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John Lee Johnson: Both Barrels Blazing

Name: John Lee Johnson: Both Barrels Blazing
Author: Conn Hamlett
ISBN: 978-1-4582-1981-7

by Conn Hamlett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 11, 2015

A quick-paced, ultimately satisfying Western yarn.

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The latest in Hamlett’s Western saga (John Lee Johnson and the Gunslingers, 2013, etc.) continues Johnson’s old-fashioned Western adventures fighting outlaws with trusted allies.

In 1864, Frank McGrew, a former brigadier general and Civil War hero, has been drummed out of the Union Army for extortion, murder, and other crimes, but thanks mostly to his rich father, he avoided real justice. Now he seeks revenge against the men he holds responsible for bringing him down, including lawman John Lee Johnson and Johnson’s friend Levi Brown. When Brown hears of McGrew’s revenge plan to arm hostile Native American tribes, he enlists Johnson and a simple-minded deserter named Mumford Dale Bradshaw to help. (Hamlett has a thoroughly enjoyable way with names.) Brown’s plan is to use Bradshaw as a decoy, with Johnson pretending to be Bradshaw; Johnson even fools Bradshaw’s blind uncle. What follows is a series of classic Western set pieces, including ambushes, stagecoach rides with dangerous men, and scenes of wrestling and befriending an honor-bound renegade Cheyenne man, Injun Joe. This straight-ahead adventure novel sometimes lacks nuance; for example, readers learn in an aside that the McGraw’s money comes, in part, from evilly selling shoddy weapons to the Union, and Injun Joe (real name: Kaneewah) tends to fit the “inscrutable” and “stoic” stereotype of the noble Native American. As in Hamlett’s other series installments, Johnson is so powerful and competent that readers may not feel much suspense regarding his safety. In fact, many characters remark on how secure Johnson is; as Brown notes, “Any man that goes after John Lee Johnson is a fool if John Lee Johnson knows he is coming,” and even hard-bitten outlaws refuse to tangle with him. But despite this lack of tension, it’s still gratifying to see the villains get their comeuppance. There are also some grace notes that keep the adventure from becoming formulaic, including Uncle Zed extolling the bathroom-related virtues of eating beans and the outlaw Doc Gragg gang having no Doc Gragg.

A quick-paced, ultimately satisfying Western yarn.

Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4582-1981-7

Page Count: 208

Publisher: AbbottPress

Review Posted Online: April 17, 2018

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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by Conn Hamlett

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by Conn Hamlett

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by Conn Hamlett

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0060935464

Page Count: 323

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER
by Harper Lee ; edited by Casey Cep

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GO SET A WATCHMAN
by Harper Lee

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).