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Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #3: Valdez is Coming & Hombre
 
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Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #3: Valdez is Coming & Hombre [Paperback]

Elmore Leonard (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)


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Book Description

December 29, 1998
Valdez Is Coming: The shotgun went off aimed at the wrong man, held in the wrong man's hands. A crowd had gathered to drink and laugh and shoot down at the old shack where a supposed killer was hiding out. Then Bob Valdez, humble town constable and stage-line shotgun rider, walked down to the shack. Moments later Valdez had killed an innocent man, and the crowd, sapped of its bloodlust, wandered off. But for Bob Valdez it was far from over. He wanted the wealthy landowner who had enginnered the scene to give the dead man's woman money for a wrongful death. They laughed at Bob Valdez. They taunted him and beat him until Valdez had no choice but to come back to them again. Only this time Valdez was coming with three guns--three guns and the will to teach a rich man's army how costly atonement can get.

Hombre: Set in Arizona mining country, Hombre is the story of a stagecoach held up by outlaws. One of the passengers, John Russell, is a white man who was raised partly by Apache Indians, and knows first hand the indignities suffered by them at the hands of the whites who control the reservations. He has also learned to live and fight like an Apache. Combatting the outlaws, Russell finds himself faced with the decision of whether to save only himself or to save his fellow white passengers. John Russell becomes the key player in a drama examining man's responsibilities to his fellow man, acted out on a dusty stage in America's Wild West.


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"The basic structure of an Elmore Leonard plot," Larry Beinhart explains in How to Write a Mystery, "is that a big tough guy pushes a little tough guy. The little guy doesn't take it. He shoves back. The little guy is the kinda guy, the harder you shove him, the more trouble he's gonna be. In the end, the big guy really wishes he'd picked someone else to shove. When Leonard started he wrote westerns, and in those early books you can see the bones without an X-ray. I recommend Valdez Is Coming to anyone who wants to understand the structure of an Elmore Leonard novel."

When part-time constable Bob Valdez tries to put together a compensation package for a woman whose husband was killed in a case of mistaken identity, the matter quickly escalates into a brutal struggle to regain honor and dignity. There's not a wasted moment; every scene, every line of dialogue moves the story forward to the inevitable showdown where, as Valdez says, "you get one time, mister, to prove who you are." The second novel in this volume, Hombre--perhaps Leonard's best-known Western novel--is just as relentlessly plot-driven, with characters that reveal their psychological complexity strictly through what they do and say as they struggle to make their way to safety across a hot desert in the aftermath of a stagecoach holdup. The only difference between these two novels and classic Leonard crime novels like Get Shorty or Out of Sight is the time and place. Other than that, you've got two classic tales of hard-boiled professionals who know that every step they take is a matter of laying their reputations and their lives on the line. --Ron Hogan

From the Inside Flap

Valdez Is Coming: The shotgun went off aimed at the wrong man, held in the wrong man's hands. A crowd had gathered to drink and laugh and shoot down at the old shack where a supposed killer was hiding out. Then Bob Valdez, humble town constable and stage-line shotgun rider, walked down to the shack. Moments later Valdez had killed an innocent man, and the crowd, sapped of its bloodlust, wandered off. But for Bob Valdez it was far from over. He wanted the wealthy landowner who had enginnered the scene to give the dead man's woman money for a wrongful death. They laughed at Bob Valdez. They taunted him and beat him until Valdez had no choice but to come back to them again. Only this time Valdez was coming with three guns--three guns and the will to teach a rich man's army how costly atonement can get.

Hombre: Set in Arizona mining country, Hombre is the story of a stagecoach held up by outlaws. One of the passengers, John Russell, is a white man who was raised partly by Apache Indians, and knows first hand the indignities suffered by them at the hands of the whites who control the reservations. He has also learned to live and fight like an Apache. Combatting the outlaws, Russell finds himself faced with the decision of whether to save only himself or to save his fellow white passengers. John Russell becomes the key player in a drama examining man's responsibilities to his fellow man, acted out on a dusty stage in America's Wild West.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Delta (December 29, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385333242
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385333245
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,294,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elmore Leonard has written more than forty novels, including bestsellers Up in Honey's Room, The Hot Kid, Mr. Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, Pagan Babies, and Glitz. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. He lives with his wife, Christine, in Bloomfield Village, Michigan.

 

Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Leonard was great before he was cool, December 27, 1999
This review is from: Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #3: Valdez is Coming & Hombre (Paperback)
I picked this book up at San Francisco International Airport (which has a great bookstore in the United Airlines terminal) thinking I'd like to relax with a western. I have always loved Elmore Leonard's work, so it seemed like a fit to choose one by him instead of old Louis (another master). I've got to say Leonard HAS IT as a western writer. VALDEZ IS COMING is outstanding. The story is the kind I love: picks you up and takes you for a ride -- non-stop. I think what I liked best about this novel is that Valdez is such a great character, and that the story is absolutely relentless in its pacing. HOMBRE is great as well, also relentless, though I prefer the "voice" of VALDEZ over HOMBRE. So who knew that Leonard was not only THE master at dialogue, but also dynamite at characterization in a very literate western. Read it. You'll love it. I liked it so much that I just now ordered Western Roundup numbers 1 & 2. Thank you Elmore Leonard and thank you Amazon for making it so easy to be a discerning reader. Aloha!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Hard-boiled westerns, September 9, 2004
By 
This review is from: Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #3: Valdez is Coming & Hombre (Paperback)
I knew Leonard only by reputation and the movie "Get Shorty". I thought I'd pick him up someday. Meanwhile, I started to read westerns, and picked up a few L'Amours. Louis is good. But a friend told me that Leonard wrote westerns before mystery/thrillers. Try him, he said. I did, first with Valdez is Coming, then with Hombre.
These two books are the best westerns I've read, and I'm reading the rest of Leonards. Stripped-down dialogue, steady action, and an atmosphere and voice that is totally captivating. The ending of Valdez is Coming is powerful and perfect, and I reread it several times. Hombre has great action and a strong moral message, but delivered sparely and without the sometimes windy sentimentality found in L'Amour. These two novels are very, very good indeed.
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