Two miles west of Abilene, Nord Madden’s gang guns down Donald Rutledge in cold blood. Two thousand miles away in New York City, an aspiring actress named Beth Rutledge finds out that her father is dead – and starts back to Abilene.

In Abilene Marshal Luke Travis is going after the killers, but the county sheriff is getting in his way. Someone is cutting down members of the gang, and Nord Madden is preparing for war. Travis and his deputy are looking for a slender gunman with a lightning fast .38. Beth Rutledge avows her notorious brother is behind the gun – and he won’t stop until he’s won his revenge!

This book’s plot isn’t as straightforward as the back cover blurb makes it sound. The author has a number of surprises in store, some that long-time followers of the series will not want to miss out on. Affairs of the heart will play their part too for more than one Abilene townsperson. Travis will also butt heads with the county sheriff which could prove very dangerous to his position in Abilene. Someone else on the town council wants to bring the future that is already happening back east to Abilene and that means there’s no place for an outdated lawman and marshal’s office, so political confrontations are set in motion. All this, and more, are secondary plotlines that may play a part in bringing the main storyline to a close, but it’s the race to find the Madden gang and the gunman who is killing them off that takes up the majority of the book.

Pacing is excellent and even though the reader will have some idea as to who is gunning down members of the Madden gang the author has a surprise or two waiting to add a new twist to the tale. The characterization of the new visitors to Abilene is first-rate and you’ll soon be caring about what happens to them. Development of long-time characters continues and these storylines left me looking forward to the next book in the series to see how their lives play out. The many action scenes are top-notch too.

Justin Ladd is a pseudonym for James Reasoner who is one of the best western authors writing today and I’ve yet to read anything by him that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed. This book, in fact the whole series, is highly recommended by me.

When former Confederate prison camp commander General Brainard Forsythe arrives in town, marshal Luke Travis and deputy Cody Fisher have their hands full trying to keep the peace. Plenty of folks in Abilene are ready to welcome the “Butcher of Copperhead Mountain” with a noose and a tall gallows. But vicious hardcase McKimson and his gang are after the gold that the general is rumoured to have taken – and no one’s getting in their way. It’s open war on Abilene’s rough streets, and a marshal and his deputy are riding into the thick of it!

The author easily hooked me from the very beginning when it became obvious that the general, his daughter, Marelda, and their friend Varden, were desperate to keep their identities hidden by using false names. Why? It seems that it’s the general’s past that they want to keep concealed, but there’s the extra mystery of whether he really did what he’s rumoured to have done, and if there really is any gold.

Arriving in Abilene their attempts to keep their true identities concealed seems to be working, but one or two people, including marshal Travis, have suspicions about the newcomers. It will take an ex-union army officer, Nicholas Allard, who lost an arm in the Civil War and now runs a stable in Abilene, to unmask them. Hatred drives Allard’s actions and he acts without thinking of the consequences for others, and ruins his chance for romance with Marelda. It’s the growing affection between these two that plays a major part in the storyline and the heartache that the revelation of who the general really is grabbed my attention and made me want to keep turning the pages to see how this shattering news would play out for these likeable characters. 

It’s the discovery of the general’s real name that sees McKimson and his men hatch a plan to steal the gold that Forsythe supposedly has secreted away. Allard has already had a couple of run ins with McKimson when he saved Marelda from him. McKimson would like nothing better than to kill Allard for this and it looks like he’s about to get his chance as he makes his play for the gold. 

The final showdown, played out on the streets of Abilene, is both frantic, desperate and brutal. This bloody gunfight involves all the book’s main characters. Throughout most of the story, Travis and Fisher have remained in the background, but they’ll be needed to bring a close to this latest chapter of Abilene’s history. 

Justin Ladd is a pseudonym used by one of the best western authors still writing today, that author being James Reasoner. As I expected, the book is fast moving, full of terrific characters that will have you wanting to know what happens to them, and has many exciting action scenes. The question of whether the gold exists or is just a fable adds a neat touch of mystery to the tale. 

Hard-fighting, hard drinking Nestor Gilworth once hunted buffalo on the open plain – and now has an open invitation to Marshal Luke Travis’s Abilene jail. While Gilworth is raising hell, a ruthless Sioux warrior party attacks a hideaway ranch of a bank-robbing clan, leaving behind a scene of smoke and carnage. Now the two bands of renegades are locked in a war of hatred and revenge, about to spill innocent blood. When Marshal Travis leads a band of armed citizens to the scene, a cleaned-up, reformed Nestor Gilworth gets there first. On the snow-covered prairie the old buffalo hunter is out to prove himself as a man – or die in a cross fire of rage.

This excellent entry into the Abilene series features a number of characters that have appeared in previous books, including the first, so a new reader may prefer to read those earlier stories first to discover the backgrounds of the various people that this story revolves around. Having said that, The Tracker is a self-contained novel and can be enjoyed on its own as the author, James Reasoner writing as Justin Ladd, includes enough background to explain the relationships the characters have formed with each other before the events of this book.

Cover artist Gordon Crabb also does a terrific job at illustrating some of the people who will end up battling to survive from each other and a deadly blizzard. It’s this Blue Norther that brings the story threads together as the different groups of characters become disorientated and lost in the swirling snow storm. 

The book switches regularly between the main storylines, and when it does the author often leaves some of the characters facing a deadly situation, which urges you to keep reading to find out what happens next. There is plenty of bloody action that includes the slaughter of the people at the bank-robbers ranch and the kidnapping of one of the women, Lucinda Broderick. Her husband, Owen, and his brothers are away robbing a bank when this happens and, on their return, they set out to rescue her and take their revenge on the Sioux. The leader of the war party, Claw, is a memorable character and you’ll soon be hoping he gets gunned down sooner rather than later, but will he?

There are lighter moments within the story too, mainly coming from the two young boys, Wesley and Michael as they compete to be top-dog within Abilene’s orphanage. The newly orphaned Wesley soon heads off for California, and it’s him that Michael and Nestor set out to track down independently of each other. It isn’t long before they all become lost in the deadly winter storm and that’s what brings them into contact with the other groups of characters in a welter of blood and bullets that will add to the already high death toll.

James Reasoner brings everything to a satisfying conclusion and I was left looking forward to reading the next book in the series, The General, as soon as I can.

When beautiful Bethany Hale comes to Abilene she turns heads – and stirs up trouble when she starts preaching her anti-alcohol message. Before Deputy Cody Fisher can join the crusade, three of Abilene’s citizens die of poisoned liquor, and Marshal Luke Travis knows he’s got a murderer on his hands. But when he traces the spiked whiskey to a family of moonshiners outside of town the hunt has only begun. Someone is trying to drive the moonshiners out of business – and the greed-fueled struggle is about to explode. A band of gunmen is thundering towards Abilene – and Luke Travis is fighting fire with fire!

Bethany Hale is a great character, that may or may not be who she says. Her one-woman mission to banish liquor from Abilene makes for some exciting, and sometimes humorous reading. Her beauty sees jealous rivalry torment Deputy Cody Fisher, who can’t believe Bethany seems to favour his brother Reverend Judah Fisher over him. There is similar competition as two of the moonshiners fight for the attention of a waitress, which could turn violent at any moment. 

Bethany recruits help to her cause from some of the local woman, who are very keen to help someone sent to Abilene by the Christian Ladies Temperance group. Their first act is to put on a morality play to drive home the evils of alcohol which doesn’t work out as intended. Bethany also tries to shut down saloons singlehandedly which results in a well-written barroom brawl featuring a catfight of epic proportions. 

Mixed in with all this are the three murders. Could Bethany be involved? Someone else? Even as suspicions seem to point to the truth, Travis has a major problem – a complete lack of evidence. Double-cross leads to more deaths and a frantic final showdown in the streets of Abilene. 

Justin Ladd is a pseudonym used by James Reasoner and, for me and many other western readers, his name guarantees a well-crafted tale that will hold your attention from the opening scenes. Characters and storyline and the twists and turns to the plot kept me guessing as to just how the book would finish and left me wanting to read the next entry in the series as soon as I can.

Everyone’s spoiling for Seamus O’Quinn, even though the prizefighter claims he’s only in Abilene to train for his next match. But when a big-city triggerman arrives to give O’Quinn the business, Marshal Luke Travis knows this fight is for keeps. A Chicago mobster has put a price on O’Quinn’s head that’s as good as lead in his back – and there’s a hardcase in Abilene itching to do the job.

O’Quinn’s lawman bodyguard thinks he can handle it alone – until the prizefighter rides into a trap. Marshal Travis and Deputy Cody Fisher are up against the lawman and the gunmen as they try to uncover the truth – and nail two killers before they strike again!

The author opens this book with a couple of brutal killings that introduces the readers to the main characters of the story. Shorty after O’Quinn and his police guard, Jack McTeague who is posing as the prizefighters trainer, arrive in Abilene. For those who’ve read the previous books in this series, a number of people from those earlier tales now find their lives intertwined with that of O’Quinn and McTeague. 

McTeague’s frustrations with O’Quinn, as the prizefighter seems incapable of lying low, are portrayed extremely well by the author. One of O’Quinn’s old boxing acquaintances is now a school teacher in Abilene and it isn’t long before they set up a sparring display for the school children, which comes to an unfortunate, yet humorous, end before it’s really begun.

As the story progresses the Chicago mobster discovers where O’Quinn is hiding and sends his hitman to dispose of the prizefighter. The plot is further complicated by O’Quinn falling in love and it’s the girl of O’Quinn’s affections who the killer uses to bait a trap. This all leads to an exciting final showdown involving some of Abilene’s townsfolk too, not least Marshal Travis and Deputy Cody Fisher.

Like the earlier books, this one proved to be an enthralling read. I was hooked from those vicious opening scenes and found it difficult to put down until I discovered how O’Quinn was going to escape with his life and see if his testimony to what he’d witnessed would put the Chicago mobster away. 

I would imagine that most fans of western fiction would find this book, in fact the whole series, an enjoyable and entertaining read. I know that I’m eagerly looking forward to reading the next book in the series, something I’m planning on doing very soon.

Justin Ladd is a pseudonym used by James Reasoner.