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Kit Barker #3
Fortress of The Damned
A Ravenous Evil Stalks Among the Midnight Trees – A Mindless Hunger that Knows No End.
Haunted by the echoes of his past, gunfighter Kit Barker is eager for a hunt. When an old friend’s cryptic cry for aid arrives, along with a bloodstained box of salt, it looks like he’s found one.
Accompanied by the Navajo renegade John Swift-Runner, Kit’s quest takes him from the flame-scorched alleys of Chicago to a lonesome whiskey fortress in the harsh wilderness of the Montana frontier. When Kit and John find the desolate outpost seemingly abandoned, the mystery deepens. Was it Indians? Madness?
But before they can find answers, Barker and his companions are besieged by an unknown force.
Staring down the double-barreled shotgun of monstrous evil and a merciless winter, Barker and his companions are forced into a terrifying standoff. As their options dwindle, Barker must accept a horrifying possibility… that this devouring force is not so mindless after all.
It will take more than a well-placed bullet to save them this time.
Can Barker and his friends survive the onslaught, or will failure scatter their frozen bones in the Fortress of the Damned.
Haunted by the echoes of his past, gunfighter Kit Barker is eager for a hunt. When an old friend’s cryptic cry for aid arrives, along with a bloodstained box of salt, it looks like he’s found one.
Accompanied by the Navajo renegade John Swift-Runner, Kit’s quest takes him from the flame-scorched alleys of Chicago to a lonesome whiskey fortress in the harsh wilderness of the Montana frontier. When Kit and John find the desolate outpost seemingly abandoned, the mystery deepens. Was it Indians? Madness?
But before they can find answers, Barker and his companions are besieged by an unknown force.
Staring down the double-barreled shotgun of monstrous evil and a merciless winter, Barker and his companions are forced into a terrifying standoff. As their options dwindle, Barker must accept a horrifying possibility… that this devouring force is not so mindless after all.
It will take more than a well-placed bullet to save them this time.
Can Barker and his friends survive the onslaught, or will failure scatter their frozen bones in the Fortress of the Damned.
551 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 22, 2024
7 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
J.R. White
4 books18 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
J.R. WHITE has been a sailor, scientist, and professional cage-fighter. As a merchant sailor he crossed the Arctic Circle, passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, witnessed sea monsters, and participated in a helicopter rescue atop the tallest cliff in Scandinavia. He has worked as a research scientist studying gene therapy for two major universities and spent four years as a professional mixed martial artist. As a civilian contractor he spent three years at Fort Leavenworth, KS, where he taught hand-to-hand combat to personnel from every branch of the military and over ten allied nations.
A father, adventurer, and military spouse, White and his family have lived in eight states from coast to coast in their nomadic journey as an Army family.
Shadow of Wolves is his debut novel.
J.R. WHITE has been a sailor, scientist, and professional cage-fighter. As a merchant sailor he crossed the Arctic Circle, passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, witnessed sea monsters, and participated in a helicopter rescue atop the tallest cliff in Scandinavia. He has worked as a research scientist studying gene therapy for two major universities and spent four years as a professional mixed martial artist. As a civilian contractor he spent three years at Fort Leavenworth, KS, where he taught hand-to-hand combat to personnel from every branch of the military and over ten allied nations.
A father, adventurer, and military spouse, White and his family have lived in eight states from coast to coast in their nomadic journey as an Army family.
Shadow of Wolves is his debut novel.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 23, 2025
Okay, now this is awesome!
(A Ravenous Evil Stalks Among the Midnight Trees – A Mindless Hunger that Knows No End.
Haunted by the echoes of his past, gunfighter Kit Barker is eager for a hunt. When an old friend’s cryptic cry for aid arrives, along with a bloodstained box of salt, it looks like he’s found one.
Accompanied by the Navajo renegade John Swift-Runner, Kit’s quest takes him from the flame-scorched alleys of Chicago to a lonesome whiskey fortress in the harsh wilderness of the Montana frontier. When Kit and John find the desolate outpost seemingly abandoned, the mystery deepens. Was it Indians? Madness?
But before they can find answers, Barker and his companions are besieged by an unknown force.
Staring down the double-barreled shotgun of monstrous evil and a merciless winter, Barker and his companions are forced into a terrifying standoff. As their options dwindle, Barker must accept a horrifying possibility… that this devouring force is not so mindless after all.
It will take more than a well-placed bullet to save them this time.
Can Barker and his friends survive the onslaught, or will failure scatter their frozen bones in the Fortress of the Damned.) ~ Blurb from Goodreads
I have to say, I really liked the prologue. To me, it does a great job establishing the threat that Kit and the gang will have to face, as well as doing a great job of establishing Marion as a character.
Also, I found the Anaye to be interesting. So Not only does this make for creative and clever characterization, but it also allows them to actually be a legitimate threat, despite the fact that they're basically just
Speaking of interesting characters, Crane was also kind of an interesting character himself. On the surface, he seems like your run of the mill, over the top racist. However, there's actually more under the hood. He's so caught up in his excitement of Charles Darwin's discoveries and his belief that science is an end all be all kind of thing, that it bleeds into other aspects of his worldview. Despite the reader getting to understand his motivation, he's treated as this dweeb that nobody respects and he does get consequences for his shitty behavior, like , and it's only when .
returns and I'm so glad with how they handled his return. In Not only was it a natural way to integrate him into the story, but it does provide a satisfying and logical follow up to In the last entry, he basically got banished to the depths of Off-Page Land once he , so I'm really glad that he actually got his time to shine here.
I loved the ending. It was action packed, it was dramatic, it gave logical yet satisfying payoffs, and it did a wonderful job setting up the next installment. Like, I love how
Unfortunately, much like in the last entry, Priest and Swede really don't get that much more character development. Sure, the reader learns that they're not racist, that Swede has gone from King of The Lions to Emperor of The Rio Grande, that Swede finds beans suspicious, and so on. But, considering how much time the reader spends with them here, it's not saying much. So when , it doesn't have the gut-wrenching impact that I think it's supposed to have. Maybe there could been a point in the story where Swede is in a deep slump from a major defeat and he doesn't feel he deserves the title of Emperor of The Rio Grande. So he has to figure out how to get himself out of that slump and discovers an opportunity to do so when all hands are needed to fight back against the Anaye, ultimately resulting in Swede sacrificing himself to protect everyone. Maybe there could be some more scenes that reveal Priest and Swede's likes and dislikes and maybe some of Swede's pre-America backstory as well.
There were some rather cliche lines at times. For example, there's this line from chapter thirteen, "Did I stutter, Jones?" In chapter fourteen, Swede says this, "Stop us! You and what army?" Not only did it take me out of the experience each time lines like these popped up, but considering that the last entry had some great pieces of writing, this is a series that really has no excuse to resort to such cliche writing without doing anything new or interesting with it. Hell, I would've even been okay with these parts having a little bit more self-awareness to them.
There were also quite a few grammatical errors. They range from mild, like this part in chapter twenty-five, "The familiarity of if relaxed him." and this part from chapter twenty-nine, "As Haskell climbed a latter to the stockade, Barker whirled to the men clustered around the gate." to stuff like this part in chapter twenty-seven, "Priest caught Swede glance over their shoulders and back to the open gates." What is this sentence trying to communicate? That Priest noticed that Swede was looking over his shoulder? Now I read the Kindle edition of this novel and I don't know if these errors are just limited to my version specifically or if they're present across all versions, but either way, I really think this novel could've done with at least a couple more rounds of editing.
Overall, Fortress of The Damned was a novel that had its flaws, but was still extremely enjoyable in its own right and does make an attempt to fix some of the issues of its predecessor.
Overall Grade: A-
(A Ravenous Evil Stalks Among the Midnight Trees – A Mindless Hunger that Knows No End.
Haunted by the echoes of his past, gunfighter Kit Barker is eager for a hunt. When an old friend’s cryptic cry for aid arrives, along with a bloodstained box of salt, it looks like he’s found one.
Accompanied by the Navajo renegade John Swift-Runner, Kit’s quest takes him from the flame-scorched alleys of Chicago to a lonesome whiskey fortress in the harsh wilderness of the Montana frontier. When Kit and John find the desolate outpost seemingly abandoned, the mystery deepens. Was it Indians? Madness?
But before they can find answers, Barker and his companions are besieged by an unknown force.
Staring down the double-barreled shotgun of monstrous evil and a merciless winter, Barker and his companions are forced into a terrifying standoff. As their options dwindle, Barker must accept a horrifying possibility… that this devouring force is not so mindless after all.
It will take more than a well-placed bullet to save them this time.
Can Barker and his friends survive the onslaught, or will failure scatter their frozen bones in the Fortress of the Damned.) ~ Blurb from Goodreads
I have to say, I really liked the prologue. To me, it does a great job establishing the threat that Kit and the gang will have to face, as well as doing a great job of establishing Marion as a character.
Also, I found the Anaye to be interesting. So Not only does this make for creative and clever characterization, but it also allows them to actually be a legitimate threat, despite the fact that they're basically just
Speaking of interesting characters, Crane was also kind of an interesting character himself. On the surface, he seems like your run of the mill, over the top racist. However, there's actually more under the hood. He's so caught up in his excitement of Charles Darwin's discoveries and his belief that science is an end all be all kind of thing, that it bleeds into other aspects of his worldview. Despite the reader getting to understand his motivation, he's treated as this dweeb that nobody respects and he does get consequences for his shitty behavior, like , and it's only when .
returns and I'm so glad with how they handled his return. In Not only was it a natural way to integrate him into the story, but it does provide a satisfying and logical follow up to In the last entry, he basically got banished to the depths of Off-Page Land once he , so I'm really glad that he actually got his time to shine here.
I loved the ending. It was action packed, it was dramatic, it gave logical yet satisfying payoffs, and it did a wonderful job setting up the next installment. Like, I love how
Unfortunately, much like in the last entry, Priest and Swede really don't get that much more character development. Sure, the reader learns that they're not racist, that Swede has gone from King of The Lions to Emperor of The Rio Grande, that Swede finds beans suspicious, and so on. But, considering how much time the reader spends with them here, it's not saying much. So when , it doesn't have the gut-wrenching impact that I think it's supposed to have. Maybe there could been a point in the story where Swede is in a deep slump from a major defeat and he doesn't feel he deserves the title of Emperor of The Rio Grande. So he has to figure out how to get himself out of that slump and discovers an opportunity to do so when all hands are needed to fight back against the Anaye, ultimately resulting in Swede sacrificing himself to protect everyone. Maybe there could be some more scenes that reveal Priest and Swede's likes and dislikes and maybe some of Swede's pre-America backstory as well.
There were some rather cliche lines at times. For example, there's this line from chapter thirteen, "Did I stutter, Jones?" In chapter fourteen, Swede says this, "Stop us! You and what army?" Not only did it take me out of the experience each time lines like these popped up, but considering that the last entry had some great pieces of writing, this is a series that really has no excuse to resort to such cliche writing without doing anything new or interesting with it. Hell, I would've even been okay with these parts having a little bit more self-awareness to them.
There were also quite a few grammatical errors. They range from mild, like this part in chapter twenty-five, "The familiarity of if relaxed him." and this part from chapter twenty-nine, "As Haskell climbed a latter to the stockade, Barker whirled to the men clustered around the gate." to stuff like this part in chapter twenty-seven, "Priest caught Swede glance over their shoulders and back to the open gates." What is this sentence trying to communicate? That Priest noticed that Swede was looking over his shoulder? Now I read the Kindle edition of this novel and I don't know if these errors are just limited to my version specifically or if they're present across all versions, but either way, I really think this novel could've done with at least a couple more rounds of editing.
Overall, Fortress of The Damned was a novel that had its flaws, but was still extremely enjoyable in its own right and does make an attempt to fix some of the issues of its predecessor.
Overall Grade: A-
December 19, 2024
Ascendent in pt 3
I've always enjoyed these stories. Kit Barker coming through is some mix of wolverine and high planes Drifter was always enjoyable and certainly bordering on cinematic in every theater that appeared in the books.
This third book, however, took the seeds buried in the first two to a whole new level. The plot, the development, the scenery, the subplots all of it blended together to create something that could easily be a classic movie with a cult following. I'm excited to see what comes next.
I've always enjoyed these stories. Kit Barker coming through is some mix of wolverine and high planes Drifter was always enjoyable and certainly bordering on cinematic in every theater that appeared in the books.
This third book, however, took the seeds buried in the first two to a whole new level. The plot, the development, the scenery, the subplots all of it blended together to create something that could easily be a classic movie with a cult following. I'm excited to see what comes next.
December 4, 2024
Don’t waste any time adding this to your TBR pile because once you pick this book up I can guarantee you’re not going to be able to put it down. At times I had to set it aside because White’s imagery is so clear it f-ing scared me. His intellect also shines through in his humor which impressive given the complexity of the story. I have quotes that I marked because it’s really that good. Do yourself a favor and just read it. You’re not going to be disappointed. 5 ⭐️ from me because I can’t give any more.
I received and ARC from the author. This is my honest review.
I received and ARC from the author. This is my honest review.
July 7, 2025
“A Wild Ride of Horror, Grit, and Guts, Kit Barker Rides Again!”
If The Revenant, The Witch, and a Sergio Leone western had a fever dream together, Fortress of the Damned would be the terrifying, gun-toting result. J.R. White doesn’t just write stories, he summons them from the darkest corners of frontier folklore and injects them with adrenaline.
Kit Barker is the ultimate anti-hero, haunted, hardened, and oddly poetic in the way only a gunfighter with nothing to lose can be. Toss in the brilliant dynamic with John Swift-Runner and you've got a duo that commands every page. Their banter? Sharp. Their mission? Gripping. Their enemy? Well… let’s just say you’ll want to leave the lights on and salt at the door.
What makes this book stand out isn’t just the monsters (though they are chilling), it’s the sheer atmosphere. White paints a landscape so vivid, I could almost hear the wind howl through the pines and feel the bitter cold settle into my bones. His prose is cinematic but brutal, lyrical but grounded.
And the suspense? There were chapters I physically could not stop reading. Just one more page turned into half the night gone.
This isn’t your average Western, nor is it a traditional horror, it’s a hybrid beast with a bloodstained soul and a storyteller’s heart. Highly, highly recommend it to fans of weird West, horror thrillers, and anyone who wants to feel like they’ve been sucker-punched by a masterpiece.
J.R. White, consider me haunted, and hooked.
If The Revenant, The Witch, and a Sergio Leone western had a fever dream together, Fortress of the Damned would be the terrifying, gun-toting result. J.R. White doesn’t just write stories, he summons them from the darkest corners of frontier folklore and injects them with adrenaline.
Kit Barker is the ultimate anti-hero, haunted, hardened, and oddly poetic in the way only a gunfighter with nothing to lose can be. Toss in the brilliant dynamic with John Swift-Runner and you've got a duo that commands every page. Their banter? Sharp. Their mission? Gripping. Their enemy? Well… let’s just say you’ll want to leave the lights on and salt at the door.
What makes this book stand out isn’t just the monsters (though they are chilling), it’s the sheer atmosphere. White paints a landscape so vivid, I could almost hear the wind howl through the pines and feel the bitter cold settle into my bones. His prose is cinematic but brutal, lyrical but grounded.
And the suspense? There were chapters I physically could not stop reading. Just one more page turned into half the night gone.
This isn’t your average Western, nor is it a traditional horror, it’s a hybrid beast with a bloodstained soul and a storyteller’s heart. Highly, highly recommend it to fans of weird West, horror thrillers, and anyone who wants to feel like they’ve been sucker-punched by a masterpiece.
J.R. White, consider me haunted, and hooked.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews