Honor of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

It was easy to recognize this Johnstone Clan writer. Whoever it is keeps Pearlie & Cal and drops Bobby. Also the cursing is prevalent. First in the series i recall to use, more than once, the “F” word. Generally the dialogue is more late 2oth century than late 19th. Also the sexual content increases with this writer.

This is one of the worse in the entire Johnstone Clan books. The actual writing is not all that bad. It’s the plotting and strong inconsistency in the Smoke Jensen series that dunks this book. What’s wild is that the title, as usual disconnected with the book, is hard to find in the book. The dressed up good guys perform so many dis-honorable acts, it is hard to see Smoke as a good guy at all.

Not that the book has to have good guys or bad guys for a first time reader. It was hard for me to root for either side and found myself wishing both sides would leave the town alone.

I forgot to write this is still another “treeing” of a town book. How is it the rest of the Johnstone Clan series can find other plots to present and the Smoke Jensen series is almost 75% about “treeing’ towns. This is the 19th in the series I’ve read.

The character development is there. Too much there via flashbacks. There are far too many flashbacks to other books that have no relation to the actual plot, if you want to call it that. I wonder if the flashbacks were originally part of the book or if, due to the excessive violence in the book, the flashbacks were added to calm things a bit.

About the violence: there is a lot and not for a reader in the midst of dinner. Sure there was violence in battle and it can be written. Violence can also be written with less sensation and anger as is presented here. This, along with the cursing, is a huge divergence from the Smoke Jensen series. Maybe this shoulda been written as part of another series? Or was it and converted for Smoke Jensen? Whatever the reason it is all poorly handled and most is repeated over and over again.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book: 3 out of 10 points.

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