The Blood of Patriots by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Johnstone clan has done it again! This is a REAL page turner that had be going through it about as fast as I’ve ever gone through a book. Whatever formula is used to illustrate each literal character works. I was never all that enthralled with the main character, but that didn’t matter as the story soars ahead. This book does what a book should do:Drag you in and keep you until the end thoroughly enjoying a good book.

I really like the contrasts of the central location of the book and New York city. Probably the best written parts of the book. The comparisons are dead on. The setting in the mountains is also very well done. The characters almost seem as if separate people wrote them to make them so different. I’ve found that in other Johnstone books that the dialogue written sounds so authentic.

I keep expecting the Johnstone clan to produce Harlequin formula books. Or especially like the Executioner/Bolan books. I’ll add the Matt Helm series, as well. Instead, after reading about a dozen, I’m not finding that. The Mountain Man series has a bunch of repetition in the first novels after the first, but still well drawn characters and a decent story. It’s just weird to me that a few of the newest books have blown me away. You’d think a team of ghost writers would be churning out gunk. This is not gunk.

About the political stance; I noticed a few reviews stating that the “conservatives” are the good guys and the “liberals” are the bad guys. Never is anyone labeled as such throughout the book. What probably catches a reader is that practically all contemporary novels have the same political stance and viewpoint. This one does not follow that and I’m not surprised it’s jarring people. It would be nice if the PC “laws” would be stripped away and the censorship of other viewpoints be lifted. It’s good to open one’s mind to other ideas.

With that thought, I’ll draw a line from this book to the Vince Flynn series. The handling of religious viewpoints of the characters is very well done as Flynn does, as someone who has studied religions. Specifically, the Muslim religion is well represented with traditions and procedures. A couple of issues I had was that no other religion is hardly mentioned. Other characters with other religious beliefs might’ve helped to balance the story. Another issue is the main character going too far with blanket statements about the Muslim religion. I get that’s the character and his whole viewpoint is through the prism of the badge, but his beliefs being defined would’ve been made the character stronger. That’s a bit petty on my part considering the pace of the story.

Something else real nice with this book is the lack of excessive narrative as is also found in a good 99% of books coming out today. This along with an earlier Johnstone Clan ‘Home Invasion’ are two of my favorites of the year and beyond.

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