William W. Johnstone has 262 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 156 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 165 ratings. The most-rated is The First Mountain Man.
The First Mountain Man
Summary
They called him . . . Preacher. He came west to the Rockies as a young runaway and grew into a legend among the already legendary frontier mountain men. They called him Preacher - a name that would become a monument to all who sought adventure in the savage wilderness of America's untamed west. The only man with the skills to lead a wagon train on the last leg of the rugged Oregon trail, Preacher knows they're headed into trouble. It's hard enough for a hundred greenhorns to survive the wilds of the northwest; being pursued by thieving renegade outlaws and Indians with a thirst for gold - and blood - makes it damn near impossible. Somehow, Preacher has to get these pilgrims through safely - if he doesn't want to end up buried along the trail with the rest of them . . . .
©1991 William W. Johnstone (P)2019 Tantor
The Chuckwagon Trail
Summary
Framed for murder, Dewey "Mac" McKenzie is running for his life. Though Mac's never even made a pot of coffee, he talks his way onto a cattle drive heading west as a chuckwagon cook. Turns out he has a natural talent for turning salt pork and dried beans into culinary gold. He's as good with a pot and pan as he is with a gun, which comes in handy on a dangerous trail drive beset with rustlers, hostile Indians, ornery weather, and deadly stampedes. Mac can hold his own with any cowboy twice his age. At least until the real showdown begins . . . Trail hand Deke Northrup is one mean spit in the eye. Before long, he's made enemies with all his men. When Mac learns that Northrup is planning to double-cross the herd's owner, he stands up to the trail boss and his henchman. He might be outgunned and outnumbered, but Mac's ready to serve up some blazing frontier justice with a healthy helping of vengeance . . .
©2017 J. A. Johnstone (P)2018 Tantor
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
Blood on the Divide
Summary
This second book in William W. Johnstone's classic First Mountain Man series finds Preacher leading a wagon train of settlers into the Rockies - and through dangerous territory. Trapped on the Continental Divide by a blinding snowstorm, Preacher must fend off the gunfire of the wicked Pardee gang, and a band of marauding Utes.
©1992 William W. Johnstone (P)2019 Tantor
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
Die by the Gun
Summary
With one successful cattle drive under his belt, Dewey "Mac" McKenzie is on a first-name basis with danger. Marked for death for a crime he didn't commit and eager to get far away from the territory, he signed on as cattle drive chuck-wagon cook to save his own skin - and learned how to serve up a tasty hot stew. Turns out Mac has a talent for fixing good vittles. He's also pretty handy with a gun. But Mac's enemies are hungry for more - and he's hired a gang of ruthless killers to turn up the heat.... Mac knows he's a dead man. His only hope is to join another cattle drive on the Goodnight-Loving Trail, deep in New Mexico Territory. The journey ahead is even deadlier than the hired guns behind him. His trail boss is an ornery cuss. His crewmate is the owner's spoiled son. And the route is overrun with kill-crazy rustlers and bloodthirsty Comanche. To make matters worse, Mac's would-be killers are closing in fast. But when the cattle owner's son is kidnapped, the courageous young cook has no choice but to jump out of the frying pan - and into the fire....
©2018 J. A. Johnstone (P)2018 Tantor
The Legend of Perley Gates
Summary
He's the son of a cattle rancher. A restless young dreamer who, under normal circumstances, would follow in his father's footsteps. Normal, however, is not his style. Like his famous grandfather and namesake Perley Gates - a hell-raising mountain man with a heavenly name - young Perley wants adventure, excitement, and freedom. And like his grandfather before him, he will find his dream - in the untamed wilds of a lawless frontier. That dream though might just become a nightmare.... After his father's death, Perley strikes out on his own. His first order of business is to track down the grandfather whose name he shares. When he crosses into Oklahoma Territory, young Perley discovers that the trail is full of dead ends - and near-death encounters. Hostile Indians, wanted outlaws, and bloodthirsty killers are just a few of the dangers waiting for him. And the closer he gets to finding the original Perley Gates, the closer he comes to meeting his Maker at the fabled gates they're named for....
©2018 J. A. Johnstone (P)2018 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
Cheyenne Challenge
Summary
Blood in the Snow... Mountain men are skilled at survival. Preacher, the greatest of all those warriors of the forest, will kill anything-beast or man-that threatens his survival. Ten years ago, he taught this violent lesson to gun-crazed Ezra Pease when he ran the outlaw out of town. But Pease and his trail-scum gang are back - shooting up trouble and crossing the Big Empty to nail Preacher's hide to a tree. So Preacher's riding out to teach Pease one final lesson. But it could be too late because Pease's vicious dealings have fired up an all-out Indian war. Now, with hard-riding death on both sides, Preacher and some old friends called Beartooth, Dupre, and Nighthawk are heading straight into lead-flying, scalp-slashing hell...
©1995 William W. Johnstone (P)2019 Tantor
Forty Guns West
Summary
A friendly place... During a trip back east for a family reunion, Preacher learns that even the civilized Midwest can attract a motherlode of trouble...especially when a gang of local bully boys decides to pick a fight. Now, wealthy landowner Elam Parks lies dead - and there's a $5,000 reward on the head of the man accused: the first mountain man. ...to die The fortune in blood money has dispatched a small army of bounty hunters after Preacher. Now, back in his once-peaceful homestead in the High Lonesome, as he sights down the barrel of his '33 Hall North breechloader, Preacher is ready for target practice. And he can't think of a more scenic place to pick off the bloodthirsty manhunters, one by one . . .
©1993 William W. 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
Blackfoot Messiah
Summary
In the seventh book in his best-selling Preacher series, William W. Johnstone gives his millions of avid fans exactly the kind of gritty, action-packed Western novel they look for from this prolific and hugely popular writer. "A Messiah Shall Lead Them...." In the Wyoming wild, Blackfoot warriors prepare for battle, their bloodlust stirred by a legendary prophet promising victory in a war that will forever rid the plains of the white man. To legendary mountain man Preacher, it isn't a promise - it's a threat. But being out-numbered in a savage frontier means justice will be as hard-earned and uncertain as...survival. "....To An Early Grave." With a loyal Cheyenne as his guide, and a spirited Dragoon squadron for cover, Preacher forges up the treacherous Sante Fe trail. But the only way to win this war is to unmask the hell-raising Messiah whose godforsaken message is leading a desperate people into certain massacre....
©1996 William W. Johnstone (P)2019 Tantor
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
Preacher's Justice
Summary
USA Today best-selling author William W. Johnstone has crafted nearly 200 thrilling books, including his popular Last Gunfighter series, which has sold more than 10 million copies. A gritty tale of retribution, Preacher's Justice captures the brutal violence of everyday life in the Old West. When "Preacher", the last gunfighter, catches wind that a lady from his past has been murdered in St. Louis, he is enraged. It's time to leave the wilderness and head to the big city to exact some revenge.
©2004 William W. Johnstone (P)2004 Recorded Books
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
Preacher and The Mountain Caesar
Summary
One man and... No one remembered when he'd come to the mountains - it seemed that Preacher had always been there. He'd seen a great deal in the unmapped mountains and forests of the grand North American frontier. In fact, he'd just told a friend that he wasn't surprised by anything anymore. But Preacher hadn't seen Nova Roma yet.... ...A deadly dream of glory Suddenly, Preacher is faced with the strangest, most dangerous army the High Lonesome has ever seen. It's leader is a blood-mad fanatic right out of the ancient history books. All Preacher's got on his side are his brother mountain men: tough as hardtack good old boys like Philadelphia Braddock and Frenchie Dupree; the Arapaho warrior Bold Pony; and his surefire Walker Colt...
©1995 William W. Johnstone (P)2019 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