To Hell and Beyond

by Mark Henry

It's been thirty years since they battled through a war-torn frontier. Now they'll ride together once again--and the bullets will fly . . .

THE HELL RIDERS

During the bloody Apache Wars, Trap O'Shannon, Clay Madsen, Ky Roman, and a few others distinguished themselves with uncommon valor in the brutal Geronimo Campaign. Known as the Scout Trackers, this fearsome bunch of battle-hardened warriors rode hard, shot straight and plenty, and took chances no one else was willing to take. But times have changed and the brotherhood is scattered here and there in a changing land--until the past comes rolling back with a vengeance.

HARD ROAD TO HEAVEN

Reunited, the gang is ready to ride hard from Montana all the way to the Arizona Territory to enforce their fearless brand of justice. Killers of every stripe will stand in their way, but that only means Trap and his men will fight that much harder to bury every last one of them . . .

Here together for the first time are Mark Henry's explosive Western epics that show the brutal, gut-punching American West in all its violent glory.

Genres: Westerns

743 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Mark Henry is also a pseudonym for Marc Cameron's western novels.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read many westerns any more since they're too similar & it's pretty obvious that most authors don't know a thing about horses, cattle, or the west, so it's rare that I find one that is readable any more. This is one such. It has all the traditional western tropes, but they're very well done & mixed up with some material I've rarely read in the genre.

This novel is actually 2 novellas about some older (Not old! They're younger than me.) lawmen who were pretty much retired, but have to band together once more. Why is really well done. It's not just that lazy coincidental thing that is used too often. Trap O'Shannon, Clay Madsen, & Ky Roman are excellent characters, along with O'Shannon's wife & son.

THE HELL RIDERS

In 1910, a girl is kidnapped in Montana & a dry summer has fires blazing all over. Trap's son, Blake, is now a lawman & winds up getting his father & friends to help him find the girl. It's an exciting adventure with Maggie, Trap's wife, doing some very tough, heroic stuff as well as the girl. No wimpy women. Even the kid is a tough little booger. 4 stars!

HARD ROAD TO HEAVEN

This takes place shortly after the previous story, but keeps jumping back in time to tell the story of how Trap, Maggie, & the rest got together. The current story is interesting in its own right & since flashbacks are used, the meeting story gets to skip all the boring parts. Very well done. There isn't much to the current story, but it's fun.

Unfortunately, this ends on a bit of a cliff hanger that would bring it full circle with the first story & my library doesn't have that one! I'm not sure it has been written yet. I'm not sure the author linked with this book is the correct one, either. If anyone knows, please tell me! I'd love to find it.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Henry is the pen name of Marc Cameron, one of my favorite authors. He now writes the Jericho Quinn series and also picked up the Tom Clancy, Jack Ryan series. I loved this western tale that combines two stories. The author is authentic with great credibility, he knows his subject matter. I was enthralled with the way he went back and forth 30 years in the characters story line seamlessly and without confusing the reader. He is one of our country's great current writers. Well done Marc aka Mark!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains two novels and I read the first one, HARD ROAD TO HEAVEN, which was excellent and well-researched. I'll get to the other one soon...

[SteVen Hendricks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Review - ...my very first Western audiobook! During the bloody Apache Wars, characters Trap O'Shannon, Clay Madsen, Ky Roman, and a few others distinguished themselves with uncommon valor in the brutal Geronimo Campaign. Known as the Scout Trackers, this fearsome bunch of battle-hardened warriors rode hard, shot straight and plenty, and took chances no one else was willing to take. But times changed, and the brotherhood was scattered in a changing land - until their past came rolling back with a vengeance. Reunited, the gang rides hard from Montana all the way to the Arizona Territory to enforce their fearless brand of justice. Killers of every stripe stood in their way, but that only meant Trap and his men fought that much harder to bury every last one of them. Mark Henry is actually Author Marc Cameron's explosive Western epic that shows the brutal, gut-punching American West in all its violent glory. Awesome action-packed Western story...!

[Maria Jansson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The language and the story is captivating. The book is more than 600 pages, but leaves you wanting more. It has more brains than your usual western novel, and I really like that. Going to check out some more books by the author Mark Henry.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 2 out of 5]

"To Hell and Beyond" is two sequential Mark Henry novels: "Hard Road to Heaven" and "The Hell Riders"

Hard Road to Heaven:

1910 Montana is the scene for "Hard Road to Heaven," a 2005 western in which an Easterner traveling west to visit family is abducted by some bad guys who are pretending to be Indians intending to ransom her. This is long past the era when Apaches are roaming that area with ill-intent, so it is quickly obvious that something else is happening.

There's a company of Federals enlisting folks to fight a wildfire in the same area and the fire impacts the heroes' rescue attempt as they track the hostage, especially across the second half of the book. This wildfire is the infamous Great Fire of 1910 (that's why I'm tagging this one as "historical fiction" above) when 3 million acres of Idaho and Montana burned, still considered the largest forest fire in US history.

The gruesome western crime tale has a decent start and premise, but then devolves into an escalating pattern of 1) bad guy does something awful, 2) new bad guy does something more awful and the first bad guy is scared of the second, 3) another new bad guy repeats the pattern.

We see most of this horror through the eyes of the kidnapped 17-year old girl but instead of driving a sense of scary surroundings or real stakes, it has a sick voyeurism feel to it. The author was a cop in real life, so I imagine his post-crime experience of bad cases may have driven a lot of the crime prose. Those sections didn't make me nervous or scared, they made me queasy and happy to just move on to the next chapter.

The protagonists have backstories and morals that are supposed to lend a counterweight to the really evil bad guys (yes, Mr. Henry, we understand, the bad guys are really bad, we get it) and drive some connection to humanity but they don't. In fact, late in the tale, one of the protagonists calls one of the bad guys a "blasted boob" in all seriousness and I laughed and laughed. How bad could these bad guys have really been if a good guy is calling one of them a "boob." lol I'm chuckling just typing that.

Verdict: This long modern western thriller paints a scary picture but it doesn't feel real, if that makes sense, which is okay if the story is attempting a cartoonish or romanticized vision, but not for a crime happening during a real historical event.

Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: R

Hell Riders:

The sequel to "Hard Road to Heaven", "Hell Riders" continues the saga of Trap, Clay, Patch, and Maggie as a train of pox-infected passengers is traveling through 1910 Montana and word needs to get ahead of it so that it can be quarantined. The author decides this book is really going to be about how stupid racism is, and also throws in a soap opera flashback story about how white Trap and Nez Perce Maggie fell in love 30 years prior. That flashback story then moves to a horror-filled kidnapping narrative as a Mexican girl is captured by some evil dudes with evil intent and the Apaches are involved somehow, while Trap and Clay are working as scouts for the Army against those Apaches, tracking to rescue the kidnapped woman.

A lot of people vomit in this book. That was important to the author to make the story more real.

Verdict: It's almost like Henry wanted to combine his favorite parts (and unfortunately those are the worst parts) of Lonesome Dove, The Bounty Hunters, Blood Meridian, and Romeo and Juliet into one book. I hated it.

Jeff's Rating: 1 / 5 (Bad)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13

[Rodney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is actually two stories published in one book, The Hell Riders and Hard Road to Heaven. The author states that he is a retired deputy US marshal and actually used man tracking skills. This is what led me to choose to read this book. Although I enjoyed both books, if rating separately I would have given the first one a 3 star and the second a 5 star based on the amount of tracking in the stories. That is why I chose to give it a 4 star rating.

Hell Riders is actually set in 1910 and gathers all of the characters Trap & Maggie O’Shannon plus son Blake with Clay Madsen and Ky Roman to recover a kidnapped 17 year old girl. Throw in a forest fire with early forest rangers and buffalo soldiers and the author has a very good story. Enjoyed all the characters.

Hard Road to Heaven uses the unique setting of a train ride with the characters telling the origin story of the character and the Scout Tracker unit. I really enjoyed this way of organizing the story because it allowed for jumping to the important parts of the story line. The author filled this book with lots of tracking lore which I enjoyed. While I don’t claim to be a tracker, I did take some man tracking classes and read many things similar to what the instructors told us.

[Sebastian Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really interesting and captivating book, as it made it hard to put down. As from the way that the men told stories and spoke to eachother to the way the action scenes were done were all amazing.

[Carl Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good action, and colorful characters

I love tales of the old west. Mark does a great job on this series of stories with a lead in to a future episode if desired. Good action throughout.

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sequel?

It seems that Mark Henry (Marc Cameron) decided to go in different direction after these two books. I wish he had finished the story.

[James L.Ferrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done and with good character development.

[Brian Carrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good western story