A Smoke Jensen Novel of the West Series

The fifth installment in the bestselling prequel series about Smoke Jensen’s life and adventures before he became the legendary Mountain Man, is a satisfying tale of revenge—especially for Johnstone die-hards—as Smoke seeks vengeance after outlaws ambush his old friend and crossover series star, Preacher, in the town of Desolation Creek deep in the Montana Territory . . .

Smoke Jensen settled in Colorado to build a legacy for his wife Sally and their family. In the days before their Sugarloaf Ranch would become legendary across the western frontier, the Jensens fought not only to succeed but to survive in an untamed land full of wild, often barbaric men who sought fortune and glory while killing with violent glee…

Building a ranch takes heart and grit. Smoke and Sally Jensen are more than capable of meeting the challenges of shaping the land, raising the livestock, and establishing their brand. But Smoke wasn’t always an entrepreneur. He’s more apt to settle accounts with a fast draw than a checkbook. And when he learns his old friend Preacher has been ambushed by outlaws, he wastes no time saddling up and hitting the vengeance trail with his fellow mountain men Audie and Nighthawk.

Preacher’s attackers have taken over the town of Desolation Creek deep in Montana Territory. Their scurrilous leader, Vernon “Venom” McFadden, has his men harassing terrified homesteaders and townsfolk to get his hands on nearby property that’s rumored to be rich with gold. Smoke and his friends—and Sally, who refused to be left behind—drift into town one by one with a plan to root out Venom’s gang of prairie rats and put the big blast on each and every one. 

Johnstone Country. Where Dying Ain’t Much of a Living.

Before he became known as “The Last Mountain Man,” Smoke Jensen and his bride Sally were hard-working ranchers on the Colorado frontier, when times were hard, tensions were high, and guns were the law…

JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. BULLET BY BULLET.
 
For Smoke and Sally Jensen, the Sugarloaf Ranch is a glorious stretch of untamed land near the Colorado-Kansas border, the perfect place to stake their claim, raise some cattle, and start a new family. But when a man claiming to be an army colonel arrives in Big Rock—with a well-armed militia—the Jensens’ dream becomes a living nightmare. Colonel Lamar Talbot claims there’s a war looming with the Cheyenne Indians. And only he can save them from a bloody massacre—by launching a bloody counterattack…
 
Smoke and Sally aren’t sure they trust him. They suspect the colonel and his men are nothing more than brutal vigilantes with a hidden agenda of their own. But the Cheyenne war parties are a very real threat. The tribe’s charismatic leader, Black Drum, is launching raids on local ranches, farms, and the railroads, too. Every day, the violence gets worse and the war moves closer—until it reaches the Sugarloaf Ranch. That’s when Sally gets attacked. That’s when Smoke grabs his guns. That’s when the shooting starts—and the final battle begins…

Set in the early days of the Jensen family saga, this gunblazing adventure follows Smoke and Sally from their first year of marriage to the founding of the legendary Sugarloaf Ranch…

For most couples, the marriage vows end with “‘Til death do us part.” But when Smoke Jensen takes Sally Reynolds as his lawfully wedded wife, it’s just the beginning. The tragic deaths of Smoke’s first wife and child weigh heavily on his heart. Thankfully, Sally is there to give him the support he needs when they return to Colorado, where it all happened. She’s ready to embrace her husband’s past–for better or worse–and to welcome his friend Preacher into the family. But when outlaws make an attempt to kidnap a local girl, Sally is forced to use the gun skills she had learned from Smoke to save both of their lives, learning the hard way what it means to be married to a Jensen…

THE GREATEST WESTERN WRITERS OF THE 21ST CENTURY
 
In this powerful new novel, William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone chronicle Smoke Jensen’s early years, long before he became a legend . . .
 
Kirby—later Smoke—Jensen has just earned his first paying job as a deputy U.S. marshal for the Colorado Territory and is sent to the lawless town of Las Animas. There, he finds a sheriff too cowardly to face the outlaw leader Cole Dawson, whose six-gun has left a lot of good men dead. Young Smoke feels no such fear. He takes Dawson down fast. Then the real fight begins.
 
It turns out Dawson is only a cog in a crooked plot hatched by someone hiding behind the law. For a young deputy marshal, going up against the powerful and corrupt is almost certainly a fool’s mission, but doing nothing is not a choice. When Smoke strikes, he’s in all the bloody way, and what follows will become the stuff of legend. Braving bullets, blood, and treachery to face down the most dangerous outlaw in Colorado Territory, Smoke will earn a reputation for justice and the rule of law in a wild, violent frontier.