Death Rides the Rails
By R. G. Yoho
White Feather Press, Hamilton, MI

Reviewed by Keith Jones

“Death Rides the Rails” is a Western of the old style like Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey once wrote. Yoho’s style and storytelling will transport you to an earlier time when Westerns were fun to read; a time before Western novels and movies became laboratories for social experiment and change full of apologies for the American way and sexually confused cowboys.

This book, the second in the Kellen Malone Adventure series, takes us on an exciting train trip across the country with Malone who has been recruited by his old army commander Jerome Langston who is now a presidential aide to protect President Grover Cleveland. Recent Cleveland policies threaten the fortunes of powerful men who wish to protect lands they acquired through questionable means. These individuals are not going to allow this without a fight. The fight they plan is a literal one in which they hatch a conspiracy against Cleveland’s life.

Malone assembles a team of colorful characters from his past. Gunfighter Joe “Skull” Clements and lawman Gain Carson fight by Malone’s side through attempt after attempt as they head westward across the plains.

If you are looking for a good old fashioned John Wayne styled Western, R. G. Yoho’s “Death Rides the Rails” is sure to entertain you.