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Buck Trammel #1
North of Laramie
Johnstone Country. A New Legend in the Making.
The bestselling Johnstones kick off their blazing new western series with a real bang--a fatal, fateful shootout that sends a man named Buck Trammel on the ride of his life . . .
WHEN WYATT EARP TELLS YOU TO RUN, YOU RUN.
Once upon a time in the Old West, Buck Trammel was a Pinkerton agent with a promising future. But after a tragic incident in a case gone wrong, he struck out for the wide-open spaces of Wichita, Kansas. Working as a bouncer at The Gilded Lily Saloon, he hopes to stay out of trouble. But soon enough, his gun skills are put to the test. The Bowman gang shows up, turning a friendly card game with a Wyoming cattleman into a killer-takes-all shooting match. Buck saves the cattleman's life, but at the cost of Bowman's two sons. That's when Deputy Wyatt Earp arrives. He warns Buck that he'd better get out of town, pronto, and take the cattle baron with him. The rest is history--if he lives long enough to tell it . . .
This is the story of Buck Trammel. Hunted by outlaws. Fighting for justice. Marked for death. This is how legends are born . . .
Live Free. Read Hard.
The bestselling Johnstones kick off their blazing new western series with a real bang--a fatal, fateful shootout that sends a man named Buck Trammel on the ride of his life . . .
WHEN WYATT EARP TELLS YOU TO RUN, YOU RUN.
Once upon a time in the Old West, Buck Trammel was a Pinkerton agent with a promising future. But after a tragic incident in a case gone wrong, he struck out for the wide-open spaces of Wichita, Kansas. Working as a bouncer at The Gilded Lily Saloon, he hopes to stay out of trouble. But soon enough, his gun skills are put to the test. The Bowman gang shows up, turning a friendly card game with a Wyoming cattleman into a killer-takes-all shooting match. Buck saves the cattleman's life, but at the cost of Bowman's two sons. That's when Deputy Wyatt Earp arrives. He warns Buck that he'd better get out of town, pronto, and take the cattle baron with him. The rest is history--if he lives long enough to tell it . . .
This is the story of Buck Trammel. Hunted by outlaws. Fighting for justice. Marked for death. This is how legends are born . . .
Live Free. Read Hard.
368 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 2020
944 people are currently reading
189 people want to read
About the author
William W. Johnstone
1,041 books1,392 followersWilliam 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
April 25, 2020
The Johnstone ecosystem of western heroes is vast, deep, and ever growing. I’ve read quite a few of the standalone and series but here is another new one. North of Laramie (Pinnacle 2020), first in the Buck Trammel Westerns series promises to be an excellent addition. Buck Trammel is a down in his luck former New York cop, former Pinkerton detective who ends up a bouncer at a small-time saloon called the Gilded Lilly. That changes when he defends a gambler accused of cheating and ends up killing two sons of a local big shot rancher. To this enraged father, it doesn't matter that the gambler wasn't cheating or that his sons pulled their guns first or that Trammel just defended himself. He just wants revenge. Trammel flees town, taking the gambler with him--otherwise, he would be killed. The two form an unlikely partnership that works well enough that they survive and make a fresh start. Well, at least for a while.
Another great story from the clever minds of the Johnstone crew. Keep em coming.
Another great story from the clever minds of the Johnstone crew. Keep em coming.
July 4, 2021
Really good western story until the author, J.A. Johnstone (William W. Johnstone's niece) took it off it another direction.
Like her uncle, J.A. has made the protagonist, Buck Trammel, a very tall man. He's good with is fists. In fact, early on he kills a man with two punches and tosses another so hard he breaks his neck. Very similar to other Johnstone protags, Smoke Jensen and Jaime MacCallister.
First of what is, so far, a three book series.
Like her uncle, J.A. has made the protagonist, Buck Trammel, a very tall man. He's good with is fists. In fact, early on he kills a man with two punches and tosses another so hard he breaks his neck. Very similar to other Johnstone protags, Smoke Jensen and Jaime MacCallister.
First of what is, so far, a three book series.
April 11, 2020
What a great set of new characters in this the first book about Buck Trammel. This is not the usual good guys and bad guys western. I really look forward to the next book to see what will happen. I seldom get so surprised with a western story. Thanks to Netgalley, Kensington Books and Pinnacle for giving me the pleasure of reading this new adventure from William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone called North of Laramie. If you like westerns then you should try this.
October 9, 2022
New character and a new series. Buck Trammel. Lots of action, fast paced and sets up a reader for the next book called Bury the Hatchet.
Mistakes I saw. Back of the book says "The Bower gang shows up." There is no Bower gang, just a family called Bowman and they don't show up until after Buck Trammel and the gambler left.
Wichita to Dodge City is 154 miles. The two main characters make it very close to Dodge City in two days on horseback. A horse can travel 20 to 34 miles a day. Author's math is a little off.
Mistakes I saw. Back of the book says "The Bower gang shows up." There is no Bower gang, just a family called Bowman and they don't show up until after Buck Trammel and the gambler left.
Wichita to Dodge City is 154 miles. The two main characters make it very close to Dodge City in two days on horseback. A horse can travel 20 to 34 miles a day. Author's math is a little off.
October 26, 2020
This would be my third western of William A. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone’s books. I have to say, I quite enjoy them. They have surprised me more than one, and on top of that, I get so immersed in this world that sometimes I don’t want to leave.
Buck Trammel is one interesting character-one I really would like to fall in love with since he’s tall (Tall men + Brittany=Brittany Bait). But he is traveling with a man named Adam Hagen, which I’ve kept an eye on because one, there’s something about him that I don’t like. Yes, he’s a drunk and a gambler, but behind all of that is a schemer. I don’t know what it is about Adam Hagen that I don’t like, but I just...don’t...like...him.
And on top of that, the Bowman gang is coming after the both of them after Trammel killed two of their kin (which sucks, by the by). I understand you want revenge on the men who killed your family, but come on now. It is NOT that bloody serious (I mean, two people dying, yes. Getting revenge? Stupid as hell. At least, on my side of things). And they’re trying to make new lives in Laramie-Adam’s a hotelier and Trammel’s a sheriff after the other one just up and left and died after swearing him in.
I do like the characters in the story-Buck, Adam, Emily (I actually ship them). But my favorite parts have to be when we stay alone in Trammel’s mind and him trying to figure out if he wanted to stay being the law after being a Pinkerton man, then being in The Golden Lilly in Witchita as the bodyguard. I found those parts interesting, almost as character development because he’s trying to figure out if he wanted to stay being the law, or settle down somewhere, get married, have a couple kids. But with the Bowman gang after him, he didn’t think that he would, though I wish he did because he deserves everything (Adam doesn’t, but that’s another story for another time).
My least favorite would have to be Madame Peachtree (ha ha) and her men, because she wanted Trammel to look the other away while she did what she wanted to do (opium, her saloon), but he arrested her and her men, but then he found her leger that only Adam and Emily can read...oh BOY that’s all I have to say. OH BOY. That’s when I have to keep my eye on Adam, because it seems like the Bowman gang is in the background, and he’s working his own plans in the front of the story.
And boy, was I right-when they came into Laramie, and Lefty showed up to try and kill Buck, Adam went to talk to Lucien Clay, striking up a deal with him (and basically using Buck was a bargaining chip) which he didn’t like in the end. There was a gunfight between Buck and Lefty and his men, and he killed them all in self-defense. Then the end, when Hagen told him what he wanted to do in Blacktown (turn it into a Opium den) in which Buck downright refused to let happen.
I did enjoy this book so much and I want to read more! In! This! Series!
Buck Trammel is one interesting character-one I really would like to fall in love with since he’s tall (Tall men + Brittany=Brittany Bait). But he is traveling with a man named Adam Hagen, which I’ve kept an eye on because one, there’s something about him that I don’t like. Yes, he’s a drunk and a gambler, but behind all of that is a schemer. I don’t know what it is about Adam Hagen that I don’t like, but I just...don’t...like...him.
And on top of that, the Bowman gang is coming after the both of them after Trammel killed two of their kin (which sucks, by the by). I understand you want revenge on the men who killed your family, but come on now. It is NOT that bloody serious (I mean, two people dying, yes. Getting revenge? Stupid as hell. At least, on my side of things). And they’re trying to make new lives in Laramie-Adam’s a hotelier and Trammel’s a sheriff after the other one just up and left and died after swearing him in.
I do like the characters in the story-Buck, Adam, Emily (I actually ship them). But my favorite parts have to be when we stay alone in Trammel’s mind and him trying to figure out if he wanted to stay being the law after being a Pinkerton man, then being in The Golden Lilly in Witchita as the bodyguard. I found those parts interesting, almost as character development because he’s trying to figure out if he wanted to stay being the law, or settle down somewhere, get married, have a couple kids. But with the Bowman gang after him, he didn’t think that he would, though I wish he did because he deserves everything (Adam doesn’t, but that’s another story for another time).
My least favorite would have to be Madame Peachtree (ha ha) and her men, because she wanted Trammel to look the other away while she did what she wanted to do (opium, her saloon), but he arrested her and her men, but then he found her leger that only Adam and Emily can read...oh BOY that’s all I have to say. OH BOY. That’s when I have to keep my eye on Adam, because it seems like the Bowman gang is in the background, and he’s working his own plans in the front of the story.
And boy, was I right-when they came into Laramie, and Lefty showed up to try and kill Buck, Adam went to talk to Lucien Clay, striking up a deal with him (and basically using Buck was a bargaining chip) which he didn’t like in the end. There was a gunfight between Buck and Lefty and his men, and he killed them all in self-defense. Then the end, when Hagen told him what he wanted to do in Blacktown (turn it into a Opium den) in which Buck downright refused to let happen.
I did enjoy this book so much and I want to read more! In! This! Series!
October 7, 2022
Decent western and one in which the Johnstone's main character is actually portrayed more as a greenhorn. Buck Trammel, former lawmen/Pinkerton agent, sets out from Wichita after killing the son of a land baron, with a gambler/drunkard named Adam Hagen. They land in Wyoming, with Hagen's father hiring Buck Trammel as lawmen of Blackstone, after the other sheriff leaves town.
Buck is not well educated and not up to speed on horses and frontier life. Adam Hagen is, but is also a businessman of sorts. Pursued by a gang looking for revenge for the Wichita land baron's sons death, and dealing with the "criminal" element of Blackstone, Trammel is constantly on edge and has a temper to boot.
Trammel will have to watch his back, as trust, becomes an issue with several characters.
Not a bad start to a series.
Buck is not well educated and not up to speed on horses and frontier life. Adam Hagen is, but is also a businessman of sorts. Pursued by a gang looking for revenge for the Wichita land baron's sons death, and dealing with the "criminal" element of Blackstone, Trammel is constantly on edge and has a temper to boot.
Trammel will have to watch his back, as trust, becomes an issue with several characters.
Not a bad start to a series.
December 18, 2023
This is a classic western with a macho male, principled main character who beats extreme odds in fights. The main character is a good man but with an anger management problem. The story was a good read for this genre, but with not much depth. There are two decent female characters in the story who have potential, but their characters are underdeveloped and they play a very minor role in the story. Maybe one of them, the good doctor, will play a more substantial role in a future book. Towards the end there were some serious ethics issues raised in the story and to my disappointment the main character reluctantly gives into the situation. That left me with a less than satisfied feeling. Before the end he never let anyone push him into doing what he didn’t think was right. But at the last he caved in at least partially.
February 25, 2021
Moderately entertaining. I'll try the next book.
In some ways it's reminiscent of a Louis L'Amour's Iron Marshal. Not an exact copy but enough similarities.
Some of the fights felt repetitious, and the story was predictable.
It's your typical "duck out of water" old West Lawman. Former New York City police officer and Pinkerton detective through a series of adventures finds himself sheriff in a small western town.
As I stated, it's moderately entertaining. The story lagged at times, have to be totally honest I came close to DNF. But I gave it another chance and the latter half moved much quicker than the front half.
In some ways it's reminiscent of a Louis L'Amour's Iron Marshal. Not an exact copy but enough similarities.
Some of the fights felt repetitious, and the story was predictable.
It's your typical "duck out of water" old West Lawman. Former New York City police officer and Pinkerton detective through a series of adventures finds himself sheriff in a small western town.
As I stated, it's moderately entertaining. The story lagged at times, have to be totally honest I came close to DNF. But I gave it another chance and the latter half moved much quicker than the front half.
November 18, 2020
Another great western! Both hubby and I love this genre’ and look forward to good historical western stories. This book did not disappoint as it was fast guns, fast talk and fast horses. It was former Pinkerton, eastern educated, working as a bouncer in saloons and being big enough to handle anything coming his way. Buck Trammel was not a man to have as an enemy but you had to be strong enough to have him as a friend. In this book, Hagen tries to be that person and the story-line is the hard life they lived. I loved Doc Emily and I think Buck did too.
February 1, 2024
North of Laramie is my first foray into a Western, and damn it was fun! The Johnstone pair are able to evoke all the mischief, moral dilemma, and survival of the best Western movies in this compact yet effective book. Buck Trammel as a lead is as smart, gruff, tough, and intimidating as any law man you've seen on screen, and his companion gets them into just as much trouble as he gets them out of. I enjoyed every step of the journey with Buck and Hagen, and can't wait to dive into more of their story.
August 22, 2022
I just can't get enough of William Johnstone as all his stories just resonate with my interests in the early west. I know they are fiction and not realistic but they still evoke the sense of what it was like on the frontier during those days. This story introduces me to a new character, Buck Trammel, and he does not disappoint. This is a great read and a little different than some of his other stories.
March 4, 2024
Buck raised in the slums of New York, spent time as a Pinkerton, is run out of Witchita because he kills two cousins of an important rancher. He and a former West Point graduate, Hagen, veteran of the Apache wars escape together. They go to Blackstone, Wyoming where Hagen’s father is the owner of the largest ranch. He makes Buck the deputy sheriff but the acting sheriff leaves town and is murdered. Now , he cleans up the town. Plenty of action and good characters make this a good western.
July 3, 2024
All westerns by the Johnstone clan could be poster boys for the modern action "Shoot' em up" western. North of Laramie is certainly a very good exemple of that statement: a good, not too complicate story, easy-to-read writing style with short and well paced chapters and plenty of action throughout. I don't know who wrote the book, but I hope he wrote the other books in the series, because I like his writing style very much. The action sequences are well described and always served the story being told. The main character is interesting and his relation with who I believe will be the other main character is very interesting and could create all sorts of story paths and intrigues. To conclude, I really liked what I read and I will gladly continu the Buck Trammel series.
October 17, 2021
Worst Ending Ever
Why even write a novel without a clear cut ending? If you want one this is it! One need not buy another novel ever. No kidding , I marvel at a fairly good story and then when I reach the last page still waiting for closure! Shame on you Johnstone for being lazy! I wouldn't even give a one star if there was a less option.
Why even write a novel without a clear cut ending? If you want one this is it! One need not buy another novel ever. No kidding , I marvel at a fairly good story and then when I reach the last page still waiting for closure! Shame on you Johnstone for being lazy! I wouldn't even give a one star if there was a less option.
October 6, 2020
Well written western
This is a well written western like all his books. This one takes a different angle in the story line than most western. The characters are well developed, with a lot of room for more growth. Worth reading.
This is a well written western like all his books. This one takes a different angle in the story line than most western. The characters are well developed, with a lot of room for more growth. Worth reading.
October 9, 2020
Interesting
Enjoyable enough, didn't care for the ending. I was really into the plot, really liked the characters. Became really disappointed with them both at the end real bummer.
Enjoyable enough, didn't care for the ending. I was really into the plot, really liked the characters. Became really disappointed with them both at the end real bummer.
December 28, 2020
Great western novel !!!
Every book written William Johnstone a good stand-alone and even better when it’s part of a series. Try one and you will want to read everything he’s written.
Every book written William Johnstone a good stand-alone and even better when it’s part of a series. Try one and you will want to read everything he’s written.
June 4, 2020
Excellent Book
Another great book by my favorite Western Author. It is spellbinding on every page. It is well written and edited and keeps the Reader’s interest throughout!
Another great book by my favorite Western Author. It is spellbinding on every page. It is well written and edited and keeps the Reader’s interest throughout!
July 26, 2020
Kept my attention and I'm looking forward to reading book 2 of the series.
August 10, 2020
North of Laramie is yet another read by William W Johnston that does not disappoint. It gets four and a half stars from me.
September 9, 2020
Really good
One of the better westerns I've read in awhile. Not the usual stereotypical characters that even WJ is know for.
One of the better westerns I've read in awhile. Not the usual stereotypical characters that even WJ is know for.
November 17, 2020
Enjoy the characters! Great action and enjoyable storyline.
November 21, 2020
I'm not into western books.
November 29, 2020
Page turner, liked the story.
May 19, 2021
Interesting. I don't generally read westerns so this was new for me. Not bad at all.
June 18, 2021
A good western
A different kind of hero and a good story line. This author has never let me down. A truly enjoyable read.
A different kind of hero and a good story line. This author has never let me down. A truly enjoyable read.
August 17, 2021
It was ok...
To be honest, I am a L'Amour fan. There is little or no description of the land the story is being told in. The ending was disappointing.
To be honest, I am a L'Amour fan. There is little or no description of the land the story is being told in. The ending was disappointing.
October 18, 2021
Audible Audiobooks Library 📚: better than most previous Wm. W. Johnstone novels
October 28, 2021
This was terrible. I couldn't finish. I have told myself to not ready any more of "his" books. His niece just doesn't have the right style and is riding on his horse.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews