Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #2: Escape from Five Shadows, Last Stand at Saber River, and the Law at Randado

Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #2

by Elmore Leonard

Escape From Five It was supposed to be impossible. No man could break out of the brutal convict labor camp at Five Shadows. Until they locked up Bowen. He was like dynamite--charged to go off, to explode out of that desert hell so he could clear his name. Already the deadly trackers have caught him, dragged him back through the mesquite and rocks, beat him and left him to rot in the punishment cell. But they can't stop Bowen. He's a different breed, a man who will go to any extreme to escape. Any extreme.

Last Stand at Saber A one-armed man stood before Denaman's store, and the girl named Luz was scared. Paul Cable could see that from the rise two hundred yards away, just as he could see that everything had changed while he was away fighting for the Confederacy. He just didn't know how much. Cable and his family rode down to Denaman's store and faced the one-armed man. Then they heard the story, about the Union Army and two brothers--and a beautiful woman--who had taken over Cable's spread and weren't going to give it back. For Paul Cable the war hadn't ended at all. Among the men at Saber River, some would be his enemies, some might have been his friends, but no one was going to take his future away--not with words, not with treachery, and not with guns

The Law at Kirby Frye was a local boy come home again--with a badge and a reputation in some circles. But to the men with money in Randado, Kirby Frye meant nothing. Twelve upstanding citizens, prompted by a hard-drinking, free-spending cattleman, hanged two of Kirby's prisoners behind his back. Then they laughed in his face. Frye was young, but he was no fool. He took their taunts, took their hired men's blows, and waited. For with a hotheaded sheriff from Tucson and a breed tracker on Kirby's side, it would be three men against many. And what they didn't know about Kirby Frye was that three against many was good enough for him--good enough to go up against their guns, good enough to bring the law back to Randado, and good enough to drive a rich man to his knees.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction

496 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 1998

About the author

Elmore John Leonard lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before settling in Detroit in 1935. After serving in the navy, he studied English literature at the University of Detroit where he entered a short story competition. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.

Father of Peter Leonard.

Reviews

[Jack Lively · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for anyone interested in "genre" literature.

Three volumes in the collection. I've read them all and all of it is incredible writing that every budding author should read! I write this as an aspiring novelist in the Elmore Leonard sense of that term.

Leonard began his career writing westerns, quite amazing because even from the beginning the same themes are already in place. The situations are always interesting and surprising, with smart and cool twists in the plot. Unlike his later books, the dialogue in the western books isn't as much of a feature. He became really known for the dialogue, which is the only reason i mention this.

With one or two exceptions, the western books feature white main characters, but quite often in these novels, Leonard is interested in subverting the racial stereotypes of the time. Some of these are written early, fifties or sixties.

Many of his characters are black or native American. Often these characters are severely underestimated by the racist whites, who believe them to be different classes of sub-human. He treats the characters as equally intelligent people, capable of using the white man's racism against him in very cool and smart ways.

All in, a must read!

[Derrick Baynes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. Elmore's books frequently made into movies. Great to read the original words, action and plots without visual aids

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading through Leonard's novels, & I'm impressed in the jump-in quality from Leonard's solid 1st western *Bounty Hunters* to his 2nd & 3rd with the drunken lynching of *Law at Randado* & the sadistic prison of *Escape from 5 Shadows*. That said, *Last Stand at Saber River* returns to blandness with the standard plot of a besieged homestead & sectional reconciliation. *Saber River*'s upright protagonist is a Confederate who literally prays to his former commander, the war criminal Bedford Forrest, which leaves a bad taste in my scalawag mouth, but I do appreciate the scheming villain in *Saber River*.

[Jefferson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first two stories follow a familiar pattern: highly competent man is done wrong and must fight for justice, with help from an unexpected source. But the third story, "The Law at Randado," is a superbly nuanced tale full of interesting characters and action.

[Amanda (awesome) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology had 3 novels. Escape From Five Shadows was great but the other two were just meh.

[Marc Royston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Elmore Leonard's work. His dialogue in particular is terrific. Of the 3 novels, Law at Randado is my favorite.