J. A. Johnstone has 176 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 143 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 91 ratings. The most-rated is The Frontiersman.
Smoke Jensen, the Beginning
Summary
For the first time, an epic account of a boy born into a struggle for survival on the harsh and unforgiving American frontier, the story behind the legend of Smoke Jensen.... On the eve of the Civil War, Kirby Jensen is the youngest of three children living on a hardscrabble ranch in Southwestern Missouri. But in 1861, shots were fired in Charleston harbor, and Kirby's father and brother went to war. Smoke Jensen, the Beginning follows the Jensen clan during these volatile years, from Civil War battles to border state raids to the kind of frontier justice achieved only by bullets and blood. William W. Johnstone chronicles the early years of Kirby Jensen - soon to be nicknamed Smoke - as he journeys from boyhood innocence into a manhood shaped by violence and a young man's thirst for justice. Filled with actual historical events and legendary characters, the story of Smoke Jensen's early years is a powerful, brutal and amazing American saga - the crowning achievement of America's most popular living Western writer.
©2015 J.A. Johnstone (P)2015 Recorded Books
The Frontiersman
Summary
THE GREATEST WESTERN WRITERS OF THE 21ST CENTURY The first book in a magnificent new series by America's best-selling Western writer: Here is the towering saga of Breckenridge Wallace, a new breed of intrepid pioneer who helped forge a path through the wild American frontier.... THE FRONTIERSMAN In Tennessee, 17-year-old Breckinridge Wallace knew the laws of nature. When his life was in danger, he showed a fearless instinct to fight back. Killing a thug who was sent to kill him got Breckinridge exiled from his Smoky Mountain home. Brutally wounding an Indian attacker earned him an enemy for life.... Now, from the bustling streets of St. Louis to the vast stillness of the Missouri headwaters, Breckinridge is discovering a new world of splendor, violence, promise, and betrayal. Most off all, he is clawing his way to manhood behind the law of the gun. Because the trouble he left in Tennessee won't let him go. A killer stalks his every move. And by the time he joins a dangerous expedition, Breckenridge has only had a small taste of the blood, horror, and violence he must face next - to make his way to a new frontier....
©2015 J. A. Johnstone (P)2019 Tantor
Rattlesnake Wells, Wyoming
Summary
The first story in a fiery new series about the west's most dangerous boomtown, and the reformed outlaw who risks his life to keep it safe.... In the dark shadow of the Prophecy Mountains lies the ramshackle town of Rattlesnake Wells, where dreamers come to make their fortunes, and desperados come to die. The streets of this little settlement are slick with mud and stained with blood, and it will fall to Bob Hatfield to sweep them clean. The town marshal, Hatfield, has a young man's face, but his eyes are those of a killer. He is a good man, but he has a secret that weighs on his soul. In Texas, Hatfield was known as the Devil's River Kid, one of the most feared outlaws to ever ride the Lone Star State. He fled Texas after a showdown with a corrupt rancher turned bloody, and he vowed to start a new life on the right side of the law. But when some ghosts from Hatfield's past catch up to him, this gunslinging marshal will risk his life to protect the savage town known as Rattlesnake Wells.
©2017 J. A. Johnstone (P)2019 Tantor
This Violent Land
Summary
In this powerful new novel, William W. Johnstone and J. A. Johnstone chronicle Smoke Jensen's early years, long before he became a legend. Kirby - later Smoke - Jensen has just earned his first paying job as a deputy US marshal for the Colorado Territory and is sent to the lawless town of Las Animas. There he finds a sheriff too cowardly to face the outlaw leader Cole Dawson, whose six-gun has left a lot of good men dead. Young Smoke feels no such fear. He takes Dawson down fast. Then the real fight begins. It turns out Dawson is only a cog in a crooked plot hatched by someone hiding behind the law. For a young deputy marshal, going up against the powerful and corrupt is almost certainly a fool's mission, but doing nothing is not a choice. When Smoke strikes, he's in all the bloody way, and what follows will become the stuff of legend. Braving bullets, blood, and treachery to face down the most dangerous outlaw in Colorado Territory, Smoke will earn a reputation for justice and the rule of law in a wild, violent frontier.
©2015 J.A. Johnstone (P)2016 Recorded Books
A Hidden Wholeness
Summary
A Hidden Wholeness is a thoughtful and heartfelt examination of sources and consequences of the alienation we feel when our inner and outer lives become divorced from each other, when external forces pressure us to depart from our soul's true yearnings. The book lifts up the problem of the "divided life", diagnoses its sources, assesses its personal and social costs, and offers a model of community that will help people live with greater integrity and wholeness. As he did for vocation in Let Your Life Speak and for the inner lives of teachers in The Courage to Teach, best-selling author and teacher Parker J. Palmer speaks to the heart of our yearning for integrity, authenticity, and wholeness in a fractured world. Parker J. Palmer holds a Ph.D. from the University of California - Berkeley. He is a founder and senior partner of the Center for Courage and Renewal, senior associate of the American Association for Higher Education, and senior advisor to the Fetzer Institute. In 1998, he was named one of the 30 most influential senior leaders in higher education.
©2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Will Tanner: U.S. Deputy Marshal
Summary
From America's greatest storytellers comes the first in an explosive series featuring a new hero of the Old West in an epic fight for justice that begins as so many legends do: in a hailstorm of bullets... After spending most of his young life driving cattle from Texas to Nevada, Will Tanner is ready to wash the trail dust from his throat. Maybe it was fate that brought him to the Morning Glory Saloon on the border of Indian Territory - or just plain bad luck - because right after his sits down three rough-looking characters walk into the bar with vengeance in their eyes, guns at their sides...and fingers on their triggers. The trio's target is the famous US Deputy Marshal Dove who arrested one of their kin - and who's sitting in the bar near Will Tanner. Seeing that Dove is facing losing odds, Will Tanner makes a decision that changes his life forever. He draws, takes aim, and saves the deputy's life. Tanner has himself a new job, a badge, and enough grit to make him a legend on the American frontier.
©2016 J. A. Johnstone (P)2018 Tantor
Yuma Prison Crashout
Summary
America's greatest Western storytellers take you inside the dangerous world of undercover agents - and one man's mission to hell and back.... Breakout of the century Hank Fallon used to be one of the best deputy marshals in the country. Then, he got framed for a crime he didn't commit. Got sentenced to 10 years in a federal penitentiary. And got out early for saving the life of the captain of the guards during a riot. When Fallon is released, a private detective is waiting for him. He wants to put Hank behind bars again - but this time, as an undercover agent.... The last thing Fallon wants is to return to jail. Especially a rat-infested hellhole like Yuma Territorial Prison. But if he wants to clear his name, he's got to take the job. Get himself arrested. Make friends with criminal mastermind Monk Quinn. Find out where he stashed a fortune in stolen money. And join Monk's gang for the biggest breakout in American history. If Hank succeeds, he'll be on the run with the deadliest cutthroats alive. That's when all hell will break loose....
©2019 J. A. Johnstone (P)2019 Tantor
The Black Hills
Summary
Meet Hunter Buchanon, a towering mountain of a man who learned how to track prey in Georgia, kill in the Civil War, and prospect in the Black Hills of Dakota. Now he's trying to live a peaceful gun-free life - but fate has other plans for him.... When Hunter Buchanon rescued a wounded coyote pup - and named him Bobby Lee - he had no idea the cute little varmint would grow up to be such a loyal companion. Coyotes aren't known to be man's best friend. Most of them are as fierce and wild as the Black Hills they roam. But Bobby Lee is different. When Hunter is ambushed on the road, Bobby Lee leaps to his defense. And when the attacker tries to shoot Bobby Lee, Hunter returns the favor by hitting the man with a rock. By the time the smoke clears, the coyote-loving ex-Confederate is covered in blood - and the other guy's got a knife in his chest. Now Hunter has to explain it all to the local sheriff. Which is going to be tough. Because the man he just killed is the sheriff's deputy....
©2019 J. A. Johnstone (P)2018 Tantor
Blood in the Dust
Summary
When the Civil War ended, Hunter Buchanan and his coyote sidekick, Bobby Lee, forged a new life in the Black Hills, Dakota. Now they'll have to fight to the death to keep it.... There's coyotes in them there hills. Ex-Rebel tracker Hunter Buchanan is down on his luck. He lost his family's ranch in a fire. He lost his gold to a thief. And he just might lose his fiancee - a beautiful saloon girl named Annabelle - to a stinking-rich rival. But Hunter's not ready to give up just yet. He's got a temporary sheriff's badge, a long-range plan to rebuild his ranch, and his loyal coyote, Bobby Lee, by his side to make things right. Too bad it all goes wrong - when Annabelle gets kidnapped.... The mayhem begins with a stagecoach robbery in the Black Hills town of Tigerville. It won't end until Sheriff Hunter Buchanan gets back his girl and his gold - on a long, dusty trail of blood-soaked vengeance....
©2021 J. A. Johnstone (P)2020 Tantor
Those Jensen Boys! Rimfire
Summary
The Greatest Western Writers of the 21st Century Smoke Jensen was a towering Western hero. Now his two freewheeling, long-lost nephews, Ace and Chance Jensen, are blazing a legendary trail of their own. Riverboat gambling is a blast until hot-headed Chance finds out just what he won in his final hand against a Missouri River gambler named Haggarty. Chance's "prize" is a beautiful Chinese slave girl named Ling. The twins want to set Ling free and keep their cash, but at Fort Benton, Ling gives them the slip, robbing them blind. When they hunt her down in Rimfire, Montana, she's with Haggarty, lining up their next mark. What would Smoke Jensen do? Ace and Chance want payback. So does hardcase Leo Belmont, who's come all the way from San Francisco with a grudge and a couple of kill-crazy hired guns. Belmont wants revenge, and Ace and Chance are in the way. Probably this. Soon the boys are fighting alongside Ling and Haggarty. Because it doesn't matter now who's right and who's wrong - blazing guns and flying lead are laying down the law.
©2016 J. A. Johnstone (P)2016 Recorded Books
Right Between the Eyes
Summary
A lawman with a past. A gunman with a grudge. A blood-soaked massacre just waiting to happen. Welcome back to Rattlesnake Wells, Wyoming.... This town ain't big enough. In a wild frontier boomtown like Rattlesnake Wells, it's hard to know who to lock up, who to let out, and who to gun down. But as town marshal, it's Bob Hatfield's job to separate the sinners from the saints - or at least keep them from killing each other. Now there's a new boy in town. He's fresh out of prison. He swears he was wrongfully convicted of embezzling from his boss at the local mine. He wants to clear his name and reclaim the woman he loves. Hatfield wants to give the boy the benefit of the doubt. But when all hell starts to break loose - escalating from vicious saloon fights to violent shootouts - Bob knows there's more to the story than a little bad blood between townsfolk.... Someone is gunning for him. Somewhere in Rattlesnake Wells, an enemy from Hatfield's past is waiting to make his move. And sometimes, there's only one way to deliver justice: right between the eyes....
©2017 J. A. Johnstone (P)2019 Tantor
Torture of the Mountain Man
Summary
Johnstone Country. The good die young. The bad die younger. When Smoke Jensen is summoned to a small Texas town under siege by a scourge of kill-crazy bandits, volunteers line up to take out the Mountain Man. Being Smoke Jensen, he wouldn’t have it any other way. A gunshot wound has robbed Audubon, Texas, of its top lawman at the worst possible time. Clete Lanagan and his band of outlaws have hatched a scheme to plunder the town bank of a small fortune in railroad money. When the acting sheriff, Dalton Conyers - half-brother of Smoke’s niece Rebecca - is unable to raise a posse to hunt down Lanagan’s gang, he calls on Smoke for help. But with so much cash at stake, Lanagan won’t go down without a fight. With a bounty on his head, Smoke finds himself marked for death by a legendary gunslinger, a wrathful ranch hand bent on revenge for his brother’s death, and an army of trigger-happy recruits with nothing to lose but their lives. Live free. Listen hard.
©2018 J.A. Johnstone (P)2018 Recorded Books
Powder Burn
Summary
From America's greatest storytellers comes a bold new chapter in the Will Tanner saga, an epic quest for justice at the crossroads of history - in a crossfire of bullets... US Deputy Marshal Will Tanner earned his badge the old-fashioned way. He shot the bad guys, saved the good guys, and won the fear and respect of everyone in between. That's how legends are born. But when he visits a friend at his ranch and ends up confronting a trigger-happy horse thief, Will earns the wrath of the deadliest, lowlife killers west of the Mississippi. This is how legends die.... Turns out Will Tanner is nothing but a moving target on a blood-soaked trail of revenge. From a barroom shootout in Texas, to a Chickasaw showdown in Oklahoma, to a dangerous encounter with a hellion named Hannah, Deputy Marshal Tanner has his hands full, his finger on the trigger - and his life on the line....
©2017 J. A. Johnstone (P)2019 Tantor
Riding Shotgun
Summary
A blazing new series takes you back to the lawless frontier, where every stagecoach was a moving target. Where every passenger needed protection. And where every hired gun who rides along better be fast on the draw - or be dead on arrival.... If anyone knows the road to purgatory, it's Red Ryan. As a stagecoach guard, he's faced holdups, ambushes, and all-out attacks from every kill-crazy outlaw, Indian, and prairie rat. But even he's a bit reluctant to take on his next job: riding shotgun with his driver Buttons Muldoon on a stage bound from Fort Concho, Texas, to Fort Bliss. Word has it, the Apaches are on the warpath. They're being led by the vicious war chief Ilesh, which means "Lord of the Earth". And this lord means business, as in slaughtering every Texan from here to El Paso. Red wants to postpone the stage. But an army major's beautiful but stubborn wife insists they leave - or she'll go it alone. So Red has no choice.... Thus begins a nightmare journey into 400 miles of harsh, unforgiving terrain, blood-drunk killers, and one scheming devil who plans to paint the town of El Paso red - starting with Red's blood....
©2019 J. A. Johnstone (P)2019 Tantor
The Jensen Brand
Summary
JENSEN PROUD. JENSEN TOUGH. It's the dawn of a new century. But on the vast Sugarloaf Ranch not much has changed since legendary gunfighter Smoke Jensen and his wife Sally tamed the land two decades ago. Raising cattle is still a dangerous business - and just as deadly as ever. When Smoke is injured swapping bullets with some cow thieves, Sally puts out a call for help to Matt, Ace, and the rest of the Jensen clan. But time is running out. The bloodthirsty rustlers are ready to strike again - and there are lots more of them. And the Sugarloaf's last defense is Smoke and Sally's next of kin.... Enter the Jensen twins. Denise and her brother Louis have just returned home from their schooling in Europe. Louis is studying to be a lawyer and is too sickly to defend the ranch. But Denise is to the manor born - she can ride like a man, shoot like her daddy, and face down the deadliest outlaws like nobody's business. And there'll be plenty of opportunity to prove she's got Jensen blood in her veins-cold, deadly, and playing for keeps....
©2017 J. A. Johnstone (P)2018 Tantor
Hired Guns
Summary
Johnstone Country. Where frontier legends are born. A legend among bounty hunters, Luke Jensen has tracked some of the deadliest outlaws in the West. But sometimes, the competition can be even deadlier... GHOST TOWN MASSACRE It's the kind of job Luke Jensen hates. A millionaire mine owner is willing to pay $5,000 to the man who captures the half-breed outlaw Tom Eagle. Normally, Luke would turn down an offer like this-it smacks too much of being a hired gun. But when the millionaire tells him that Eagle is responsible for killing his son, Luke agrees to take on the job. Which means he'll have to take the road to hell itself - a.k.a. Hard Rock, Montana... Hard Rock is supposed to be a ghost town. But when Luke arrives, the ghosts are alive and well - and gunning for his hide. They're a gang of actual hired guns - the kind of soulless killers Luke despises - and they're trying to collect the bounty, too. Luke barely makes it out of town alive when he runs in to the only man who can save him. The man he's been hired to hunt. The notorious Tom Eagle...
©2020 J. A. Johnstone (P)2019 Tantor
Frontier of Violence
Summary
Welcome to the most dangerous town in the West. For Marshal Bob Hatfield, that means rough justice and 100 ways to die... In the shadow of the Prophecy Mountains, the ramshackle boomtown of Rattlesnake Wells draws schemers, predators, and desperate pilgrims. As for the law, that's the town marshal, a former Texas outlaw trying to make a new life for himself. But Sundown Bob Hatfield knows a man who's slick on the draw can't escape trouble for long. In Rattlesnake Wells, you fight fire with fire - and a new one has just exploded. An enterprising saloon owner stages a shooting contest with a matched pair of gold-plated revolvers as first prize. But some contestants don't play by the rules, and these aren't just any old gold-plated guns. Now the guns are gone, innocent hostages have been taken for a violent ride, and a chase is on into the vast Wyoming wilderness - where a terrifying dark secret will be exposed, much blood will be spilled, and a fast-gun marshal will bring the real outlaws to their knees...
©2017 J. A. Johnstone (P)2019 Tantor
Hang Them Slowly
Summary
Stovepipe Stewart and Wilbur Coleman look like drifters, but don’t be fooled. In this blazing Western saga, these two undercover cowboys get paid to find trouble - and to risk their lives to stomp it out. By any means necessary. Vance Brewster is a hardworking young cowboy. Stovepipe and Wilbur are two new ranch hands working at his side. And all three are caught up in a brewing, trigger-happy Montana range war between the Rafter M and Three Rivers. Then the fury suddenly explodes - in a hail of gunfire, the three men must show their hands: they’re all hiding their true identities. With Vance falling in love with the daughter of the Three Rivers manager, and Stovepipe and Wilbur paid by a tycoon who needs the violence to stop, all three are in mortal danger. Their real enemies are hiding true identities of their own - and they’re not nice men. The body count is about to go sky high...and Stovepipe and Wilbur would prefer not be be on top of the pile.
©2016 J. A. Johnstone (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
Buckhorn
Summary
The masters of American frontier storytelling return with the saga of a bold, fearless western legend. When you're a gun for hire, the difference between right and wrong is settled with a bullet.... Crater City, New Mexico, is a bustling mining town brimming with the stench of men hungry to get rich the old fashioned way - by killing the competition. Dennis Conroy is the owner of the biggest saloon in town, and he needs a few good sharpshooters to help protect surveyors laying out a route for a spur line before his rival Hugh Thornton beats him to it. Joe Buckhorn's handy with a gun, so he takes the job. Against his best advice, he'll also take a liking to the boss's daughter, which doesn't go over well with her father. Worse, Buckhorn starts wondering exactly what kind of man he's working for. Before the sun goes down, much blood will be spilled, and a lot of men will be blasted into the middle of next week. Joe Buckhorn aims to be sure he's not one of them.
©2016 J. A. Johnstone (P)2018 Tantor
The Range Detectives
Summary
Johnstone Country: The good die young. The bad die younger. From the best-selling masters of Western fiction comes two tough frontier detectives who solve the bloodiest crimes with bravado, brains, and bullets blazing.... Homicide on the range A killer is on the loose in the Arizona Territory. One by one, Tonto Basin ranchers are being murdered for their livestock - and the Cattle Raisers' Association has hired two range detectives to catch the culprit. From the looks of them, Stovepipe Stewart and Wilbur Coleman are just another pair of high-plains drifters. But with their razor-sharp detective skills and rare talent for trouble, they're the last remaining hope for one young cowboy who's been arrested for the murders. Stovepipe and Wilbur believe the boy is innocent. In short order, the trail of clues leads to a secret canyon hideout, and the duo find themselves in the middle of an all-out range war - with the dirtiest gang of cutthroats, thieves, and outlaws the West has ever known.... There's just one mystery left to solve: How will they get out of this alive?
©2016 by J. A. Johnstone (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing