The Beginning

An epic account of a boy born into a struggle for survival on the harsh and unforgiving American frontier from the greatest Western writer of the century.On the eve of the Civil War, Kirby Jensen is the youngest of three children living on a hardscrabble ranch in Southwestern Missouri. But in 1861, shots are fired in Charleston harbor, and Kirby’s father and brother go to war.  Smoke The Beginning  follows the Jensen clan during these volatile years, from Civil War battles to border state raids to the kind of frontier justice achieved only by bullets and blood. William W. Johnstone chronicles the early years of Kirby Jensen—soon to be nicknamed Smoke—as he journeys from boyhood innocence into a manhood shaped by violence and a young man’s thirst for justice. Filled with actual historical events and legendary characters, the story of Smoke Jensen’s early years is a powerful, brutal and amazing American saga—the crowning achievement of America’s most popular living Western writer.  Praise for the novels of William W. Johnstone “For most fans of the Western genre, there isn’t a bet much surer than a book bearing the name Johnstone.”— True West “[A] rousing, two-fisted saga of the growing American frontier.”— Publishers Weekly on Eyes of Eagles “There’s plenty of gunplay and fast-paced action as this old-time hero proves again that a steady eye and quick reflexes are the keys to survival on the Western frontier.”— Curled Up with a Good Book on Dead Before Sundown