Jonah Hook was a man who had lost everything a man could lose--but the iron will to reclaim what had been taken from him. Now he must confront the fiery religious heretic who has enslaved his wife and the fierce Comanche tribe who has raised his long-lost sons. From Fort Laramie, land of Sioux and Cheyenne, to the empire of the Mormons in the shadow of tall mountains, and on to the Texas panhandle, where he will join the ranks of the Texas Rangers, the journey ahead will test Jonah's courage, cunning, and endurance to the limit. On this bloody trail of rescue and revenge, nothing will stop him save success . . . or death.
Terry C. Johnston was born January 1, 1947 in Arkansas City, Kansas. Nineteen publishers rejected Johnston's first novel, Carry the Wind, before it was printed in 1982. However, this first novel was to gain the honor of receiving the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer's Award for best first fiction. Johnston is known for his eye for historical detail, and he is a stickler for accuracy. He is known for traveling and exploring down known and unknown dusty roads during the hot summer months, and traversing slippery, muddy roads and hiking through snow to stand upon a historical sight that he would tell his readers in an upcoming book. "Parking in the lower lot, I trudged up the hill to reach the spot where Colonel John Gibbon's infantry waited out the last hours before their attack on the unsuspecting camp. Standing there in the icy snowstorm I was totally overwhelmed by the sight of those skeletal cones of lodgepoles standing stark against the low, gray sky . . ." Some of the sites that he would stand upon were known to the world like the Little Big Horn Battlefield and others would be obscure to the average reader like the Weippe Prairie north of Lochsa. He is known to combine "a roaring good tale with fascinating insights into the lives and times of his principal characters, generally managing to employ his extensive knowledge to enhance a story rather than intrude upon it" (Whitehead, 1991). Johnston would say that he considered himself "not a literary writer but a storyteller." His desire was to reach and teach thousands if not millions of readers about the early western frontier.
He accomplished part of this goal, not only through his books, but through discussions given to elementary children, lectures at symposiums, and historical one-week tours "during which you will re-live the grit and blood, the tears and tragedy of the great Indian Wars." He would blend historical fact with human emotion to re-create the past during his historical tours each summer. One presentation he gave to a fourth grade class was about the Plains Indian culture. He held a discussion with a Honors English class in Castle Rock middle school about "research, writing, and editing that goes into producing two historical novels each year, when compared to their "term papers." He gave keynote speeches at seminars and lectures at symposiums. He traveled all around Montana to sign books for fans, and he signed the books at the local Albertson's in each town. He held radio interviews that "took me into cities, talking before audiences, I never would have managed to reach otherwise."
This was a terrible book, poorly written and i wish i had put it down after the first chapter when the author tried to shock the reader and so make the thing more of a challenge. After i finished it i looked at the reviews of others on thee front and back of the paper back and saw, all were other authors, i recognized one of the authors names and looks up my read list and found him as being the author of a book i had read and also given a one star rating. then found the copy of the book and was not surprised to see the cover had a good review by non other than Terry C. Johnston. Well i need not write any more.
Book one was significantly better. This book needed a lot of editing 585 pages were not needed to tell this moving tale of a man searching for his family under the most difficult conditions. The many brutal situations , sexual descriptions, and graphic terror were over the top compared to his other novel. This is certainly not a cowboy western but with the descriptions similar to Zane Grey. Oftent in dire need of editing this book could have been 350 pages with the same effect. The well written parts concerning his sons and their conversion to the Comanche lifestyle and culture and the thoughts of the elders. Brutal to many readers but not of the horror story type but shocking to say the least. I am an author and he broke many of the time honored rules I would be called on. Lots of typos too. For $7.99 RIP Terry….Richard Saxbee
If you want to get a feel for the hardships that were faced in the opening of the West then I highly recommend this series. A fantastic story based on historical facts. Terry C. Johnston was one of our best writers of faction based on fact.
I enjoyed this book, but the detailed descriptions of the soldiers killing their on Horses and the Indian ponies struck me as excessive. I didn't need those descriptions. That alone caused my Three Star rating.
It is a powerful story, but one that was a bit too graphic for me in some of the killing methods. Not a re-read for me. However, it is well-written, and Terry C Johnston is an author with a talent for telling an epic story.
Jonah Hook is a man who has lost everything he loved...his wife and children. He is determined to reclaim them all from the men who took them. The main story spans from 1868 - 1875 and is set on the western plains of America.
It is as hard a story to read as life must have been in those times. Yet, if you can stomach the gory parts, it is an important story of life in the 1900s West.
I like my westerns but this was this whoa hold up wait a minute... WTF... Not one of the greatest and subject matter and is one those that I would tell anyone to bypass this book...