisoned in the Mexican village of Las Palomas, but the government is reluctant to provoke war by sending troops after them. Joshua Bell of the secret service amasses a team to retrieve the captives: assassin-for-hire Hawk; bounty hunter Wolf McGee; town-tamer Utah Smith; former shootist Walter Cronkite; secret service agent Jess Stuart; and drifter gunfighter Red Kinane. But not all of them can be trusted...

Fury at Bent Fork

It has become known as the Stone Creek Valley war, and for a time the land ran red with the blood of innocents and killers alike. In the middle of it all stands a young man, Chad Hunter, against the murderous bunch called the Committee, trying to halt their takeover of his once peaceful home. The Committee are the four biggest ranchers in the area, and to help them achieve what they want, they hire Slade Johnson and his cohorts to deal with those who refuse to bow to their demands. Then there's "Killer Creel," a cold-blooded murderer who has escaped from prison, and whose ultimate goal is to reap revenge upon Hunter. The Committee had lynched his brother and shot his father down, so Hunter loads his guns and prepares to deal out his own brand of justice. With killers to his front and one closing in from behind, it may just be a war that Hunter can't win.

The Enforcer

 Ride the Lawless Land

Bannerman the Enforcer #2

by

Kirk Hamilton

(Keith Hetherington)

Twenty one thousand dollars ... to get their hands on it, Reno Slade and his gang killed two innocent people and then high-tailed it into the Indian Territory. But they hadn’t reckoned on Sven Johansen’s daughter Anya, who would stop at nothing to bring her parents’ killers to justice.

She knew exactly the way to do it, too. She’d heard of Governor Dukes’ two ‘enforcers’, Yancey Bannerman and Johnny Cato. Though based in Texas, she knew they could flout jurisdiction and state lines, and ride the lawless land until the account with Slade was settled in blood.

She wanted that above all else. And nothing was going to stop her from being in at the kill!

Yancey Bannerman and Johnny Cato saddle up again in the second installment of Hetherington’s The Enforcer series, this time riding into the Indian Nations on the trail of Reno Slade, the man responsible for killing Sven Johansen. Johansen’s daughter, Anya, burning for justice, turns to the one person she believes can help her—Governor Dukes.

Dukes dispatches his two top enforcers to hunt down the killers, but there’s a complication: the strong‑willed Anya insists on going with them. Now Bannerman must not only face a ruthless gang of outlaws but also keep an impulsive young woman alive in hostile territory.

While it’s not the strongest entry in Hetherington’s series, it still delivers a fast-paced adventure packed with gunfights and tension. A solid, action-driven read that builds to a dramatic finale. 4/5.  

Reckoning at Rimrock

 Reckoning at Rimrock

Clay Nash #4

by Brett Waring

(Keith Hetherington)

Clay Nash went undercover with orders to infiltrate the gang of a cold-blooded outlaw named Zach Forrester. To do that, he assumed the identity of a dead man. But from the very start, nothing about his mission went right. To begin with, Clay’s trail crossed that of an enemy from his past who was still itching to get revenge for an old score. Then he wound up behind bars, mistaken for the outlaw he was pretending to be. And then Zach Forrester broke him out of jail, figuring he was an old friend from Yuma Pen. That was enough to tip the balance altogether … against Wells Fargo’s toughest troubleshooter!

Undercover as both a dynamite man and the now dead outlaw Matt Dundee, Clay Nash is in trouble from the moment he rides in. Sheriff Brad Burns is the first obstacle—a man who knows Nash, hates him, and would gladly see him buried. Then there are the Forrester brothers. There were two, until Burns shot Clem before Nash even reached town. Now Burns has Nash locked up, planning to keep him there for as long as it suits him.

But the real danger comes from Zach Forrester, who once served time with the real Matt Dundee. If anyone can expose Nash’s disguise, it’s him. Even if Nash manages to navigate the early threats, he may still fall at the final hurdle—with a bullet in his gut.

Keith Hetherington delivers another gripping tale: fast-paced, twist-filled, and packed with tension. I originally thought this was book #2, only to discover it’s actually #4. Now I need to go back and read the two I missed. A solid 5/5.

Frontier Stories

 Man Riding West

by 

Louis L'Amour

Frontier Stories #2

The third tale in this collection follows Jim Gary—the man who once gunned down Miguel Somona—as he rides toward Pleasant Valley. On the trail he encounters a crew driving cattle, and, unaware the herd is stolen, he signs on to help push them to their destination.

It doesn’t take long for everything to fall apart. Gary is seized, accused of murder, and finds himself staring at a noose while a furious bunch clamors for justice. But in the final, thunderous showdown, the truth bursts into the open, halting the violence in a cloud of gunsmoke.

Classic L’Amour: memorable characters, a clean, fast-moving story, and a landscape painted so vividly you can almost feel the dust and smell the gunsmoke in the air.

Bad Company

 Bad Company

Damien Hunter #4

by

Nathan Best

When nations clash and cartels bleed, only Taipan One Six can cut through the chaos.

The world’s dirtiest war just got personal.

Damien Hunter, commander of Taipan One Six, is pulled from the heat of Oman and thrown into a global firestorm. A Guatemalan drug lord’s family has been hijacked by Japanese operatives in a brutal power play. The target: his defiant daughter, Isabella. The stakes: control of the global narcotics trade.

From African swamps to Ukrainian war zones, Damien’s mission spirals into a high-risk pursuit across continents. The hijackers crash-land behind Russian lines. Japanese mercenaries parachute into the combat zone. Ukrainian special forces join the fight. And in the shadows, every side wants blood.

Outgunned and outnumbered, Taipan One Six must slice through mercenaries, militants, and missile fire to bring Isabella out alive. But when the mission ends, a new enemy rises – and he wants revenge.

In the world of black ops, survival is never guaranteed.

Strap yourself in...this one is going to be bloody!

Damien Hunter returns alongside the rest of Taipan One Six, and from the very first page there’s absolutely no easing into it. The book detonates straight into high‑octane action and never lets up.  

After the explosive opening, One Six is sent to extract the wife and daughter of a cartel boss from the clutches of the Japanese Yakuza. From that moment, it’s a relentless sprint—action, blood, and tension—driving all the way to a brutal climax in Ukraine.

Nathan once again delivers at the top of his game. His writing is sharp, fast, and lean, with no bloated detours—just pure story muscle. Exactly the kind of storytelling I love.

In my review of the last book, Long Surrender, I said it went from 0 to 100 in the space of a gunshot. This one starts at 100 the moment you crack it open.

Now the wait begins for the next instalment.

My thanks to Nathan and Big Sky Publishing for providing a review copy.

Larry & Stretch

 Drift!

Larry & Stretch

by

Marshall Grover

(Len Meares)

With amiable drifters Larry Valentine and Stretch Emerson as her escort, a beautiful redhead ran the gauntlet of death, travelling many a violent mile to give her testimony in court. Only the boss-outlaw had been captured. The rest of the Sharkey gang was still at large ... and gunning for her! Here was a test of nerve and strength, a challenge no Texan could ignore. When the danger was greatest, the drifters battled on, out-shooting the lawless and thumbing their noses at law and order!

According to several sources, this story marks the very first appearance of Larry Valentine and Stretch Emerson — the pair who would become known throughout the West as The Texas Troubleshooters. Fittingly, when we meet them for the first time, they’re behind bars.

After the mistaken murder of a woman, their fine is unexpectedly paid on one condition: they must escort a young lady to Nash City to testify in a murder trial. Her testimony will send Curt Sharkey to the gallows, but his brother Gil and the rest of the Sharkey gang have no intention of letting that happen. What follows is a tense game of wits and a gun-blazing showdown at the end of the trail.

I grew up reading these books. Len Meares was incredibly prolific, and his long‑running Larry and Stretch series was always a favorite of mine. In this early entry, the Texas Troubleshooters are still finding their footing, but the trademark banter between the two friends is already firmly in place. The tone here is grittier than many of the later stories.

Overall, it’s a solid, well‑written read. The publication date of this particular edition is hard to pin down — early titles were reprinted multiple times — but it likely comes from somewhere in the 1960s.

It’s also available in eBook form if you want an easier way to revisit it. 

Find it here!