Rating: 
Summary: MAKES YOU WANT MORE LEONARD!!!!
Review: Dave Flynn is sent to bring the Apache Soldado Viejo out of Mexico and to Arizona. He is ordered to take a new Lt., R D Bowers wtih him. Viejo will be hard to find and harder to bring back. They are sent by Colonel Deneen. He has a grudge against Flynn from years ago. They are aided by Joe Madora, a scout friend of Flynns. Besides Viejo they run into Curt Lazair, a scalp hunter. He takes Mexican scalps and swears they are Apache, in order to get the bounty. There is also a crooked Lt. with soldiers under his command. This Lt. is buying the scalps from Lazair. It all comes together pretty quickly at the end. Does Bowers come through? Will Flynn and company find Viejo and Lazair? What finally happenes to Deneen? The book is fairly fast moving, it will hold your attention. If you like a western with a lot of gun fights, Indians and good and bad Mexicans, you will like this.
Rating:
Summary: MAKES YOU WANT MORE LEONARD!!!!
Review: Dave Flynn is sent to bring the Apache Soldado Viejo out of Mexico and to Arizona. He is ordered to take a new Lt., R D Bowers wtih him. Viejo will be hard to find and harder to bring back. They are sent by Colonel Deneen. He has a grudge against Flynn from years ago. They are aided by Joe Madora, a scout friend of Flynns. Besides Viejo they run into Curt Lazair, a scalp hunter. He takes Mexican scalps and swears they are Apache, in order to get the bounty. There is also a crooked Lt. with soldiers under his command. This Lt. is buying the scalps from Lazair. It all comes together pretty quickly at the end. Does Bowers come through? Will Flynn and company find Viejo and Lazair? What finally happenes to Deneen? The book is fairly fast moving, it will hold your attention. If you like a western with a lot of gun fights, Indians and good and bad Mexicans, you will like this.
Rating:
Summary: Leonard's early books almost equal his latest
Review: Elmore Leonard is an interesting author. He's been around since the '50s (the first book in the collection, The Bounty Hunters, was originally published in 1953) and is still as hip and cool as ever. He's also probably had more of his books turned into movies than any other man alive: at least six by my count, and I'm sure I'm missing some. This book is a collection of three of his earlier westerns, the above mentioned The Bounty Hunters, and Forty Lashes Less One and Gunsights. All three novels are recognisably Leonard: you could almost tell who wrote them without reading the author's name on the cover.The Bounty Hunters has a typical Leonard plot. A cavalry scout and a green US army Lieutenant are sent into Mexico, incognito, to capture a renegade Apache. Complications set in when corrupt Rurales (local Mexican police), a group of angry local villagers, and the title group of bounty hunters (whites who kill Apaches for cash from the Mexican Government) all collide with our two heroes. The one part where this novel fell a bit short for me was in the mild language. In the '50s, Leonard couldn't use profanity or obscenity, and it rings a bit false now. Forty Lashes Less One is a prison break novel. It's only sort of a Western, being set in 1909, but only the appearance of an automobile breaks the landscape of what would otherwise be a Western. Two convicts, one black, the other an American Indian, are thrown together, first to fight, later as allies, by circumstances beyond their control in a brutal prison in the desert Southwest. Various groups are competing for various things, with a guard who peeks at the women prisoners, a prisoner who pretty much runs the place---he thinks, a new prison warden who wants to redeem those under his charge, and various prisoners scheming to escape, of course. It takes a bit to get going, but the payoff is worth the wait. Gunsights is about a range war. It's the typical story: the people on the land don't own it, and the land owners don't want them to stay. What makes the story interesting is that the author manages to maneuver two good friends into opposite sides of the fight. Things are reminiscent of The Bounty Hunters; one of the friends is a former army scout, the other's a retired cavalry officer. There are various factions with different agendas wandering through the story: the two men kill several people early on, and spend half the book fighting off their relatives later. The story has a fun and workmanlike progress to it, and you almost can see the ending coming. All three of these novels are short, all three are good, all three are worth reading. I would recommend this especially for a long plane ride or a short weekend vacation: great escapist reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Early Elmore
Review: Elmore Leonard's 'The Bounty Hunters' is one of his first novels. As a western, it is a great tale of cowboys and Indians. Dave Flynn is a former soldier that has an ongoing dislike for a superior officer. This officer sends Flynn and a young lieutenant named Bowers into Mexico to track down Saldado, a rogue apache. From there, 'The Bounty Hunters' unfolds into an expansive western adventure.
Not only do Flynn and Bowers have to track down Saldado, they have to look over their shoulders for Frank Rellis, who Flynn showed up in the bar back in the States. Before Rellis left town, he shot one of Flynn's friends. As they venture into Mexico, they discover a scalper that is taking more than Apache scalps for bounties awarded in the village of Soyopa. Speaking of the village, it has its own problems with a missing family and a corrupt government. Along the way, Flynn finds a love interest.
This book is classic Leonard. It introduces many of the hallmarks that make Leonard novels so enjoyable. It also introduces some of the stock character types (the bad guy that isn't all there, his henchman that makes a turn for the good, the sidekick that comes into his own, etc.). The dialogue is also first rate, although some of the conversation about the apache is a bit generic. My only disappointment came in some of the action scenes that were not really clear as to what was happening.
I recommend this novel for any Leonard fan or fans of Westerns. Its good reading for a plane ride or if you are in need of something to do on a lazy afternoon. When you're done, check out Leonard's crime work.
Rating:
Summary: Good Bye
Review: Forty Lashes Less One is a great story. Two prisoners, Chiricahua Raymond San Carlos and a black man Harold Jackson are in Yuma prison for murder. At first they are bitter enemies but the warden puts them in an experiment to see if a training routine of long distance running can be used for rehabilatation. And then the warden sends them after 5 mean dangerous men. The trail is rough and bloody but they are sucessfull. As soon as they bring these men in they tell the warden to kiss !!! . A great story, you'll love it.
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Summary: A thrilling, highly recommended story of the Old West!
Review: Gunsights is a classic western story of an Arizona land war where two frontier deadly gunfighters and feuding best friends find themselves on opposing sides. Elmore Leonard is a consummate storyteller and this abridged, 90 minute audiobook production is superbly narrated by Peter Renaday providing western buffs with a thrilling, totally engaging, very highly recommended story of the Old West.
Rating:
Summary: Can't get the drop on Elmore Leonard out West...
Review: I have a problem. I came to the Western recently, sort of as an accident after getting involved in single-action revolver shooting. I started with L'Amour, as perhaps most newcomers do, because he's so well known and has so many titles out there. I read a few; they're good, solid 3-star books. Then a friend says: "Elmore Leonard wrote mysteries. Read them. Start with Valdez is Coming". So I did, then with Hombre, and now with Gunsights.
Gunsights is a "land war" Western with several twists; it's really a buddy story where the pals, tough gunfighters of different temperaments who've been through a lot together, end up on opposite sides of the war later on in their careers. They work it out.
The narrative shifts points of view and provides the backstory in flashbacks during the main thread of the tale; this is handled very well by Leonard, as is his use of newspapermen covering the "war"; which gives a "late West" flavor that lends a sense of irony sometimes. The narrative structure is very different than "Valdez is Coming" or "Hombre", but is very effective.
But Leonard's genius is in the way he lets the story speak through the characters' words and actions. He eschews all of the internal soliloquies in the protagonists thoughts that are usually only an author's way of making heavy-handed points. This seems uncommon in this genre. He lacks utterly the unrealistic sentimentality of L'Amour (and many other Western writers better than L'Amour, such as Elmer Kelton), and yet his stories are not dark, and often have strong moral points to make. But they are integral to the action of the story itself, which is the thing.
My problem? Where do I find someone as good in this genre when I'm done with Elmore Leonard?
Rating:
Summary: Elmore Leonard is a master at Western stories
Review: I have gotten hooked on Leonard's earlier works. His sense of timing and character development are excellent. He is a great story teller. His subject matter is always plausible. He takes average everyday people and makes them interesting characters.
Rating:
Summary: Elmore Leonard is a master at Western stories
Review: I have gotten hooked on Leonard's earlier works. His sense of timing and character development are excellent. He is a great story teller. His subject matter is always plausible. He takes average everyday people and makes them interesting characters.
Rating:
Summary: Mighty Fine read...
Review: In general I do not read Elmore Leonard. So I approached this book w/some tepidation.Not to worry... 2 old friends wind up on opposite sides when a mining company wants to run some landowners off their property. Sure it's a standard western plot, but it comes alive in Leonard's capable hands. More details about the plot can be garnered from other reviews. The book has a feeling of great authenticity. The lead characters are both very well drawn ( you can see them in your mind & their actions are consistent w/their character.). The plot moves at a fast clip. I wish Leonard would return to Western writng. this book is availablle by itself, or in one of his Western Roundups.
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