Customer Reviews

Escape From Five Shadows

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Leonard is a great writer, I love his stories. At times you have to pay very close attention to what he is saying or you might get lost. Leonard is not the type of writer to tell you over and over again what he wants to tell you just so he can get in a few more lines. Often times I have to reread a page because I was not paying attention. In 5 Shadows the main character, Corey Bowen keeps trying to escape the prison, thus my title to this review. Corey is going to get help from a lady who has murder on her mind. After his freedom he then settles some scores permanently. A very good book.

This one is not a grabber. You can see the respect for the Apache and Mexicans, that play larger in other, better books. But you have to work to finish.

I have read several westerns by Leonard, this is the worst one I have read. Corey Bowen is trying to escape from the prison camp Five Shadows. He tries and is caught but does he give up, NO. He lives to try again. Page after page is spent talking about the escape. A girl he has seen one time, Karla Demery, likes his looks and contacts an Attorney to see if he will help him. The Attorney agrees and has a new trial set up when Bowen tries another break out. The big villian is Frank Renda who is in charge of the prison. He and his side kick will shoot you for nothing and call it an attempted excape. The book was slow, I found my self wanting to skim pages to just get it over with. If this happenes to be the first Leonard book you have read don't think they are all like this one. He does write some good westerns.

Elmore Leonard is the reigning master of crime fiction. Earlier, he established himself as a worthy inheritor of the mantle of the masters of western fiction: Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour. This novel is one of his best and cries out for a film treatment. If I could option it, I would. A great read on a trip to Africa.