Blog Archives
Take Drastic Measures
Rough, Rough Country follows a former Army Ranger as he tries to rebuild his family’s outfitting business, only to be pulled back into a brutal fight with a cartel boss whose obsession threatens everything he loves. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Rough, Rough Country is the second novel about Graham. It takes place roughly eight months after No Easy Way Back where Graham returns to Utah when his older brother is framed for murder by Greg Langston. Graham’s pursuit of the truth to clear his brother’s name forces Langston to take drastic measures and call in the cartel whose money he manages (and then loses) through his real estate empire is the motivation of the cartel to strike back against Hayes.
The Utah setting gives the novel a rugged, lived-in atmosphere. What drew you to Payson and the surrounding mountain country as the heart of this story?
I’m a third generation Utahan and was raised in Payson like both of my parents were in addition to my grandfather. My friends and I drove the backroads and up the canyon multiple times a week to go fishing or simply explore. The mountain country is the beating heart of my story because its a huge part of who I am. Those roads Graham Hayes drives? Those are my memories.
Graham Hayes is highly trained and dangerous, but his family ties keep him grounded. How did you balance his tactical competence with his emotional vulnerability?
The thriller genre is full of characters who are power fantasies who kill by the hundreds and always know exactly what to say and never doubt themselves. In my own life I’ve known people who have served in the special forces, as US Marshals, etc and they’re all people like anyone else with their own quirks and demons. I strive to write people rather than tropes.
The novel blends family drama, military brotherhood, small-town legacy, and cartel violence. Which part of that mix came first for you: the character, the setting, or the conflict?
The setting for sure. I grew up wandering the foothills and imagining stories that could happen in the places I went fishing and camping with my family and things like that. There’s not many thrillers out there with Utah as a setting, so I think it’s a ton of fun to explore the underutilized place for my books.
Author Links: GoodReads | X | Instagram
Graham Hayes is trying to build a life in Utah. He spends his days struggling to restart his father’s outfitter business and looking over his shoulder, waiting for inevitable retribution from a cartel kingpin known only as Montezuma.
When a mysterious stranger arrives in town, Graham calls in Luis Romero — a fellow former Army Ranger and one of the few men he trusts.
After a gunfight in the mountains, Graham knows his family won’t be safe, and he won’t be free, until Montezuma is dead.
The two friends set off on a brutal journey through the underworld, outnumbered and outgunned. But as Luis confronts the ghosts of his past and Graham’s crusade grows more desperate, both men are pushed to the limits of their bodies, their minds, and their souls.
The High Country Frontier continues in this explosive follow-up to the 2025 BIBA Award–winning thriller No Easy Way Back.
Rough, Rough Country
Josh Jensen’s Rough, Rough Country is a hard-charging action thriller with a strong neo-Western spine. Graham Hayes, a former Army Ranger and recon operator, is trying to rebuild his family’s outfitting business in Payson, Utah, while knowing that old violence is still circling him. The book opens with mountain mornings, family dinners, dogs, firearms, and unfinished grief, then steadily pulls Graham back into a fight with a cartel boss who has turned obsession into strategy.
What gives the novel its pull is how grounded Graham feels even when the action gets big. He’s highly trained, dangerous, and watchful, but Jensen doesn’t let him become just a weapon in boots. His bond with his mother, brother Colt, niece Lily, and longtime friend Luis gives the story emotional weight. The family scenes give the book a lived-in warmth that makes Graham’s dangerous world feel personal instead of just action-driven.
The action is sharp, tactical, and easy to visualize. Jensen writes firefights, ambushes, escapes, and close-quarters violence with a clear sense of space, which keeps the bigger set pieces from turning muddy. The Mexico sections, especially Graham and Luis moving through cartel territory and relying on instinct, training, and each other, give the book a larger scope without losing the personal stakes. The line “The shooter is way more important than the gun, kid” neatly captures the novel’s practical, old-school attitude toward skill, discipline, and survival.
Luis is one of the book’s strongest assets. He brings humor, loyalty, and an emotional openness that balances Graham’s guarded nature. Derek, also known as D-Mac, adds a different kind of competence, and his shift from tech support to being pulled closer to the danger gives the back half of the story a fun change in energy. The villains have a mythic, decaying-cartel quality, especially Montezuma, whose rituals and paranoia make him feel less like a simple criminal and more like the rotten center of a collapsing world.
Rough, Rough Country is a confident, fast-moving thriller about legacy, brotherhood, trauma, and the cost of being the person everyone calls when things go bad. Jensen blends small-town Utah, military brotherhood, cartel violence, and family history into a story that feels both rugged and personal. It’s the kind of book where the quiet scenes matter because they show what the violence is protecting, and that gives the gunfire more than just noise.
Pages: 355 | ASIN: B0GYPLXB6T
