Paid In Blood

Buckhorn #2

by William W. Johnstone, J.A. Johnstone

When a wealthy cattle baroness hires Joe Buckhorn to track down her son, it sounds like easy money. but when he learns that the boy has run off with a girl -- whose father is the leader of the cattle-rustling Riley clan -- Buckhorn's only hope is to infiltrate the gang, gain their trust, and live the outlaw life, even at the risk of death.

There's just one problem: there's more than one gang. The Riley girl may have stolen a runaway boy's heart, but the other gang are stealing the baroness's cattle. Which puts Buckhorn in the middle of a violent blood-soaked range war. If he chooses the wrong side, he's as good as dead ... but if he follows his gut and lives, there's going to be the darkest kind of hell to pay ...

Genres: Westerns

Paperback

Published July 1, 2016

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

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paid in Blood is book two from the Buckhorn series. I enjoyed it and look forward to more in the series. 4 stars.

[Jay Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good Western from a top writer. Buckhorn is a half breed gun for hire. While his past was not one of being in the right, he has turned over a new leaf. He tries to avoid out and out murder and sides with the person in the right. He is hired to find the son of a female owner of a large spread. She has another son that is evil at his best. There is a good plot and plenty of action. My only problem, Buckhorn is awfully close to another character in a series, Sixkiller. Still a good old fashioned western.

[Ron Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fun Joe Buckhorn novel! Started to feel a bit formulaic, compared to the first in the series, Buckhorn, but ended up different enough, and quite entertaining. Buckhorn is sort of like a wild west detective, and it's unfortunate there's only three novels in the series so far. Really hope they continue this series, as it would be nice to see how Joe Buckhorn evolves in his journey from indifferent/ruthless gun for hire to a more caring and thoughtful, older gunslinger.

This one starts off with a bang, and then many more bangs ensue, as Buckhorn gets in the middle of a dispute between two families, each accusing the other of major wrongdoings, theft and land grabbing. By the end, there's many dead bodies, but also happy endings. Once again there's many characters, and the reader can never really be sure who is good or bad, or who is working for whom; there's very likable characters, and others you will loathe. Loved this book!

[James Frenkz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this one. I understand that these books are likely ghost written by random authors, but there's something about the style of the Buckhorn books that resonate with me particularly well. They're tight, got a good sense of style, and while they're cheesy they aren't laced with too much self-awareness to be grating on my personal nerves. I can't stand it when an author lacks confidence in the pulp story they've chosen to write.

This goes about where you'd expect, and ends in a fairly stereotypical fashion, but I think Buckhorn is a really strong leading man and the stereotypical scenes found in most western stories are shaken up enough and tightly written enough to make cutting through this story an enjoyable time, though life did force me to switch to the audio version in order to finish it up just because I couldn't get time to read throughout the day.

This feels like a good episode of a serialized western TV show, I suppose. I'd recommend it.

[Derrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The character evolved a bit, so I'm still enjoying this one. This had a decent story. I do appreciate that it's not too sexual honestly as some of the books get a bit sketchy and this one didn't really have that. Looking forward to the listening to the GA next one as it appears to be the last in the series.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

<3

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great series, great action all the time...Hope to see #4 Buckhorn adventure....