I'm a relatively new reader of William W. Johnstone. It's not that I didn't know of him, but I was in another phase of life. A life-long Louis L'Mour fan and collector, I found many other western writers lacking. However, I'm glad I gave Johnstone a try.

Dark Night of the Mountain Man was an enjoyable read. Following the hero, Smoke Jensen, made me want to read more of the series (if there is one). From the way the writer writes, the characters have along history of working and adventuring together. This yarn deals with Smoke, bank robbers, bears and mystery.

I don't want to give too much away in this good western, but I will say that Johnstone left me wanting more. Which is why I read books. Great job!!

This book is full of action and suspense. It hooks you on the first page and doesn't let go.
Great read that you don't want to miss!!
I received a complimentary copy and was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book was a fun good read and the language takes you back to those times. Good characters, good story, puts you in the time of the mountain men. Smoke Jensen finds himself part of outlaws and the jaws of a huge grizzly bear.

When a local rancher tells about a 10 foot tall bear no one believes him but when he dares smoke and Monty to check it out their selves Smoke take some up on it and even though they didn’t find the humongous grizzly Smoke did find bear prints but when local ranchers and cow hands start popping up torn apart they know something awful is out there. A mad grizzly in the countryside is one thing but when all the men in town decide to go and try and hunt the beast down it leaves the town vulnerable. So when the Blake gang decides to take advantage of the empty town in rob the bank things become even worse and this is when the bear decides to visit the town itself. Let me just say I love the Johnstone‘s books and I love the whitt and LOL moments involved in these books but when Doc and Snyder we’re trying to find out where the bear was after it killed the bartender that made me laugh so much. I love the characters in the book and even the side characters have quirky personalities that seem authentic to the time. These books are just awesome the gun fights a great thing I love all the Johnstone good guys even the ones that can be bad from time to time. These books are awesome I want to thank Kensington books pinnacle and Net Galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Just as good as any other western I've read about Smoke Jensen. Easy to read. Good bit of a mystery and a good story about doing the right thing. What more could you ask?

A bear or not a bear? That is the question in Dark Night of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone and J.A. johnstone. It's the new and upcoming story with Smoke Jensen. It is one of the better westerns in this series in a while, they have been a bit dull lately. I actually miss the early Smoke and his two guns. I will continue reading the books from the Johnstones as I feel the need sometimes for some easy old fashioned god versus bad entertainment. I must thank Pinnacle, Kensington Books and Netgalley for delivering these stories to me.

Dark Night of the Mountain Man is another great read by Johnstone. I enjoyed taking this journey with these characters. I highly recommend it. Five stars.

There is no such thing as a bad Johnstone western. Each series is built around main characters whose belief in the law and family is absolute, even if they've had to be reformed to get there. From Preacher, the original mountain man to the Jensen family to Perly Gates, to.....well, you get the point. Many times, characters from one series will show up in another as supporting hands. The communities are true to the era, clothing, guns, food and troubles are all what you'd find if you looked them up in the history books. No two stories are the same, each character or set of characters is unique and so are their stories. The writing is skillful, readers are pulled into the story and you will laugh and cry right along with the characters. I made the mistake of picking up a Johnstone western my uncle was reading. Ive been hooked ever since. Now I share them with my reading family and will continue as long as new Johnstones are released.

Mountain men lived hard and made harder decisions. When a rogue grizzly is only one of the hazards of rough living, trust Smoke Jensen to figure out the problems and settle the scores.

A good western is always a good read. Characters are well written and developed through the series. Interesting story.

This excellent volume of Smoke Jensen wraps the 20th anniversary of the death of William Johnstone. The writer of this creates a tale and writes quite differently than Johnstone, but with the same panache and skill the pull a reader through. Some recent johnstone books have been missing this.
This writer also pulls in elements of Johnstone's earlier horror books, but includes humor often absent in those. Overall one of the best of the last ten years or so.

The plotting is very well done. Writing in the attacks and the town organizing and pursuit is well paced with a very satisfying conclusion. Whereas I've noticed far too much extraneous material in many recent Johnstone Clan novels, this one is far better tightly written.

The expected well-written characters are included and the settings also better depicted. A few new characters are written in with such ease, I wasn't sure whether I had or hadn't read of them before. Great!

The ending is also better than most. Not the typical Johnstone ending with the reader feeling nearly in free-fall. Satisfying.

Overall, this is a great book!

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.

In this continuation of Johnstone's Smoke Jensen series, the legendary gunslinger turned successful rancher and father, Smoke Jensen's hometown is threatened by a massive grizzly bear who seems to attack residents for no reason. Oddly, the creature leaves so few tracks that no one is able to follow it so they call on Smoke and his well-known tracking skills to take care of the threat. When Smoke can't find it either, the plot thickens as Big Rock businesses put up a huge ransom on whoever can find the bear which draws the wrong kind of traffic to the town, like owl hoots who decide with everyone out hunting a bear, they might as well rob the bank.

This is a clever twist on the usual Smoke Jensen defend-the-town stories that keeps the reader guessing from start to finish.

This is another installment of the Smoke Jensen series and like all the others is full of adventure. Several subplots in this story. One subplot is about a group of bank robbers intent on stealing the money from Big Rock.

The second subplot is about a huge grizzly bear that has been terrorizing the surrounding countryside and a man was mauled in town. The townspeople are up in arms and although Smoke has been out looking for the bear, the bear seems to be almost human in being able to avoid him and all the others hunting for it.

This gang mentality has left the town wide open for the bank robbers. What they don't count on is Smoke being ever ready to take on such nefarious activity.

The citizens have banded together and are offering reward money for its death. As one might expect this causes as much mayhem as the bear has been causing with different groups shooting at each other thinking the other group is the bear!! The citizenry ignores Smoke's plea to let him handle it.

A professional hunter arrives and assures the town leadership that he will be able to rid the town of the menace which has already killed four men. Others have seen the bear but have been able to escape. The hunter's only request, really a demand, is that all the others stay at home and let him do the hunting unencumbered by worrying about any citizens getting in his way. This they mostly do.

With all this action going on, this is a typical Smoke Jensen book. Add in Smoke's beautiful and highly accomplished wife and before too long the story comes together.

A most enjoyable and fast read. Definitely recommend it, not only for Jensen fans but all those who like some Western adventure.

Always glad to get back to the Smoke Jensen series, I’ve never had a bad time reading the series and this was no different. I enjoyed the Western elements and that the characters were what I was looking for. It always has a great concept and I enjoyed how well the Johnstone’s wrote this.