Heat Lightning

Tinhorn #3

by William W. Johnstone, J.A. Johnstone

A cattle baron seeking to expand his empire targets a Texas town only to run across a pair of lawmen who can’t be bought—and prefer to deal in lead—in the latest rip-roaring, action-packed Tinhorn Western from national bestselling authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone.
  TINHORN, TEXAS. HOSTILE TERRITORY.   To wealthy rancher Ira Dunellen, the frontier prairie land surrounding his spread is his for the taking. His cattle need room to roam and the one-horse town of Tinhorn, Texas is standing in his way. On the bank of the Neches River, the small community of merchants is just wasting a precious resource that Dunellen’s growing range needs.
 
As stray cattle wander into town, followed by rowdy cowboys, Sheriff Flint Moran and partner Buck Jackson start corralling up any man or beast disrepecting the citizenry and breaking the law. It’s clear Tinhorn’s lawdogs are running rabid, so Dunellen hires deadly gunslinger Cash Kelly to put them down.
 
But unknown to Dunellen, Cash has a score to settle with Flint. Bullets are going to fly. And the dirt streets of Tinhorn will be soaked in blood . . .

Genres: Westerns, Historical Fiction

308 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 29, 2025

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

[Laur · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.

[Gerald Matzke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book in the collection of Johnstone Westerns is a bit different from most of the others that I have read. There are several threads that are introduced at the beginning that eventually come together as the story unfolds. It took a while to identify the hero in the story but he turned out to be a caring, practical man who would use violence only as a last resort. There are several characters in the story but the author does a good job of defining them and that helps the reader to keep everything straight. There are a few unresolved issues as the action comes to an end but hopefully there is an another Tinhorn Western that will resolve some of the loose ends. This Western yarn was enjoyable because of the characters but also because of the humor that the author employed as he described the good natured “japing” between the characters that showed the kind of friendly and caring relationships they had with one another.

[Donna]

Nice Shoot-Outs. Interesting book.

[Robert W. Kuhn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never fails to keep me rivited!

Was a steady paced story with, I guess, a sunrise ending. Used to knowing more about the lead person in story but worked out in the end.

[Richard Guerrero · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good western series. It was silly and a typical western story. A fun winter read.