Arizona Justice

Arizona Justice

by

Gordon D. Shirreffs

In Arizona Justice, when Rowan Locke rode into Llano with a marshal’s badge in his pocket and the iron will to bring back a killer, all he heard talk of was the terrible Donnigans, those five wild-tempered brothers who thought they were above the law.

Rowan Locke, once a Cavalry sergeant and now a United States Marshal, rides into Llano hunting the yellow‑belly who gunned down his friend and partner. He finds a town ruled by the Donigans—five hard, storm‑fighting brothers and a father twice as mean. They don’t need guns to make their point. Joan Donigan is another matter entirely, and Locke feels the pull.

But John Ripsey, a land‑hungry rancher with a taste for getting his way, stands in Locke’s path. And behind it all, a hidden killer watches and waits. Llano is full of lies, and Locke may be the next man to fall.

Shirreffs delivers again: lean prose, fierce characters, and a story that grabs hold. The Donigans nearly walk off with the book. Definitely worth adding to your TBR.

Dirty Creek Gang

 The Last Ride of the Dirty Creek Gang

by

William J. Johnstone

and

J.A. Johnstone

In this explosive new series from the bestselling Johnstones, a once-notorious gang of retired bank robbers reunite for one last ride—and one last shot at glory . . .

Clay Carson thought his outlaw days were behind him. Years ago, he rode with the fearsome Dirty Creek Gang—and robbed half the banks in Texas. But then a fatally bungled heist in Fort Worth brought it all crashing down. The gang broke up, went their separate ways, and that was the end of that. But today the past came calling for Carson in the form of a telegram. It’s from Lemuel Jones—his old gang leader—who asks him to do something reckless, stupid, and downright crazy: round up the old gang for one last ride.

Jones says he hid away the gang’s biggest payday from their boldest bank job, and he just needs Carson and the gang to help him get it. Carson assumed his old boss gambled it away—and has doubts about his old gang members, too. All but one of them has gone straight, with respectable jobs like store clerk, ranch hand, and even banker. The only outlaw left has been captured and sentenced to hang. Which means the crew would have to bust him out of jail and ride off with a posse on their tail. It’s crazy, all right. But the Dirty Creek Gang is just crazy enough to give it a shot—even it’s their last . . .

An old crew is pulled back together by their dying leader for one last mission: recover the cash from their biggest bank job. Naturally, nothing goes according to plan.

The book is well‑written and packed with action, but it just didn’t hook me the way I hoped. I found my attention drifting, and I struggled to stay fully engaged. That said, every reader connects differently with a story, so others may enjoy it far more than I did.

Give it a try and decide for yourselves.

Thank you to Kensington and Net Galley for providing an ARC.

Johnny Colt

Blood on the Wire

Johnny Colt #1

by

James Reasoner 

The open range is dying, strangled by fences, greed, and men willing to slaughter homesteaders for what was never theirs. Johnny Colt rides into the middle of that bloody battleground carrying a reputation he didn’t ask for—and a gun he knows how to use. He’s fast, deadly, and determined to live by his own rules, but fate has other plans for him.

When rustlers, hired guns, and merciless land barons take over land and cattle, Johnny finds himself pulled into a brutal struggle as sharp as the barbed wire cutting across the plains. Every fence post hammered into the ground leaves another body in the dust. And the powers behind it believe killing and intimidation will clear the way for their empire.

Problem is, they’ve underestimated Johnny Colt.

As the killing escalates and alliances fracture, Colt is forced to choose between riding away clean or standing his ground against enemies who won’t stop until the range is flowing with the blood of innocents. With towns caught in the crossfire and lives at stake, Johnny discovers that survival in the new West demands more than speed—it demands an immunity to fear and terror. And Johnny Colt can deliver both to his enemies.

Hard-hitting, fast-paced, and steeped in classic Western grit, Blood on the Wire launches a hard-driving series about a man forged by violence and driven by his own unrelenting code of honor.

The story opens with Johnny Colt and his friends riding out to cut the wire Vince Atkinson’s Flying A hands have strung across open range. Instead of a simple night job, they ride straight into an ambush. Gun‑thunder rips the dark wide open, Johnny is wounded, and suddenly he’s running for his life.

Just when it seems he’s finished, salvation comes out of the shadows in the form of his uncle—Captain Esau Parker, known to his men as Captain Brimstone for the fire and brimstone he can sling from a Bible. Before Johnny can catch his breath, he’s sworn in as a Texas Ranger and sent straight back into the rattler’s nest. His mission: learn who murdered his friends and, if the trail leads that way, haul Verne Atkinson in to face the law.

What Johnny doesn’t expect is Atkinson’s sharp‑tempered daughter, or the foreman, Blake Trask, a man with secrets of his own.

Something’s rotten on the Flying A, and Johnny Colt will need every ounce of grit and gun‑sense he’s got if he aims to stay alive.

James Reasoner delivers a terrific opening chapter to the Johnny Colt series. It has the flavor of the classic westerns of the ’50s and ’60s—very much in the spirit of Bradford Scott’s Walt Slade—backed by a strong cast of characters.

I enjoyed every page, and by the end I was already eager for the next installment. Hopefully it’s the first of many. The story is action‑packed, fast‑moving, and Reasoner’s prose goes down easy—like slipping into a well‑worn shirt and settling in by a warm fire.

Left me wanting more. 5/5.

The Hangman

 The Hangman

by

Brent Towns

My trembling finger poked the sepia photograph. It was either the grog or the frigid Bourke night air causing the tremor. 

‘That’s me and him. November ten, eighteen eighty. The governor wanted a picture of us together the day before he hanged. Strange, isn’t it? A criminal hanging another criminal.’

The young woman beside me leaned in, the orange light from the flickering fire illuminating the picture enough for her to see. ‘Are you sure? It doesn’t look much like him.’

‘That’s him. His beard was longer, and his hair was all prettied up, but that is him.’

‘And you were the one who hung him?’

‘I hung men, flogged more. Ghastly.’ It was something you never forgot. I grabbed my bottle of whiskey. ‘You want a drink to warm your bones?’

‘Sure.’

I passed her the bottle after popping the cork. I staggered to my feet. 

‘Where are you going?’

‘Not far, Lassie.’

I disappeared into the darkness, leaving her alone. When I returned, I took my place beside her.

She held up the photograph. ‘Tell me more.’

‘He was a scoundrel and a murderer, Lass. That’s all you need to know. He got what was coming to him.’

‘Many saw him as a hero,’ the young woman suggested, raising an eyebrow.

My head tilted to one side. ‘Did you, Lass? Did you see that black-hearted Ned Kelly as a hero?’

‘I—’

I snatched the whiskey from her hand and took a long pull. Its bitter burn chased the cold away. Holding the bottle out, I offered her more. She shook her head. ‘No, I’ve had enough. I must leave tomorrow.’

As the liquor made its way down my gullet, the tremor in my hand began to subside. She passed the photograph back to me and I held it up. The image blurred. Blinking my eyes, it came back into focus. 

‘Tell me more,’ she requested once again.

I shook my head. ‘No. No more. I’ve told you all I’m willing.’

‘But the picture…’

A sudden urge came over me and I threw it into the fire. ‘Damn the picture.’

‘No,’ she gasped and leaned forward, plucking it from the greedy flames. She patted the burning tongues out and held it close to her chest like it was a prized possession.

Staring at her, I asked, ‘Who are you, Lass?’

‘My name is Kate.’

My laugh was dry. ‘He had a sister named Kate.’

‘So, I heard,’ she replied. Getting to her feet she said, ‘Goodbye, Elijah.’

Her words had a finality about them.

She faded beyond the firelight like an apparition, the photograph gone with her.

I turned in. I was tired and the burning in my guts was growing as the poison-laced whiskey started to bite. 

Hard time

 Hard Time

by

Logan Ryles

Mason Sharpe #13

Everyone wants him caught. Someone wants him dead.

On the frozen backroads of upstate New York, Army veteran Mason Sharpe picks up a hitchhiker stranded in the cold.

Minutes later, a sheriff’s deputy pulls them over. Three gunshots ring out, the deputy collapses into the snow, and the hitchhiker disappears into the woods.

Joining local cops on the manhunt, Mason learns the truth: the hitchhiker is Shane Hagan, an escaped federal inmate and fellow special forces veteran.

But when a second encounter erupts into a gunfight in the winter forest, Mason sees what the cops are missing - someone wants Hagan silenced.

Caught in the middle of a deadly web, Mason must choose—trust the system that convicted Hagan or believe a fellow veteran’s desperate story and help him save his family. Make the wrong call, and Mason could end up in prison.

But some bonds are worth any risk. And Mason Sharpe has never been afraid of Hard Time.

Another high‑octane thriller from Logan Ryles, with Mason Sharpe once again stumbling into trouble he never asked for. After picking up a hitchhiker in a freezing Upstate New York, Sharpe is pulled over moments later—and everything erupts. Gunfire shatters the quiet, and the hitchhiker vanishes into the snow.

Sharpe can feel the wrongness in his bones. Why would a fugitive break out of prison after just thirteen months? And when he had a clear chance to kill, why didn’t he take it? The deeper Sharpe digs, the clearer it becomes that nothing about this situation is what it seems—and he’s right in the middle of it.

A taut, action‑packed read from start to finish. The writing is sharp, (sorry) the mystery compelling, and Mason Sharpe continues to shine as a rugged, engaging hero. Ryles proves once again that he knows exactly how to keep readers hooked.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

 

Ray Hogan

 The Outside Gun

by

Ray Hogan

(An Ace Double)

Dan Wade left Big Bill Krask's Double K Ranch because there was little chance for advancement when everything Big Bill did was to benefit his son and heir, Little Bill. Then a letter comes to Wade in Abilene from Marshal William Krask, asking him to come back and help out. Wade returns to find that much has changed: The marshal is not Big Bill, but his son Little Bill. And the great enemy to law and order is Big Bill and his gang of hardcases.

Dan Wade returns to Burnt Springs after receiving a call for help—but not from the man he expected. Instead, it’s Big Bill Krask’s son, Little Bill, who’s reached out. Newly married and now wearing the town marshal’s badge, Little Bill has derailed his father’s plans for him to take over the family ranch. In response, Big Bill hires a crew of hardcases and sets out to make his son’s life miserable. But the hired guns have their own agenda, and none of it bodes well.

Ray Hogan delivers another engaging Western. It’s shorter than many of his novels, but he still manages to pack plenty into the story. It’s not his strongest work, if I’m being honest, but it’s well written and keeps the pages turning.

Dan Wade makes for a solid protagonist, caught squarely between a feuding father and son—though the real villains are the men Big Bill brings in.

Entertaining overall, even if not Hogan’s best. A solid 4/5.

Trailsman #89

 Target Conestoga

Trailsman #89

by

Jon Sharpe

(Jon Messman)

Skye Fargo figured the best thing to do for the wagon train of greenhorns was to stop it in its damnfool tracks. If the marauding Cheyenne didn't get them, white raiders would. Add to that the fact that the U.S. cavalry was spurring them on to their doom instead of riding to their rescue, and you had a covey of Conestogas on a one-way trip to hell. To make things worse, the wagon train was led by a hot-headed female too smart for her own good and twice as stubborn. No way could the Trailsman turn her around, and the one way to save her people was with every bullet in his belt...

This adventure sends Skye Fargo out to guide what appears to be a routine wagon train—only for him to discover it’s actually a decoy on two different fronts. The cavalry are using the settlers as bait to lure out the rampaging Cheyenne and break their resistance. At the same time, the expedition’s organizer has his own agenda: he wants the wagon train to draw attention away from a separate wagon loaded with stolen treasury bonds he plans to smuggle into Canada.

Adding to the fun, these pages also feature Jon Sharpe’s other western hero, Canyon O’Grady, and the two protagonists team up to take on the forces of evil. The story is well written, with plenty of action to keep the pages turning right through to the end.

As for the trademark erotic scenes found in the entries, they’re present here but noticeably less explicit than in later volumes—perhaps a sign of how the series evolved over time.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and look forward to choosing my next installment.