Guns of the Mountain Man

I have read 24 of the Mountain Man books. I usually really like William W. Johnstone.The last few I read had several pages of previous books in them but this one, I believe, is the worst. I think at least half of the book is made up of stories that took place in some of his other books. I would like for him not to repeat so much and go on with his present story line. Don't need to reread what I ahve already read.

Fans of the Last Mountain Man series will be very familiar with this book. It seems that a very large portion of this book has been copied from previous works. As readers have noticed in the last few volumes, Mr. Johnstone has been using the "cut and paste" appication of his word processor quite often. In this volume he raises it to an art form. The story line seems to be written only to join these exerpts togehter. One of these exerpts he even repeats. Maybe this is an indication that Mr. Johnstone is getting tired of this series. If so please just stop this series. Refuse to take more money from your publisher. Just end the series. (Or let it sit dormant for awhile.) The rating for this book should have been a quarter star but Amazon has a 1 star limit.

I have read almost all the Mountain Man Series and for the most part have really enjoyed them. I guess if this book was the first one a person had read from the series it would be great. However, if it isn't you will be sorry to see so much repeated from the other books. It is obvious that Mr. Johnstone has made great use of a word processor to insert portions of other books, word for word in this book. It would be great if he would at least reword the text to make it interesting for the readers that have purchased many of the series books. It is no wonder Mr. Johnstone can publish so many books, if he uses many portions of past books to write them!

This is #24 in the Smoke Jensen books (The Last Mountain Man series). You can find the list by searching online. Not all books are available through Amazon. The premise of all the Smoke Jensen books is similar: The hero gets involved in some sort of fight, often against a large group of bad men, and often with help from friends. He wins using fists, guns, knives, explosives and/or ambushes. Each story is different enough to keep me reading. They are light, quick and fun to read. Each story can stand alone.

This story again includes Smoke's hands, Cal & Pearlie. Cal gets lung shot by a self-proclaimed "man of God" who kills indiscriminately - doing good victims a favor by helping them to heaven, and ridding the earth of the bad ones by sending them to hell. Smoke is out to stop him because Cal was shot. Several old friends are involved: Louis Longmont, Monte Carson, Al Martine, Louis Carbone, and Joey Wells. Johnny North straps on his guns again, together with George Hampton. A few recurring bad guys appear here as well.

In this tale, the author uses many excerpts from previous tales to bring the reader up to date regarding Smoke's back history and how the characters fit together. It is a useful device for those not familiar with the entire series. For me, they are simply parts to skip over since I know the characters. I am collecting three sets of the Johnstone western series: Preacher, (the First Mountain Man series); Smoke Jensen, (the Last Mountain Man series); and the Matt Jensen series.