Book Review: Die with the Outlaws (a Matt Jensen, The Last Mountain Man novel) by William A. Johnstone

Die with the Outlaws by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

CW: Lynching

No gun. No horse. No water or food.

That is how this western started, when our last Mountain Man, Matt Jensen, woke up. He was in the desert when he did, and he started to remember that he was helping a couple who was targeted by some horse rustlers, thieves-basically the first thing I thought of when the “bad guys” appeared in this novel was “oh no, here come the republicans” (have no idea why I thought that.) But as I read on and saw how they did what they did to their competitors, I was wholly shocked as hell. Like WTF??? You lynched a couple and falsely accuse them of stealing some cows that wandered over to their farm, using the paper to put out a false story about the couple that got married a couple weeks ago and was living happily.

And don’t get me started on the judge that O’Neil and Kennedy was bribing to let the ones that did the damn lynching go. That pissed me off to high heaven when they did that because the judge was letting them off scott free. And then the worst thing they can do was hire someone called the Undertaker, to try and take out Matt, only to turn around and have Matt kill him.

This is gonna be my shortest (and last) read/review of 2020, so I’ll say that I did enjoy it, but I just didn’t like the lynching part of it, it just made me mad.

View all my reviews

 

Book Review: North of Laramie: A Buck Trammel Western by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone

North of Laramie by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This would be my third western of William A. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone’s books. I have to say, I quite enjoy them. They have surprised me more than one, and on top of that, I get so immersed in this world that sometimes I don’t want to leave.

Buck Trammel is one interesting character-one I really would like to fall in love with since he’s tall (Tall men + Brittany=Brittany Bait). But he is traveling with a man named Adam Hagen, which I’ve kept an eye on because one, there’s something about him that I don’t like. Yes, he’s a drunk and a gambler, but behind all of that is a schemer. I don’t know what it is about Adam Hagen that I don’t like, but I just...don’t...like...him.

And on top of that, the Bowman gang is coming after the both of them after Trammel killed two of their kin (which sucks, by the by). I understand you want revenge on the men who killed your family, but come on now. It is NOT that bloody serious (I mean, two people dying, yes. Getting revenge? Stupid as hell. At least, on my side of things). And they’re trying to make new lives in Laramie-Adam’s a hotelier and Trammel’s a sheriff after the other one just up and left and died after swearing him in.

I do like the characters in the story-Buck, Adam, Emily (I actually ship them). But my favorite parts have to be when we stay alone in Trammel’s mind and him trying to figure out if he wanted to stay being the law after being a Pinkerton man, then being in The Golden Lilly in Witchita as the bodyguard. I found those parts interesting, almost as character development because he’s trying to figure out if he wanted to stay being the law, or settle down somewhere, get married, have a couple kids. But with the Bowman gang after him, he didn’t think that he would, though I wish he did because he deserves everything (Adam doesn’t, but that’s another story for another time).

My least favorite would have to be Madame Peachtree (ha ha) and her men, because she wanted Trammel to look the other away while she did what she wanted to do (opium, her saloon), but he arrested her and her men, but then he found her leger that only Adam and Emily can read...oh BOY that’s all I have to say. OH BOY. That’s when I have to keep my eye on Adam, because it seems like the Bowman gang is in the background, and he’s working his own plans in the front of the story.

And boy, was I right-when they came into Laramie, and Lefty showed up to try and kill Buck, Adam went to talk to Lucien Clay, striking up a deal with him (and basically using Buck was a bargaining chip) which he didn’t like in the end. There was a gunfight between Buck and Lefty and his men, and he killed them all in self-defense. Then the end, when Hagen told him what he wanted to do in Blacktown (turn it into a Opium den) in which Buck downright refused to let happen.

I did enjoy this book so much and I want to read more! In! This! Series!

View all my reviews