The Friday 56: 'The Loner' by J.A. Johnstone

Hello, fellow Friday 56ers! 

For this week's Friday 56 pick, hosted by My Head is Full of Books, I am featuring the 2009 Western novel The Loner by J.A. Johnstone. It is the first book in The Loner series and a spinoff of The Last Gunfighter series by William W. Johnstone, who passed away in 2004. William was the sole credited author until the 12th book, after which Fred Austin finished writing Savage Country, the 13th entry. The rest of the series credits J.A. Johnstone as a co-author, with later installments including a Publisher's Note explaining how the family estate selected authors to complete William Johnstone’s unfinished works and create new ones. I’m curious about the niece's involvement in this process. Could someone with more knowledge clarify this for me?

The hero of The Last Gunfighter series is Frank "The Drifter" Morgan, whose name is feared throughout the West due to his deadly gun skills. He has an adult son named Conrad Browning. You might wonder why they have different last names: Conrad's mother remarried, and he took his stepfather's name. Conrad has a complicated relationship with his birth father. Then Frank Morgan reappeared years later, shortly before leaving to avenge Conrad's mother's death. Conrad has inherited an empire from his mother, including railroads and banks. Unlike Frank, he is a businessman and is newly married to the spirited Rebel. This is where the spinoff, The Loner, begins, being the first of fifteen books in the series. 

Now, here’s a preview from page 56:

A knock on the front door as he stood there contemplating the bloodstain made him jerk around. His long legs carried him quickly to the door. He had to force himself not to run.

— Johnstone, J.A. The Loner, Pinnacle, 2009, p. 56.

While the back cover blurb somewhat spoils the shocking event that leads Conrad to fake his death, don a gun belt, and adopt the name The Loner, a Western review blog has already spoiled it for me. And I'm going to spoil this for everyone... here it goes: Rebel dies! Although I haven’t read that far into the book yet, I know she is kidnapped and murdered, which leads Conrad to become a deadly, drifting gunfighter seeking revenge. I've found a few books in the series locally through thrifting, but I recently ordered most of them from one eBay seller, and I'm expecting the last three books from a different seller soon. While I don’t own all the books in The Last Gunfighter series, the last one I read, Ambush Valley, which I reviewed here, takes place right before The Loner. This has made me seek out and read the entire Loner series.

〜B.J. Burgess