Riding Shotgun by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Why on earth doesn’t the Johnstone Clan nab whoever wrote this and plug them into any of their older series???? Maybe it’s some contractual thing where the ghost writer gets to start their own series. Ot some other silly proprietary thing. Thing of it is, the older series are just not being well handled in the past decade plus. This coulda been a Smoke Jensen novel and injected some life in the stambling series.

Another year full of new series and here is one: Red Ryder. Ryder reminds me of, a now discarded character, Cotton Pickens. Why not just revive that series and toss Cotton on a stage?
OK. I’ll stop.

Beyond that pretty significant matter, this entry is pretty involved for a Johnstone book. Not unusual for a debut of a series by the Johnstone Clan. Also not unusual for the first book to be steps up from the rest of the crowd. This is both and worth reading.

There are plenty of variations of this tale in various Johnstone Clan books. All use only sections of the overall story. Each becoming it’s own book. There is a lot here. That is where this does stumble a bit.

There is a lot of territory and characters that pop up throughout the book. These more significant characters are around awhile and then are gone. That is fine and hints of what the actual Johnstone had in the books he crafted decades ago. This is more sloppy handling and loose ends are left at the end. A lot of them. I don’t believe most readers will notice. A lot of those loose ends seem to lead to a couple different endings. That is a plus, as the reader can’t be sure how the book will end.

However, overall, this is a very good tale with the Johnstone Touch of creating solid characters. I wouldn’t mind reading about many of the characters in separate series…oh, no…I’m providing ways of more series…. Ugh!

I really like how this is presented with more humor than usual and a great start to the involved story. The main characters (and really, this book should be a series of two, not one.) are established quickly and the book unfolds very quickly and so well, that a reader will be drawn in to learn what happens next. A ton happens, in many places with a lot of characters.

All of this complexity well handled and mostly well written. i did not like the appearance, more than once, of current pop phrases of our present time period. Also the dialogue is still mighty far from the communication of the late 1800s, but i get the book would be harder to sell and read, if more accurate.

I really like as characters interact and scheme and battle to the end. A surprise twist along the way. A sign of a very good novel draws you end and then flips you around as directions change and plots alters and, by the end, the read is satisfied that they have been through a story that was well worth the trip.

Bottom line: I recommend the book. 7 out of ten points.

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