Mountain Man Books In Order

Publication Order of Mountain Man Books

Publication Order of The First Mountain Man Books

Publication Order of Matt Jensen: The Last Mountain Man Books

Publication Order of The Family Jensen Books

Mountain Man is a series of historical fiction novels written by an all-time bestselling American author of historical fiction, horror, mysteries and thriller novels, William W. Johnstone.

Born William Wallace Johnstone in 1938, he was the youngest of four siblings raised in southern Missouri. His dad worked as a minister while his mother was a school teacher. But Johnstone quit school when he was 15 and worked in a carnival and also as a deputy sheriff. Later, Johnstone served in the military and upon resuming civilian life, he embarked on a radio broadcasting career for the next one and half decades. The author began writing in 1970, but none of his works was published until 1979 when The Devils Kiss was published. Johnstone switched to full time writing in 1980 and authored closed to two hundred novels in different genres including, horror, suspense, westerns and men’s adventure.

His main publication series were The First Mountain Man, Mountain Man, Eagles, Ashes and his own preferred novel was The Last of the Dog Team published in 1980. Johnstone also wrote two books under the house name William Mason. Johnstone lived most of his life in Shreveport, Louisiana and yet died in Knoxville, TN aged 65. His death remained unconfirmed for several years and was subject to various debates on his website forums. No official statements were issued but in a 2006 release of the Last Gunfighter: Devil’s Legion- on its copyright section, confirmed that he Johnstone had died. Some of Mountain Man series were published posthumously by J.A. Johnstone.

The Last Mountain Man

The Last Mountain Man is the first book in Mountain Man series by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone. It is the story of a daring and ambitious young man with desires to travel across the world on some great and epic adventures. He leaves his beloved family behind and sets on a course to pursue his life’s greatest dreams.
However, his journey of adventures is not as smooth as he thinks and he encounters struggles of venturing into strange and unknown territories. The villainous Indian and white men also confront him along the way and all these both bad and good experiences bring him into the harsh truth that- in the frontier, a man has to do whatever it takes in order to survive.

The mountain man flees for safety in the Rocky Mountains wilderness where he lives for a while mastering skills that are essential for his survival. Fortunately, his training makes him become a survivor known as the Preacher, a man feared by other men and adored by his fans in equal measure.

As a preacher, he is highly skilled, and at one point the author describes him as the only man with the talents to lead a wagon train full of pilgrims on the Oregon Trail. Once assigned to this task. However, he will have to go through the ruthless Indian gangs willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that they capture anything that finds itself in their territory. William W. Johnstone tactfully takes his protagonist through an endless list of challenges in an effort to illustrate the readers the problems that the frontiersmen faced in these areas. The Last Mountain Man provides a genuine appreciation of who the mountain men were and the struggles that they had to undergo each day for the sake of survival and a better tomorrow. Additionally, the story also offers the readers a glimpse of various interesting facts of the Oregon wilderness.

Return of the Mountain Man

The preacher and other of his mountain men friends have been friends for over two decades, and all these men are in the 70’s or more and several of them have cancer. Then there is Smoke, a young boy who was raised by Preacher who real name was Art. The Preacher instilled into his adopted son everything he knew, how to respect nature, how to love, how to shoot, how to fight and as well as how to hunt.

The setting of this second novel in the series is the West, a place where you can travel for weeks without seeing another living soul and because of this it is very easy for the outlaws to escape from the authorities. The main character in this second book is Smoke Jenson- the adopted son of the Preacher- a young man set for revenge. Three men Potter, Richards, and Stratton, set together with a gang and set a plan to kill Smoke, but instead, they ended murdering Smoke’s immediate family and left him alive. The only reason these men left Smoke alive is to provoke him to hunt them. When Smoke sets out for vengeance, he comes across some old mountain men that believe in fighting to the end for Smoke.

Most of the other characters that play a leading role in this story are the other mountain men. Their personalities are some of the distinct and entertaining you will ever experience as a fan of historical fiction/westerns novels. They are aware of everything there is to know about the wilderness, but they know very little about the society and have their own sort of justice system and their own sense of what is wrong and right.

The author gives a detailed narration of every aspect of the story- for example, there is an in-depth about all of Smoke’s gunfights and his adventures. Johnstone also captured his characters personalities perfectly a sign of proof that he was truly experienced in the Wild West. One of the biggest ideas of this story is that a man has to break his own Broncos and kill his own rattlers- in other words, this means that in the west there is very little to no law, so you have to be prepared to fend for yourself or lest you die. This is the idea that brings the Wild West to life and makes the entire people in the story, and the setting of the story seems a little bit wilder and untamed. There is plenty of gore and violence, action and lots of adventure, some vivid setting, well-woven characters and captivating plots.

One Response to “Mountain Man”

1. Mark Epperson: 1 year ago

   I love your novels. All of your westerns are riveting. I can’t stop reading them.
   Is there a way to get 1 new book each month?
   Thank you,
   Mark Epperson

   Reply