The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories [Paperback]

Elmore Leonard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 1998

From a forbidden glance on a Miami night to a killer's slow burn on a Detroit street, no one mixes passion, scheming, and violence better than Elmore Leonard.  But before he did it in Miami Beach or Motor City, Elmore Leonard did it on the American frontier.

This raw, hard-bitten collection gathers together the best of Leonard's Western fiction.  In stories that burn with passion, treachery, and heroism, the American frontier comes vividly, magnificently to life.  In "Only Good Ones," we meet a fine man turned killer in one impossible moment .  .  .  "Saint with a Six-Gun" pits a doomed prisoner against his young guard--in a drama of deception and compassion that leads to a shocking act of courage .  .  .  and in "The Colonel's Lady," a brutal ambush puts a woman into the hands of a vicious renegade--while a tracker attempts a rescue that cannot come in time.

Etching a harsh, haunting landscape with razor-sharp prose, Elmore Leonard shows in nineteen brilliant stories why he has become the American poet laureate of the desperate and the bold.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Welcome to a world where the Hatch & Hodges stagecoach runs on time or someone will catch hell, and where a man knows the difference between handling a Winchester rifle and a Sharps and a Henry--or pays for it with his life.

Before he became one of the best crime writers in America, Elmore Leonard was one of the best Western writers in America. He churned out short stories for the pulp magazines with regularity; The Tonto Woman collects 19 of the best, including "Three-Ten to Yuma" and "The Captives," which in 1957 became the first two of his stories to be adapted for film (the latter as The Tall T). Reading them and the other stories, you can see why Hollywood has been continually drawn to Leonard: Every encounter between two or more people, no matter how casual, has substance--becomes a matter of great moral significance and can only be resolved through action. Even those stories that rely on O. Henry-style twists of fate to reach their endings are packed with intense character studies disguised as straightforward genre prose. When all is said and done, Elmore Leonard will be mentioned by literary critics in the same breath as Ernest Hemingway--quite likely even mentioned first--and The Tonto Woman will make one of the strongest arguments in his favor. --Ron Hogan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

As many readers know, Elmore Leonard started out writing westerns before turning to modern-day thrillers with Fifty-two Pickup. These excellent 19 stories may prompt a reexamination of the early novels. Each is clearly based on deep research: we learn a lot about the strains among Apaches (Mescaleros, Lipans, etc.), the black Tenth Cavalry, even the interior of a stagecoach station. As in Leonard's later work, there are three-dimensional, believable good and bad guys. Indians, Mexicans and "white men" interact and we see the power of money, class and racism, as in the classic "Only Good Ones." Anti-lynching (and maybe anti-death penalty) sentiment is strong in "No Man's Guns" and "Three-Ten to Yuma." "Hurrah for Capt. Early" could be a mini-sequel or sidebar to Leonard's newest novel, Cuba Libre. (Aficionados will relish the first sentence: "The second banner said 'Hero of San Juan Hill.'") The last story, "Trouble At Rindo's Station," has almost as many plot turns as Leonard's thriller capers. Written between the 1950s and '80s, these stories have aged as well as a Stetson. Every one is first-rate Leonard: laconic, tough-minded and, naturally, gripping.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Delta (September 8, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385323875
• ISBN-13: 978-0385323871
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #618,912 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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elmore's excellent western tales that led to his mysteries, September 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories (Paperback)

Before Elmore Leonard wrote contemporary mystery with an over the edge attitude, he was writing westerns with an over the edge attitude. This collection is a reprint of some of Mr. Leonard's western short stories, some of which haven't seen print in over four decades.

Any fan of Mr. Leonard's mysteries will quickly see where he developed his talent for the hard boiled but passionate hero and the fiery in your face femme fatale. The ironic humor, the lovable wackos, and the barren scenery (the Arizona desert not Miami) help make this collection a must read by sub-genre and the author's mystery fans. This reviewer's contention is that it will not take much inspiration to persuade readers to try this anthology because they are all superb tales that represent some of Mr. Leonard's best works.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inimitable Leonard Western stories, October 13, 2004

By 

E. S Winskill (Tacoma, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories (Hardcover)

A recent newcomer to the Western genre, I was told by a friend to pick up Elmore Leonard's westerns. I knew of Leonard's crime stories, of course, but hadn't read him.
Quickly I have become a major fan. The other names in the Western genre can't touch Leonard. This is a great collection of short stories.
I'm rapidly going through the Leonard canon of Westerns and will be very sorry when I get to the end...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A collection of memorable Elmore Leonard characters in a western setting, June 3, 2010

By 

Neal C. Reynolds (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories (Paperback)

Elmore Leonard does create truly memorable flesh and blood, though often quirky, characters and this was just as true when he wrote western pulp fiction in the 50's, 60's, and 70's as it is now. For instance, there are Rueben Vega and the title character of the main story, Pat Brennan (The Captives), Bobby Valdez and Lyall Quinlan (Saint With A Six-Gun), Amelia Darck and Simon Street (The Colonel's Lady) among others. There are classic tales such as 3:10 To Yuma" and "Hurrah For Captain Early". There's much about the independence of women and about troubled ethnic relations. These are western tales which can be enjoyed by those who ordinarily dislike westerns. And those fans of the later Elmore Leonard will find much that's delightful in his western stories.