Blood on the Divide by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This second book of the “Preacher” series was roaring along to a top rating, until it became obvious someone forgot to put on the brakes. This book spans years and as the book lingers the reader has to wonder why. There were fine opportunities to draw the book to a close, but each time the dreaded Winter comes and the book is prolonged another 50 odd pages. Was this a request by the publisher for more pages? Did Johnstone (or whoever) not know when to stop? Was this just a missed opportunity for a good story? Or, more likely, was this an attempt to parry Michener with a sprawling story of the west?

It mostly works, if a lot can be looked past.

My larger suspicion is that this was a book with too many hands in it. It seems to me that it was, at of the time of the publication of this book, that Johnstone started pulling ghost writers in. This is based upon the amount of books with the Johnstone moniker on it and the uneven writing trend that is evident in the early 9os.

In this case, the book is well written throughout. Especially the sprinkling of flowery wording of settings that seem tacked into the places it appears. Other places the wording of travels have a certain feel and others a different approach.

One thing I love about the book are the few sprinkled bits of history of places and persons. Again, the writing of these are different from the whole, but the context is wonderful. This is the only Johnstone of the 50 or so I’ve read that has so much history in it. So who added it? I wonder just how many worked on this one book.

Then, there is the inexcusable. At one point a bad guy is shot in the head. I read it and re-read it and re-re-re-read it. Yep, a “giant hole” was placed in his head. The next page this character is talking and talking again. This happens when there are too many cooks in the kitchen.

The characters are, as always, the best part of the book. Though one bad guy travels from afar in the fray which makes no sense at all. Except to make it easier for the writer(s) to wrap up the story. It’s an unfortunate move and another problem with the book.

As much as I otherwise like this book I have to…

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 4 out of ten.

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