Western

Before he found fame and influence as America's premier writer of crime fiction, Elmore Leonard cut his teeth writing Western pulp for various magazines in the 1950s. These short stories have all been collected in this book of Complete Western Stories, along with a couple he wrote during a brief foray back into the genre a few decades later. (Note: Leonard also wrote a number of Western novels, such as Hombre and Valdez is Coming, which are not included in this collection.)

As you would expect from such a clean writer, it's a tidy volume. There's never a bum note in the sequence of thirty stories, though naturally some are better than others. The vast majority are set in Arizona and the Apache territory in the 1880s, and depict standard Western scenarios – Apache ambushes, bounty hunting, stagecoach robberies and shootouts and the like. They're all drawn capably, though you might soon find yourself thirsting for more variety.

These are often safe stories, typical of a young writer finding his feet, and there's not much of the ingenuity and crackle with which Elmore Leonard would later win so many hearts. 'Three-Ten to Yuma', the tenth story, is the first to really show the snappy dialogue which became a trademark of this author. Other stand-out stories, such as 'The Captives', which has an excellent shootout at its end, do so by telling their standard story well, fulfilling the formula rather than transcending it. It's a solid and dependable collection and a good example of the writer's craft, but while Elmore Leonard left a mark on the Western genre, he didn't leave a unique and identifiable fingerprint. ( )

These are all at least pretty good and some are excellent. ( )

Elmore Leonard once again demonstrates the superb talent for language and narrative that has made him one of the most acclaimed and influential writers in recent time through this stellar collection of short fiction that spans his career. From his very first short story "The Trail of the Apache" through five decades of classic western tales, this is a must-have for fans of all ages

An endlessly enjoyable collection of Leonard's
Western tales, most of them written in the 1950s. With the exception of the very oldest stories - a bit stilted and boyish, maybe - and the last two - a bit cynical and meandering, perhaps - these are pulp entertainment at its best. Leonard is a passionate writer with a great ear, so even though you're reading cowboy adventures, basically, the writing is never even remotely dull or unconvincing. And during its high points, the book is downright morally instructive. ( )