The Friday 56: 'The Last Ride of the Dirty Creek Gang'

Hello, fellow Friday 56ers! 

It's been a while since I last participated in the Friday 56. What can I say? I've been busy with a lot of things. My 70-year-old father had a knee replacement two days ago and was released from the hospital yesterday. Unfortunately, there’s no home health care available due to issues with insurance and Medicare, which do not seem to cooperate, especially in our area. I won’t go into more details now; maybe I’ll discuss it in my next Watering Hole, which is my renamed Sunday Post series.

I took the Western paperback The Last Ride of the Dirty Creek Gang by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone with me to the hospital but never opened it. Instead, I watched Blazing Saddles for the millionth time on my Kindle Fire tablet. William W. Johnstone has long since passed away, and J.A. Johnstone is his niece. I'm not sure how much involvement she had in writing this book aside from having her name on the cover. As with all new Johnstone books, the copyright page states that the Johnstone family hired an unnamed author to outline and create new stories that are published under William W. Johnstone's name. However, it doesn’t specify whether this "creator" actually ghostwrites the books or if other authors handle the newer Johnstone titles. For now, I’ll assume it’s the latter until I know more.

Anyway, I know little about the book aside from the blurb. It’s essentially about an old outlaw gang that is called upon to work together one last time for a potential big payout.

Now, here’s a preview from page 56:

His clothes flapped about his diminished body as he rode, but life had come rushing back into the man once they hit the trail.

— Johnstone, William W; Johnstone, J.A. The Last Ride of the Dirty Creek Gang, Pinnacle, 2026, p. 56.

〜B.J. Burgess