Hello, fellow Friday 56ers! 

You might be wondering where this week's Friday 56 is. Here’s what happened: Anne @ My Head is Full of Books, the usual host of Friday 56, has teamed up with Olivia @ Bemused and Bookish, who has taken over the weekly meme, The Book Beginnings. They have combined the two memes into what is now called Friday Book Snippets. The rules remain basically the same: feature a snippet from the beginning of a book for Book Beginnings and share a line or lines from page 56 or any other page for the Friday 56.

I'm featuring my current read, The Gunsmith: Skinwalker by J.R. Roberts. This book is the latest installment in the series, number 497 to be exact. The Gunsmith is the last of the adult Westerns from the 1980s that is still ongoing. J.R. Roberts was a pen name for the late author Robert J. Randisi. After Randisi died in 2024, his stepson Marcus Pelegrimas took over to finish the series. The protagonist, ex-lawman Clint Adams, often finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s skilled with a gun, feared by villains, and adored by saloon women. You could think of him as James Bond in the Wild West.

In this book, Clint encounters an injured man who claims to have been attacked by a large wolf. After helping the man, Clint returns to the scene of the crime to hunt the beast but ends up being attacked himself. It soon becomes clear that the creature is not a wolf at all. A local Navajo medicine man identifies it as a shapeshifting creature known as a skinwalker. Clint agrees to help track down the monster before it can claim more victims.

Hello, fellow Friday 56ers! 

I don't know if anyone noticed, but I took a two-week hiatus from participating in the Friday 56 weekly bookish meme. There was a specific reason for it, but I won’t go into detail due to personal reasons. I initially planned not to participate this week either, but out of the blue, I received an email from an author thanking me for featuring her books in a past Friday 56 post. This inspired me to return.

For this week's Friday 56 pick, hosted by My Head is Full of Books, I am featuring Six-Horse Hitch by Janice Holt Giles (1905-1979). I'm not sure if I've featured this book before. For those who may not remember, I had a now-defunct, short-lived Western-themed blog where I might have highlighted this book. However, I don't have a photo of it, which makes me think I likely featured another title by the author instead. Taking a good shot of the cover with my phone was surprisingly difficult, but I managed to get one, which you can find below in this post.

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. 

Hello, fellow Friday 56ers! 

For this week's Friday 56 pick, hosted by My Head is Full of Books, I am featuring the thriller Backtrack by Marc Cameron. It's the eighth book in the Arliss Cutter series.

Now, here’s a preview from page 56:

Cutter stifled a grin. "I told you she was a monster—"

— Cameron, Marc. Backtrack, Kensington, 2026, p. 56.

This book marks the first time I've read an installment in the Arliss Cutter series, even though I believe I own a couple of books from the series that I picked up as paperbacks at a dollar store or thrift shop. I have read a few of the Tom Clancy novels that Marc Cameron has contributed to, and I've been eager to explore his solo works. So, I'm excited to read Backtrack over the weekend, with my review planned for August 17. 

Hello, fellow Friday 56ers! 

For this week's Friday 56 pick, hosted by My Head is Full of Books, I am featuring the thriller You'll Be Sorry by Lisa Gardner. 

Her father had been one stubborn bastard. 

— Gardner, Lisa. You'll Be Sorry, Grand Central, 2026, p. 56.

Grand Central Publishing kindly sent me an ARC of a new book, which I plan to start either tonight or early tomorrow morning. I only have a few pages left in my current read, which is a Western, and once I finish it, I'll move on to You'll Be Sorry.