Reviews
Johnny D. Boggs
Nine-Time Spur Award Winner
Winner of the Western Heritage Wrangler Award
Longhorns East
Return to Red River
Saddlebag Dispatches: “With this revisiting of the classic movie, the author proves yet again why he is the modern master of the western genre. The plot spins and bucks more than a rodeo bull and leaves the reader gasping for breath long after the final page.”
A Thousand Texas Longhorns
Roundup Magazine: “The reality of the constant, exhaustive work, the unknown dangers and the endless suffering that the conglomeration of men and women endure keeps the reader constantly wondering what unexpected catastrophe will come along next. Boggs did his homework, and it shows in the varying backgrounds of the characters and the hazardous reality of life on the trail.”
Hard Winter
Publishers Weekly: “With hardly a shot fired, Spur Award-winner Boggs delivers one of his best westerns. … Boggs has produced a tender and suspenseful western that doesn’t need to rely on gun smoke.”
Booklist: “The prolific Boggs turns in another solid western. … the characters are well drawn and engaging, and the final section … is gripping.”
Roundup: “Boggs’ warm, comfortable style brims with tight description and dialogue rich in understated humor in this moving novel of a man’s youth ….”
Rio Chama
Roundup: “This is not a simple Western …. His familiarity with the landscape — he lives near Santa Fe — is a definite advantage as he puts the reader right into New Mexico and particularly through the rugged landscape along the Río Chama. And while this may seem to be a fairly traditional Western, the conclusion is anything but. Another good read.”
Soldier's Farewell
New Mexico Magazine: “Following or betraying one’s loyalties and duties — and the consequences of such choices — lie at the heart of this well-paced, action-filled, and surprisingly affecting story of the West.”
Booklist: “Boggs … showcases his talent for period detail, atmosphere, complex characters, and the ability to evoke a stark landscape.”
Tucson Weekly: “This is another fine novel by one of today’s better writers of Westerns.”
Killstraight
Tony Hillerman: “Johnny Boggs has produced another instant page-turner … don’t put down the book until you finish it.
Publishers Weekly: “… the relationships and setting shine: Daniel — striving at once to solve the case and reconnect with Comanche ways — is a complex, winning protagonist.”
Booklist: “This is a rousing story with an emotional and philosophical depth that will surprise readers who don’t expect complexity from a western. Genre veteran Boggs also explores the clash between white and native cultures, presenting them as both fundamentally different and strikingly similar.”
Tucson Weekly: “… it takes a skilled author like Johnny D. Boggs to drive the genre into new literary railheads, as he does in his novel Killstraight.”
Doubtful Canon
Publishers Weekly: “Boggs’s quirky western doesn’t take itself too seriously, making this a fanciful and fun ride into some dangerous business.”
Santa Fe New Mexican: “Boggs delivers a colorful, clever and arresting tale.”
The Tombstone Epitaph: “uses its non-serious side to appeal to younger readers …. well-flavored tale ….”
Northfield
Publishers Weekly: “lively and entertaining …. a vibrant retelling of the Old West’s most notorious and deadly bank robbery flop.”
The Denver Post: “a fast-moving and strangely poignant tale that never pauses to rest.”
Roundup: “This book stands head and shoulders above others of its kind.”
Booklist: “The kaleidoscopic effect pays handsome rewards, fueling the action from all vantage points in concise, frenetic bursts that might even leave you feeling a mite poorly for those doomed outlaws.”
The Hart Brand
True West: “Though an ocean away, Kidnapped and Treasure Island come to mind when reading this Western; Boggs’ tale nearly matches the quality of those written by Stevenson.”
Santa Fe New Mexico: “Some consider William Dale Jennings’ The Cowboys the best Western coming-of-age novel. Others would argue it’s All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy or When the Legends Die by Hal Borland. With The Hart Brand, Boggs stakes his own firm claim in this unique literary territory.”
Walk Proud, Stand Tall
The Denver Post: “The author’s deft hand at characterization and the subtle way he fills in the blanks as the story progresses makes ‘Walk Proud, Stand Tall’ a tender story hard to resist.”
Santa Fe New Mexican: “Boggs deftly balances the bitter and the sweet, the harsh landscapes and the humanity. That he manages it entertainingly is our reward.”
Ghost Legion
Charleston Post and Courier: “‘Ghost Legion’ delivers this timely reminder: Even in “good” wars, neither side holds a monopoly on good — or bad — folks.”
Booklist: “Boggs, who writes with a finely honed sense of character and a keen eye for detail, combines historical fact with fiction to create a Revolutionary adventure from the vantage point of an average participant.”
Camp Ford
Booklist: “Boggs’ carefully researched novel boasts meticulously drawn characters and captures in a striking way the amazing changes America underwent during the span of one man’s life. An unusual, very rich western that should attract not only genre readers but also baseball fans and Civil War buffs.”
USA Today Sports Weekly: “As baseball stories go, Camp Ford by Johnny D. Boggs is a home run. … Think The Longest Yard … about baseball and without the glamour. … timeless.”
East of the Border
The Denver Post: “This is an amusing glimpse at a decidedly different side of some of the Old West’s most famous names.”
Roundup: “We need more books like East of the Border.”
True West: “East of the Border is a fun, lighthearted look at the thespian deep within every cowboy.”
The Shootist: “Boggs takes the historical facts … and gives us a fascinating tale of West meets East.”
Dark Voyage of the Mittie Stephens
Booklist: “… delightful entertainment, which combines elements of the traditional western with an Orient Express-style whodunit and a Titanic-like romance.”
Roundup: “Based on a real disaster aboard the Mittie Stephens, this novel supplies suspense, a love story, betrayal, loyalty, bravery, and deceit wrapped up in a tight plot supported by wonderful, three dimensional characters and a sense of place that evokes the smell of burning cotton bales and the screams of terrified passengers.”
Purgatoire
Booklist: “Spur Award-winner Boggs takes a common western plot – old gunslinger > looking for redemption – and injects it with genuine humanity. Solid fare from a reliable genre veteran.”
The Shootist: “Boggs is unparalleled in evoking the gritty reality of the Old West, whether it’s the three-dimensionality of the characters or the look, sound and smell of the muddy streets and smoke-filled saloons.”
True West: “Johnny D. Boggs deftly charts the dual resurrection of a dying Colorado town and a perishing breed of man.”
Spark on the Prairie
Roundup: “Brilliant.”
Persimmon Hill: “Stunning.”
True West: “This … continues a long needed look at those who brought law and order to the frontier — not with six-guns but with law books.”
American Cowboy: “… a finely crafted historical novel with fully developed characters playing out their lives against the backdrop of early Texas settlement.”
The Big Fifty
Jackie Boggs, Johnny’s mother: “While I was reading THE BIG FIFTY sometimes I would forget ‘my favorite son’ had written it.”
Cowboy Chronicle: “Johnny D. Boggs has a keen ability to interlace historically accurate information amid a cast of well descriptive characters and circumstances.”
Roundup: “A fine novel that will leave you with the taste of grit in your mouth, and the smell of spoiled buffalo carcasses in your nose.”
Law of the Land
Robert Nott, Pasatiempo: “Great storytelling. … Boggs manages to capture the entirety of the Kid’s life with just the right balance of fact and fiction. The characters seem like people you know, even though they lived and died more than 100 years ago.”
The Shootist: “It is an engrossing story, and is told with Boggs’ meticulous attention to authentic detail and believable characterizations. If his characters, including the Kid, don’t look like, sound like, and behave like Boggs describes them, they should have.”
True West: “Boggs’ unique approach to the Lincoln County War’s legal skirmishing is both eye-opening and memorable.”
Southwest BookViews: “Making bad guys into sympathetic characters is not the easiest feat but Boggs succeeds.”
The Lonesome Chisholm Trail
Booklist: “Boggs is among the best western writers at work today. He writes with depth, flavor, and color, all of which are evident in this right-of-passage tale. …Boggs tells the familiar story with authenticity and power.”
Roundup: “Realistic dialogue, a little humor to lighten up the dramatic tension, a strong plot, and a sense of place that leaves one sneezing from the dust makes for one of Boggs’s best novels. “
The Despoilers
True West: “Boggs’ historical asides are aided by a narrative style that drive the story along full gallop.”
Roundup: “Boggs has once more written a humdinger of a book with wonderful characters, even the villains. The Despoilers tears at one’s heart, which is what really
good fiction should do.”
The Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier: “Johnny D. Boggs tells a crisply powerful story that rings true more than two centuries after the bloody business was done.”
