Ebook Higher Ground Audible Audio Edition McKendree Long J Rodney Turner Outlaws Publishing LLC Books

Product details Audible Audiobook Listening Length 7 hours and 10 minutes Program Type Audiobook Version Unabridged Publisher Outlaws Publishing LLC Audible.com Release Date May 29, 2017 Whispersync for Voice Ready Language English, English ASIN B072PSD93K

Higher Ground Audible Audio Edition McKendree Long J Rodney Turner Outlaws Publishing LLC Books Reviews

• In 1870, we meet up with Boss Melton and Dobey Walls during a trip to Kansas where, intent on vengeance, they are on the trail of a man named Penn. Penn and Red are the two remaining survivors of a gang of six white men who raped Dobey’s wife and killed her mother, Boss’s wife. The hunt takes Dobey and Boss to Hays, Kansas, where they are in the right place at the right time to save Wild Bill Hickok’s life. The men then head for Abilene on the train, still intent on killing Penn. Big William, left behind to tend the wagon and horses, creates two fake graves for Dobey and Boss at Boot Hill, hoping to head off the Pinkerton agents, who are still on their trail for the theft of the Yankee payroll just after the war.
  
  Those who have read McKendree Long’s first two novels will recognize these characters and events, and will once again have the opportunity to visit with such old friends as the Watsons in Santa Fe, Dobey’s mother, and Count Baranov. From the daily adventures of the men, to an edge-of-your-seat, blow-by-blow account of the Battle of Little Big Horn, (aka Custer’s Last Stand), the author combines his wonderful talent for storytelling with in-depth historical research, placing the reader right beside these men in their final days.
  
  Long’s ability to represent the vernacular of the time and his clear-eyed vision of the historical events leading up to Little Big Horn, will enthrall as well as educate.
  
  Walls and Melton embody the best of human values, exemplified through the valor of their actions, their honesty, and their determination to fight for what they believe to be just and right. These men leap off the page, remaining memorable long after the reader finishes the book.
  
  But above all, this is the story of men who meet and become friends, and whose characters are shaped by a series of dramatic historical events that defined our country.
  
  This novel goes beyond the typically simplistic view of the Civil War, delving into the divided loyalties of the homesteaders in the American West who found their families and friends fighting on opposite sides of the war. Long accurately portrays the dangers and shifting alliances of the Old West during the war, exposing the reader to a very different view of the war’s effects on the western states.
  
  "No Good Like It Is," "Dog Soldier Moon," and "Higher Ground" create an award-winning trilogy of stories about the Civil War-era Western frontier that will leave readers feeling as if they spent many a pleasant hour with a cast of admirable and memorable characters who tell of their adventures and journeys.
• I love the way this author words his narratives.Also like that Doby and Boss don't spend all their energy mentally wringing their hands and agonizing about doing what has to be done.I have read all three books in this series,and enjoyed the way Mr.Long describes the various firearms,and the fact that his characters use more than just their "sixgun"or their "Winchester" or "long gun" or some simple deriviative all too commonly used by most western writers.Weapons being such a featured part of western lore,they should be presented more in the manner as here.Terrain description,character development,situational language all blend together to make for a very fast enjoyable read.would highly recommend to lovers of western books.
• I enjoyed all three books. This one completed the story and threw in some history, weaving an entertaining and exciting saga.
• Higher Ground is the third book of author McKendree Long's Western trilogy featuring ex-Confederate soldiers "Dobey" Walls and Jimmy "Boss" Melton. Unfortunately, in Higher Ground Long appears to have run out of things for his heroes to do, other than a desultory quest for revenge that mostly takes place outside the actual events detailed in the book, much of which is taken up by an extended description of the battle of Little Big Horn. Along the way Dobey and Boss meet some famous Western figures such as "Bat" Masterson and Wild Bill Hickok; there's also a thinly-disguised reworking of the Gunfight at the OK Corral, in which some of Dobey and Boss's comrades stand in for the Earps and Doc Holliday.
  
  The book's point of view jumps around so much that Long resorts to beginning each scene by naming the viewpoint character, something he didn't do in the first two books. He also introduces a new character late in the book to act as a first-person narrator, and this jarred me out of my immersion in the story.
  
  Long would probably have been better served in telling the story of Dobey and Boss in a single volume focusing on their Civil War service and their homecoming, with the revenge plot played out over the last few chapters, rather than extended into two additional books. The events leading up to Little Big Horn, as detailed in the last two books from the POV of both the Native American tribes and the US Army, probably could have been handled in a single volume without the presence of Dobey or Boss at all. This third volume, although it contains wonderful examples of Long's good bantering dialog, amounts to little more than padding, with Dobey and Boss relegated to occasional characters who play no key role in the plot.
• Moved the trilogy along quite well.
• A totally self-serving book.
• The final triplet in author McKendree Long’s captivating multi-book western saga is wonderful, but sorrowful. On its own merit, ‘Higher Ground’ is another masterfully told tale by Mr. Long, but the reader hates to see the tale end.
  And the reader is additionally treated to a seat-gripping, bullet-by-bullet and arrow-after-arrow account of The Battle of Little Big Horn - aka, Custer’s Last Stand.
  
  I’ve said it before, and I’l repeat author Mike Long’s dialogue is a gift. Here’s a sample
  
  The young Indian woman pointed. “Why does he wear his shirt backward?”
  "Man of the cloth,” Boye said, frowning. He spat.
  “Priest of some sort,” said Dobey. “It’s how they dress.”
  “Might be Catholic or Epistithalian,” said Melton. “We seen a Catholic one in South Carolina. Stopped him ‘cause he looked like he’d been fighting. Said he stood up from sitting on a toilet, hit his head and had to bandage it.”
  Everyone stared at the priest. “What’s a toilet?” the Indian asked.
  Melton shrugged. “Hell, child, I don’t know. I ain’t Catholic."