Killstraight: A Western Story

Killstraight #2

by Johnny D. Boggs

    In this Spur Award Finalist for Best Western Short Novel, young Daniel Killstraight returns to the reservation after spending seven years back east, forced to travel the white man's road by learning their ways at the Carlisle Industrial School in Pennsylvania. After watching a childhood friend, Jimmy Comes Last, hang on the Fort Smith gallows for a grisly double-murder, Daniel is asked by his old friend's mother to prove that her dead son was innocent of the crime.    Yet Daniel has his own problems, trying to learn who he really is after being so far from his people for so long. Reluctantly, he joins the tribal Indian Police, and slowly begins to believe that Jimmy's mother was right, that her son wasn't guilty, and as he digs into the crime -- getting help from a Cherokee policeman and a deputy U.S. marshal -- he starts to uncover something much bigger than murder.    Set during the turmoil of the reservation years when Senator Henry L. Dawes was trying to bring an end to the reservation system, and its corruption, KILLSTRAIGHT is not only a murder mystery, but a story of a young Indian's journey to discover himself while disproving the stereotypical Western portrayals of Comanche Indians as soulless, bloodthirsty savages.

Genres: Westerns, Native American, Mystery

337 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2008

About the author

Johnny D. Boggs is a Spur- and Wrangler Award-winning author of the American West and frontier. Born in 1962, Boggs grew up on a farm near Timmonsville, South Carolina, around the old stamping grounds of Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion (chronicled in his frontier novel The Despoilers). He knew he wanted to be a writer at an early age. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife, Lisa Smith; son, Jack Smith Boggs; and basset hound, June.

Reviews

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Comanche named Daniel Killstraight is back on the reservation after being sent to a school in Pennsylvania designed to teach Indians how to live in white society, and gets wrapped up in an investigation into the possible wrongful death sentence carried out on a Comanche childhood friend of his.

Verdict: A standard and tropey alien-to-two-worlds-but-with-responsibilities-in-both tale, "Killstraight" (2008) isn't as good a story as Boggs usually writes. I didn't really enjoy it.

Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13

[Jessica Timmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a good read. A short read but interesting characters, the history behind the book is off and the author acknowledges that. But the book is a novel not fact. The writing in it was very easy to read so not the kind of book for the extreme literate. The twist and turns in the story will surprise you when believing, the a man in question, really is innocent or not. There is a happy ending but I think it could of been slightly more then what the author had written and I do not like at all that some of the main horse characters had to perish in the story. Just because I don't like horse's dying.

[Eduardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

So! It turns out that I know a relative of this author, and because of that I wanted to try it out. If it didn’t work out, if I hated the book, then it wouldn’t end up on the list for review, so this is a pretty good sign.

I didn’t quite know what to expect, other than ‘western’. What “Killstraight” ended up feeling like was one of Tony Hillerman’s novels. The main character, Daniel Killstraight, was an indigenous man that comes back home to find himself wrapped up in a mystery. Unlike the Hillerman novels, Killstraight isn’t Navajo, he’s Comanche, and the author did a lot of work to make sure he got stuff right when representing the culture (the Author’s Note in the back shows the sources he’s pulled on, including people he knows). He points out that Comanche are not really well-represented in American fiction, so he wanted to give them their due.

It’s also a historical fiction novel. I mean, I suppose Hillerman’s are, too, but this one’s further back. And you know what? Historical fiction murder mysteries can be quite fun when they’re done right, and this one certainly is.

I do remember thinking that it takes a little bit for Killstraight to actually get to investigating the mystery. That being said, he has just had a long journey, and he doesn’t even know if there is a real mystery, and he has to get his bearings. With that in mind, once he gets evidence that there’s something to look into, and the tools to do so, he gets to it fairly quickly.

And obviously, there’s shooting. Can’t have a good western without shooting.

I’m interested to see the further adventures of Killstraight, and how Boggs’s other novels go.

[D. E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A JDB. Indian and Indian Reservations Western Action Adventure (K)

JDB. has penned an Indian reservation western action adventure titled, "Killstraight" which begins with a young man returning from Carlisle, an Indian School back East, in time to see his friend hung by Judge Parker. He continues his journey to the combined Indian reservation for numerous tribes. He is appointed as a Indian police officer and is taunted by the people of the tribes. He uses his education to find the real killers that his friend was hung for. This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS

[Joe Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good, entertaining western mystery combo. What sets this apart from mysteries, beside being a period western, is Killstraight’s venture into being a sleuth. The reader weathers his mistakes.

The story, though, has more to it than being a western & mystery. The authenticity of the historical setting, Indian Territory after the Civil War, and the relationships between the ethnic groups, gives meat to Killstraight’s struggle to straddle both Native American and White societies as Killstraight tries to find his place, his identity.

[Gerald Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of the Boggs series I have read. He is a good craftsman and his book is very readable and enjoyable. I plan to read all of his books soon. The cover is attractive but not representative of the period in which the story takes place. Good book and I enjoyed the characters and plot development in every way.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this to be very disappointing after I had read Northfield by the same author which I loved!

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've enjoyed this book so far. It is about a Comanche who returned from a boarding school in Pennsylvania and his experiences as he tries to fit into life on the reservation.