Triumph of the Mountain Man

The Last Mountain Man #18

by William W. Johnstone

Legendary mountain man Smoke Jensen becomes the only obstacle standing between robber baron Clifton Satterlee and the timber-rich New Mexican land the greedy thief seeks to wrest from the Tua Pueblo.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

William W. Johnstone is the #1 bestselling Western writer in America and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of hundreds of books, with over 50 million copies sold. Born in southern Missouri, he was raised with strong moral and family values by his minister father, and tutored by his schoolteacher mother. He left school at fifteen to work in a carnival and then as a deputy sheriff before serving in the army. He went on to become known as "the Greatest Western writer of the 21st Century." Visit him online at WilliamJohnstone.net.

Reviews

[Shirl]

Over the past four months I have been reading the Mountain Man series by William W. Johnstone. They are a throwback to the old west and come complete with rugged turrain, outlaws, Indians, and heroes. I enjoyed these books for the simple reason that I feel transported back to a simpler time when right was right, wrong was wrong, and there wasn't nearly so much gray. The reader gets to learn alot about what it was like for the men and women who broke open the territory but especially we get to cheer on an old fashioned hero or two. You will enjoy this trip back to the mid 1800's and you'll willingly cheer for the good guys who are interesting and funny characters, and hate the villains. Enjoy!

[Rob Smith, Jr.]

This is the 18th book I've read in the Smoke Jensen series and found that far too many of these are only about "treeing", or taking over, a town. Here is still another and one of the better. There is far more substance to this entry in the Smoke Jensen Treeing Town series than others. There's more character development and an entire side story of, Smoke's wife, Sally with her troubles at home.

Most all of the other Treeing stories are rather illogical and preposterous. This is in that zone, too, but has far more logical efforts to protect the town and logical results. There is also a really good allegory that has was a strong part of the early Johnstone work. As the various series has worn on, that theme has been very dampened. This book is of a controlling interest in a town AND it's townspeople. To, basically, enslave them. There are comparisons throughout the book, yet no direct connection to contemporary life. Though it's hard to miss the connection of Big Business and Big Government making the people it's subjects for it's own selfish wants.

The writing is OK. The handling of the side Sally Jensen story is a bit clunky, though the meaning shines through. This book may be thought to be more preachy than it should be. That is what really set the Johnstone series apart from so many other books and drove to it's success.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 6 out of 10 points.

[R Crow]

Disclaimer: This is the first Smoke Jensen book I have read

This book was an interesting introduction to Smoke Jensen for me, I picked it up at the library because I thought the synopsis sounded interesting. To me a book about a robber baron trying to take over a small western town and then being fought back against sounded interesting. The book itself was quite entertaining and the characters were decently interesting. My biggest complaint about it though would mainly be that it is quite predictable as a general story, I don't think the book pretends to be anything else but I think you'll find you can tell a lot of what is going to happen once you've read a bit. Of course there are some decent "twists" and things that are less predictable and personally I didn't care when reading the book but I think there are some who may. I think if you are reading my review you should give this book a try, you will probably like it!

[Charles Castell]

Definitely another five star masterpiece by Mr. Johnstone, as Smoke and his crew of rag-tag s pull no punches in their ongoing efforts to bring justice to those responsible for their killings and robberies! This fast moving series of unending gunfighting excursions will pacify anyone's most demanding desires!
Outstanding storylines from beginning to end, and the compassionate character selections were unsurpassed in their commanding assignments throughout this compelling story of realistic old American western folklore adventures! No slow downs from beginning to end!
Definitely recommend this compassionately motivated story to all readers as you like I was, will be overwhelmed by the ongoing hardships created by the outlaws, that you cannot put the book aside until the final paragraph has been completed! Happy trails, as I assure you to be completely engrossed from beginning to end!!

[Susan]

This book must have been a freebie when I downloaded it. Sometimes there are free books on Bookbub ... especially if the book is in a series. I found when I started reading this book that it was just that ... one in a series. I won't be reading any more of them. The series main character is Smoke Jensen, a good guy with a gun. The writing wasn't bad, but I did notice that there were an awful lot of errors and misspellings especially near the end. (I read on a Kindle.) This series is just not my cup of tea. There was a lot of action ... lots of killing and ambushes and death. The story revolves around the surrounding of Taos NM by a "bad guy" who wants the land for the lumber available. I prefer books that focus more on characterization and a little more meaning.

[Myron Birdwell]

Not the true Author

Never had the feeling that this was a Smoke Jenson story. The ranch foreman from all the previous novels & his sidekick were not even mentioned they were replaced with unknown characters with no explanation. Smoke horse even had a different name.
I could not wait to finish this book, Sorry!

[Jackie Martello]

Very enjoyable audiobook for men. A series of close scraps for the protagonist with gunfights and other close combat battles makes for compelling read. J Rodney Turner is the narrator and he is fantastic as usual.

[Richard Guerrero]

Enjoy the 18th book of the smoke Jensen series.

[rick incremona]

this was a good one. i took a break from westerns, but i am glad i came back to this one. Smoke rules.

[Kenneth Pell]

It's ok, you can tell it was written by someone that didn't know smoke. To bad the writer didn't read some of the other smoke Janson books before writing this one. Smoke's two oldest children, Pearly, Cal and Longmont were not in this one.

[Little Timmy]

Very good western series. The story of Smoke Jensen, trained by the last of the mountain men as a boy. If you like men's adventure and westerns then you will enjoy the series. Recommended

[Martha Peebles]

Great

I always enjoy books about Smoke. I love the way he always find a way to beat the bad guys great job on this and all the books by the Johnstone's.

[larry brashear]

Great!

Four stars merely because of the poor editing but other than that it is an exciting book. Good writer anyway,