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The Bounty Hunters
The old Apache renegade Soldado Viejo is hiding out in Mexico, and the Arizona Department Adjutant has selected two men to hunt him down. One -- Dave Flynn -- knows war, the land, and the nature of his prey. The other is a kid lieutenant named Bowers. But there's a different kind of war happening in Soyopa. And if Flynn and his young associate choose the wrong allies -- and the wrong enemy -- they won't be getting out alive.
310 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1953
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About the author
Elmore Leonard
202 books3,749 followersElmore 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.
Father of Peter Leonard.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews
October 6, 2021
fine western
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This review is from: The Bounty Hunters (Kindle Edition)
Cavalry, scouts, Indians, Federales, outlaws, murder, mayhem and a damsel in distress, what more could you want in one book? I like Leonard's westerns and liked this one almost as much as HOMBRE and VALDEZ IS COMING.
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Bounty Hunters (Kindle Edition)
Cavalry, scouts, Indians, Federales, outlaws, murder, mayhem and a damsel in distress, what more could you want in one book? I like Leonard's westerns and liked this one almost as much as HOMBRE and VALDEZ IS COMING.
February 21, 2024
Los cazarrecompensas
Primera novela de Elmore Leonard sobre el Oeste americano antes de dedicarse a la novela policíaca.
Ambientada en la época de las guerras indias. En el territorio de Arizona los apaches huyen del ejército norteamericano para refugiarse en México. En numerosas ocasiones se preparaban pequeñas expediciones en busca de estos apaches.
De esto trata esta novela. Un oficial del ejército y un rastreador se internan en suelo mexicano para tratar de apresar a un jefe indio.
En la búsqueda de los apaches no sólo se encargaba la gente del ejército. Como los apaches estaban en busca y captura también por los mexicanos, éstos, ofrecían dinero por las cabelleras indias. Es aquí donde aparecen los cazarrecompensas que perseguían a los apaches salvajemente, sin ningún miramiento.
Los dos protagonistas tendrán que vérselas no sólo con los apaches sino con la banda de cazarrecompensas.
La novela tiene lo típico del western fronterizo: apaches, rastreadores, oficiales del ejército, rurales mexicanos, mescal, pistoleros, duelos y hasta una pequeña historia de amor.
Una historia entretenida que se lee muy bien. Quizás no esté muy logrado el final que me parece que no lo cierra bien, muy precipitadas las últimas páginas.
No es de lo mejor del western de Leonard, pero al que le guste el género no se lo puede perder.
Primera novela de Elmore Leonard sobre el Oeste americano antes de dedicarse a la novela policíaca.
Ambientada en la época de las guerras indias. En el territorio de Arizona los apaches huyen del ejército norteamericano para refugiarse en México. En numerosas ocasiones se preparaban pequeñas expediciones en busca de estos apaches.
De esto trata esta novela. Un oficial del ejército y un rastreador se internan en suelo mexicano para tratar de apresar a un jefe indio.
En la búsqueda de los apaches no sólo se encargaba la gente del ejército. Como los apaches estaban en busca y captura también por los mexicanos, éstos, ofrecían dinero por las cabelleras indias. Es aquí donde aparecen los cazarrecompensas que perseguían a los apaches salvajemente, sin ningún miramiento.
Los dos protagonistas tendrán que vérselas no sólo con los apaches sino con la banda de cazarrecompensas.
La novela tiene lo típico del western fronterizo: apaches, rastreadores, oficiales del ejército, rurales mexicanos, mescal, pistoleros, duelos y hasta una pequeña historia de amor.
Una historia entretenida que se lee muy bien. Quizás no esté muy logrado el final que me parece que no lo cierra bien, muy precipitadas las últimas páginas.
No es de lo mejor del western de Leonard, pero al que le guste el género no se lo puede perder.
April 7, 2015
Description: The old Apache renegade Soldado Viejo is hiding out in Mexico, and the Arizona Department Adjutant has selected two men to hunt him down. One -- Dave Flynn -- knows war, the land, and the nature of his prey. The other is a kid lieutenant named Bowers. But there's a different kind of war happening in Soyopa. And if Flynn and his young associate choose the wrong allies -- and the wrong enemy -- they won't be getting out alive.
Listening and gardening! This audio has sound effects - twanging arrows, clipperty-clopping horses, and the odd strain of Spanish guitar!
Listening and gardening! This audio has sound effects - twanging arrows, clipperty-clopping horses, and the odd strain of Spanish guitar!
May 17, 2019
If there is one element of a Leonard novel that I have grown to expect it would be the wonderfully real characters. It’s not so much that I come to understand their souls, but rather, I come to understand that their souls are not an absolute thing. They do things based on temptation and opportunity, and while their decisions may sometimes seem crazy, their actions are understandable.
The Bounty Hunters, as Leonard’s first published novel, was interesting because the instability appears in macro form. Leonard applies it to groups where shifting desires (or loyalties) can be explained by a group psychology that is, coincidently, also based on temptation and opportunity. The book is a sort of a preview of his writing to come where he will eventually hone down the group into a set of individuals.
But group psychology lacks the mystery (or craziness) of the individual decision making process. As such, the The Bounty Hunters tends to be just another western. And Leonard’s macro approach comes across as a cautious approach to what will eventually become a unique style of writing.
The Bounty Hunters, as Leonard’s first published novel, was interesting because the instability appears in macro form. Leonard applies it to groups where shifting desires (or loyalties) can be explained by a group psychology that is, coincidently, also based on temptation and opportunity. The book is a sort of a preview of his writing to come where he will eventually hone down the group into a set of individuals.
But group psychology lacks the mystery (or craziness) of the individual decision making process. As such, the The Bounty Hunters tends to be just another western. And Leonard’s macro approach comes across as a cautious approach to what will eventually become a unique style of writing.
January 2, 2019
The Bounty Hunters is a good, solid western novel. If you love Zane Grey or Louis L'Amour give Dutch a try. Leonard got his start in the 1950's writing western novels and short stories.
I have read many of Elmore "Dutch" Leonard's crime novels, so I gave his westerns a shot and I saw vast similarities. His crime novels are westerns that take place in the 1930's to the 2000's. While he dresses his characters in the fashions of the time and they drive cars instead of cattle it is still a wild ride with lots of gun play.
I have read many of Elmore "Dutch" Leonard's crime novels, so I gave his westerns a shot and I saw vast similarities. His crime novels are westerns that take place in the 1930's to the 2000's. While he dresses his characters in the fashions of the time and they drive cars instead of cattle it is still a wild ride with lots of gun play.
October 15, 2014
Seasoned scout Dave Flynn is partnered with the young, inexperienced Lt. Bowers on a covert mission across the border to hunt down Apache bandit Soldado. But once in Mexico, the pair find themselves in the middle of an unfolding crisis-- corrupt rurales, under the command of Duro, have subjagated a small village where Flynn has old friends, and Duro is making money off so-called Apache scalps brought in by a blood-thirsty band of bounty hunters. But the scalps don't necessarily belong to Apaches; in fact, some of the the villagers themselves have fallen prey to the nasty scalp hunters. Flynn and Bowers must set things right before they can carry out their own mission.
This is Elmore Leonard's first novel, but it's not the work of an amateur by any means. Leonard had already honed his chops writing short Western stories, and the careful structure of THE BOUNTY HUNTERS gives testament to that. It's a fine piece of work, although not really replete with a lot of the things we would come to think of later as Leonard hallmarks. The dialogue doesn't snap the way his later work does, but instead performs a function at all times. The influence of Hemingway is very obvious.
Like many of his other early Westerns, the last chapter is really thrilling and action-packed, with our heroes seemingly against the wall and in dire trouble, and the whole thing ends on a very satisfying note.
This is Elmore Leonard's first novel, but it's not the work of an amateur by any means. Leonard had already honed his chops writing short Western stories, and the careful structure of THE BOUNTY HUNTERS gives testament to that. It's a fine piece of work, although not really replete with a lot of the things we would come to think of later as Leonard hallmarks. The dialogue doesn't snap the way his later work does, but instead performs a function at all times. The influence of Hemingway is very obvious.
Like many of his other early Westerns, the last chapter is really thrilling and action-packed, with our heroes seemingly against the wall and in dire trouble, and the whole thing ends on a very satisfying note.
February 23, 2023
La primera novela de Leonard es un western en el molde clásico (También es lo normal para la época) con personajes estoicos y callados y prosa parca y directa a la narración. Una novela interesante y con la acción bien llevada. Se resiente un poco de que, para su extensión, abre demasiadas tramas simultáneas lo que hace que la resolución sea un poco brusca, pero vale la pena leerla.
Muy buena edición y traducción, como es habitual en Valdemar.
Muy buena edición y traducción, como es habitual en Valdemar.
November 13, 2014
Leonard has done it again. Very good western with a gritty, realistic edge. The only downside was the prose was a bit too spare even for me at times. Great characters & story, though. As usual, there were some pretty jarring moments.
July 22, 2017
A classic first novel from the master.
June 8, 2021
I’m planning on reading through Elmore Leonard’s bibliography. This is his first book (written in the 50s) and it’s a pretty good western, although it definitely suffers from some racist tones of the time. It seems like Leonard pushes back against that racism somewhat, making the Americans the cruelest, and Mexican townsfolk the innocents. But I think some director could make a movie of this which confronts it head on and it could be really good.
May 4, 2022
I didn’t know this was Leonard’s first published novel until after I read it. After reading “Valdez is Coming” and “Hombre”--two fantastic westerns-- one would think there’d be a letdown, but I didn’t find that to be the case. Although it is not as tight as his later novels, it is still a fine piece of work that was thoroughly entertaining.
December 20, 2022
Se trata de una historia con una gran colección de tópicos del western, desde la escena de la barbería a los protagonistas rodeados por los apaches en un last stand. El libro se lee de un tirón porque lleva la narración en un ritmo prácticamente vertiginoso. Presenta una variedad de personajes que cubren bastantes tópicos del género: el explorador que antes fue soldado, el teniente de caballería bisoño pero fiel, los blancos cazadores de cabelleras indias, los rangers mejicanos, los tranquilos campesinos mexicanos, el villano psicópata. Una gran variedad de situaciones y de personajes, condensados en un librito de poco mas de doscientas páginas, pero bastante entretenido
July 1, 2019
Elmore Leonard’s debut novel, THE BOUNTY HUNTERS, is a classic western tale about a Civil War veteran and retired Army scout brought back into the service for a final dangerous mission: escort a green lieutenant into Mexico to bring back a renegade Apache chief. I hadn’t known Leonard got his start with Westerns (subsequently discovering the films 3:10 TO YUMA and other Western films are based on his stories) and found it a real treat.
The story centers on Dave Flynn, a classic Western hero: doesn’t say much, means what he says, takes no crap from anybody, knows how to survive in the wilderness. He suspects his mission into Mexico is a fool’s errand as it was arranged by Major Deneen, with whom he shares a dark secret from the Civil War. He and the lieutenant cross paths with Apaches, undisciplined and unruly Mexican police, and a ruthless gang of bounty hunters–American desperadoes who kill Apaches and get paid by the Mexican government for each scalp. When the bounty hunters turn up with a bag of scalps that may not be Apache but instead Mexican farmers, Flynn gets embroiled between these three sides and plays them off against each other to save some local people he cares about, including a fiery and strong Mexican beauty. It’s up to Flynn to do what’s right, deliver Western justice, and save the girl.
The novel was published in the 1950s, and I was happy to see how well it holds up. In my view, it flirted with but didn’t rely on racial and gender stereotypes, and our hero survives more on his wits, experience, and demeanor than he does on any seemingly superhuman capability. His sense of justice is more focused on protecting people he cares about than a stark code of justice that is never challenged by situations involving moral shades of gray. The result is a realistically delivered, solid yarn with likeable characters and Leonard’s trademark quality dialogue that holds the story together even as it occasionally plods or comes together loosely.
The story centers on Dave Flynn, a classic Western hero: doesn’t say much, means what he says, takes no crap from anybody, knows how to survive in the wilderness. He suspects his mission into Mexico is a fool’s errand as it was arranged by Major Deneen, with whom he shares a dark secret from the Civil War. He and the lieutenant cross paths with Apaches, undisciplined and unruly Mexican police, and a ruthless gang of bounty hunters–American desperadoes who kill Apaches and get paid by the Mexican government for each scalp. When the bounty hunters turn up with a bag of scalps that may not be Apache but instead Mexican farmers, Flynn gets embroiled between these three sides and plays them off against each other to save some local people he cares about, including a fiery and strong Mexican beauty. It’s up to Flynn to do what’s right, deliver Western justice, and save the girl.
The novel was published in the 1950s, and I was happy to see how well it holds up. In my view, it flirted with but didn’t rely on racial and gender stereotypes, and our hero survives more on his wits, experience, and demeanor than he does on any seemingly superhuman capability. His sense of justice is more focused on protecting people he cares about than a stark code of justice that is never challenged by situations involving moral shades of gray. The result is a realistically delivered, solid yarn with likeable characters and Leonard’s trademark quality dialogue that holds the story together even as it occasionally plods or comes together loosely.
June 5, 2013
Very good - hard to believe that the writing career that brought us such memorable characters as Raylan Givens, Chili Palmer, and Karen Cisco has such humble beginnings. If you appreciate the works of Elmore Leonard, then read the book - it is the work of a writer who was learning and honing his craft, but it's also more.
January 15, 2023
Novela debut de Leonard con sus defectos evidentes, pero así y todo es un western bastante digno. Que viva la gloriosa caballería, y muerte a los apaches
July 20, 2022
I learned from other reviews here that 'The Bounty Hunters' is Elmore Leonard's first novel. Prior to the novel, he wrote Western short stories, and prior to that, at the same time in fact, he was a copywriter for Chevrolet, specializing in writing ad copy for Chevy trucks. Like other reviewers, I can see the influence of Hemingway on Leonard's writing, the tone and cadence. No fluff, which makes the style of this novel perfect for its frontier subject.
The novel is a serious depiction of the West and its history. This depiction is more rich, nuanced, and realistic than some other popular Westerns. There is the bifurcating Western code of good and bad, and characters in either camp, clearly or more ambiguously. Leonard was the master of the fully-developed, off-beat character, and that nascent writing and discernment shows here.
The novel is brutal in places, with unflinching descriptions of carnage. Innocents suffer. The bad guys vs good guys is not a show-down at high noon. It is an on-going fight, tooth and claw, wrapped around greed and human cruelty, and the forces and intrepid characters who counter those.
This is a well-written and compelling page turner. Not for the weak of heart. Highly recommended.
The novel is a serious depiction of the West and its history. This depiction is more rich, nuanced, and realistic than some other popular Westerns. There is the bifurcating Western code of good and bad, and characters in either camp, clearly or more ambiguously. Leonard was the master of the fully-developed, off-beat character, and that nascent writing and discernment shows here.
The novel is brutal in places, with unflinching descriptions of carnage. Innocents suffer. The bad guys vs good guys is not a show-down at high noon. It is an on-going fight, tooth and claw, wrapped around greed and human cruelty, and the forces and intrepid characters who counter those.
This is a well-written and compelling page turner. Not for the weak of heart. Highly recommended.
June 26, 2022
It was slow going in a few places, but had a great payoff in the end. This was Leonard's first time out as a published author, so I'm obviously very forgiving. Even with the best of authors, I'm sure it takes a while to really find your voice and that original "thing" which makes you great. Looking forward to digging into the rest of his bibliography.
July 26, 2024
I listened to this on audio. The story is set during a time when Mexico, Native Americans, outlaws, and the Army were mixing it up after the Civil War.
What I love about the author’s writing is how he sets up scenes with tension, and perspectives from different characters. Listening at night in the dark to a scene where two white Army men were in a deserted town where there are six Apaches was quite the treat.
Lots of fun as always.
What I love about the author’s writing is how he sets up scenes with tension, and perspectives from different characters. Listening at night in the dark to a scene where two white Army men were in a deserted town where there are six Apaches was quite the treat.
Lots of fun as always.
January 15, 2024
Against my will, I spent this entire novel imagining David Flynn as Timothy Olyphant, and Joe Madora as the dude who plays Art in Justified, despite differences between how this book's characters are described and how those TV characters look. Well, I guess sometimes Flynn looks specifically like Bullock from Deadwood in my mind's eye, but the connection with the Leonard-derived FX show stands more overtly.
I was born in 1994. I am, frankly, far too young to truly experience the Western as a popular genre. Maybe if my father was more into Westerns, he might have shown some to my brother and me, but he wasn't, so he didn't. But he's also kind of too young as well, being born in 1969, and growing up more with reruns of Batman and Star Trek than Bonanza or Gunsmoke. I think, some Christmas, my dad got a DVD set of the Leone-Eastwood Dollars Trilogy, but I was not interested in watching them because... I had no reason to think I'd like Westerns when I was twelve or whatever. But this might have been a time when I kinda just didn't "trust" my dad's opinions on movies, like he's too old to like cool things, maybe. I recall also not caring too much about Back to the Future, which is pretty significant here as well because the third installment was especially uninteresting to me; it was set far enough in the past as to play in a "Western" setting, which was simply less cool to me than the "2015" setting of Part II. I would go on to enjoy Coen Brothers movies like No Country for Old Men (a "neo-Western") and True Grit (a remake of a "classic" Western), but didn't really continue on to explore the genre much further.
In high school, there was like a "meme" where kids who weren't really into music beyond whatever stupid shit comes on the radio might explain their tastes with the phrase "I listen to everything... except country and rap." "Everything" in this context means "Top 40, 'classic' rock, and 'alternative' rock" radio stations, omitting or avoiding the country stations or black music stations - but these kids wouldn't explore music much beyond what is popular and accessible. I was rather late in getting into hip-hop, being around 2010 with a trifecta of Kanye West, Waka Flocka Flame, and Big Boi releases that became very important to me that year. I don't think I'd ever unironically used the "except country and rap" line myself, but at least I had stopped dealing with popular radio years ago, finding music my own way by reading up on genres on Wikipedia, until I got into Pitchfork and /mu/, but I was at least somewhat "proud" to get into rap, if not simply to avoid being one of "those kids." But country still eluded me. It wasn't really until 2023 that I decided to take the time to "get into" country - which basically worked, so now I do listen to "everything," so to speak.
The above paragraph is somewhat irrelevant, but part of the point is broadening my horizons to accept country music has also made me want to check out more Western movies, and maybe some Western prose fiction - since I feel Cormac McCarthy, whom I've read before, kinda blatantly exceeds what might be considered the limits of the genre, and so maybe doesn't really "count." If I recall correctly, I got to The Bounty Hunters here because I was watching Justified on Hulu some time ago, which I ended up loving, and which is based on the work of Elmore Leonard, then I happened to rewatch Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, which I think I'd known was based on a Leonard novel, but which I'd forgotten, and was reminded of in the course of rewatching the movie. I wanted to jump later into Leonard's fiction career, with the sort of crime stories adapted into these programs, but... well, quite simply, he wrote Westerns first. And I was able to find a cheap eBay lot of six Western paperbacks, including two Leonard novels. I read this one first because it came out first.
****
Being, as I am, not terribly familiar with this genre of prose, I was pleasantly surprised to find this 1953 novel leans closer in spirit to the spaghetti Westerns of the '60s than what I imagined to be a "squeaky clean" image of like a John Wayne ilk. There's nothing too graphic here, nothing like e.g. Blood Meridian, but there's still a bit of a "rawness": some "bitch" and "goddamn" words, some bloody scalpings, some bloody gunshots, allusion to rape (but which doesn't happen), allusion to prostitution (which does), and a scene where a Mexican girl's tits flop around a little after some manhandling by a drunken bounty hunter (this is treated more like "look how evil Lazair's men are" than "dude ¡check out these perky brown tetas!"). Probably very much a product of its time, Apache characters are almost all brutal, inhuman monsters; there's a good-guy Apache, Three-cent, whose accidental murder is kinda glossed over, but the feeling is more "we don't have time to worry about this just now" and not so much "well, that sucks, but he's not white so..."
I have no reason not to believe the Golden Age of western (I'm going to start lowercasing the genre name) fiction isn't meant to establish itself on the sheer badassery of its heroes. David Flynn isn't too much of a "deep" character, instead being mostly a cipher to allow the plot and action to move forward. There's a tropey take on romance, where Flynn wants to settle down at the end of the novel with young Nita, but the book doesn't end with a romantic embrace as one might expect from episodes of western TV shows. Flynn also has a rather logical view on what is or is not appropriate for his mission; he's not gonna jump into a gang of Apaches, guns blazing, because in the world of this book you will get your shit rocked for trying that mess. In fact, Flynn doesn't really kill too many people here; the climax of the novel is mostly just Mexicans chasing the Apaches off while Flynn stands in awe.
Probably something weird about the novel is how young Bowers is shown to have more character growth, but is less of a focal character than Flynn. In the above-referenced climax, a Mexican cavalry is led by Bowers, who shows strong leadership qualities after the trial-by-fire that is the novel's central suicide mission. At the start of the story, Bowers is a cocksure kid who kinda pisses Flynn off with how straight-laced he is w/r/t Army culture, versus how ignorant he'd be of the harsh wilderness of Apache country. Bowers starts off a little standoffish, not understanding why he'd need this civilian to lead him through Mexico to hunt and capture Apache warlord Soldado. Over time, Bowers grows to respect Flynn's knowledge and ability. The idea to gaslight Santana into helping create a resistance against Duro and Lazair is ultimately Flynn's, but Bowers comes into his own well enough to make that task his.
There are five antagonistic forces at play, which all kinda overlap each other and kinda muddy the direction of the story, which isn't a great thing, but Leonard handles it all decently. You have Colonel Deneen, who sends Flynn on the mission because of a long-standing vendetta regarding Flynn having witnessed Deneen shoot himself in the foot (literally) to get out of war after being spooked by shelling. It later turns out Bowers is singled out among the Army Cavalry to join Flynn because Deneen vaguely suspects Bowers's father might have noticed the wound way back when, and might have told his son the story, which... just goes to show how twisted Deneen is. The main target of the mission is Soldado Viejo, a Mimbres Apache known for his brutality, and who... kinda doesn't really factor into the story as much as the back of the book would suggest. We have Curt Lazair, a bounty hunter out to kill and scalp Soldado for the reward (the American government only wants to force Soldado onto a reservation). We have Frank Rellis, an ambitious drunk who joins Lazair for funsies, but who tries to hunt Flynn and Bowers, thinking they came to Soyopa to follow him after he shot Flynn's buddy, Madora, in the dark, back at the start of the novel. And we have Lieutenant Duro, who has kind of taken over Soyopa, and allows Lazair to scalp Mexicans and dress the scalps up to look Indian as part of a bounty racket.
The first page in this copy of the book is that sort of "preview" thing you see often, and it details a duel challenge between Flynn and Rellis. This actual scene doesn't appear in the novel until the fifteen chapter... out of twenty. Rellis seems like he's just a generic stinker whose only purpose is to get shot by Flynn as a show of Flynn's badassery, but... this dude lasts a long ass time. His eventual comeuppance is appreciated, to be sure, but it's hardly tied to the plots of Deneen, Duro, Soldado, or really even Lazair, with whom Rellis is most closely associated. Now, the defeat of Rellis does kinda link to Sargeant Santana's own level-up in badassery, which will accordingly boost Bowers, and lead to the big climactic battle, so that's something. Soldado is nominally the main villain, but the narrative role is more adequately taken by Lazair or Rellis. The thing is, Lazair is "defeated" when Flynn rescues Nita, and kinda just checks out of the story; I think he's supposed to be the dude the Apaches torture near the very end? Soldado has a very tense scene in the middle of the book when Flynn and Bowers first encounter him, but he's not visible ever again, and the novel kinda just ends with him getting away (though it's suggested the Mexican and American Armies will team up to nab him). Duro gets got by Hilario, father of Nita, which kinda works, but it might be more generically "poetic justice" if Duro was killed by Santana or if Hilario ended up killing Lazair. I don't know, the fact that Hilario does Duro in makes me feel this is maybe almost a "revisionist" western (if that's even a "thing" in western novels). A lot of stuff here is cool, but my ignorance of the genre makes it hard to tell if it's to be expected or if Leonard is changing the game.
I will definitely be reading the other Leonard western I own, soon. And I definitely have an interest in checking out his non-western crime novels as well. I just don't know if enjoying this novel would necessarily mean I'd enjoy other, non-Leonard westerns, so I'll continue to dip my toes in the genre, rather than just cop dozens of books at once (like I was tempted to do...).
I was born in 1994. I am, frankly, far too young to truly experience the Western as a popular genre. Maybe if my father was more into Westerns, he might have shown some to my brother and me, but he wasn't, so he didn't. But he's also kind of too young as well, being born in 1969, and growing up more with reruns of Batman and Star Trek than Bonanza or Gunsmoke. I think, some Christmas, my dad got a DVD set of the Leone-Eastwood Dollars Trilogy, but I was not interested in watching them because... I had no reason to think I'd like Westerns when I was twelve or whatever. But this might have been a time when I kinda just didn't "trust" my dad's opinions on movies, like he's too old to like cool things, maybe. I recall also not caring too much about Back to the Future, which is pretty significant here as well because the third installment was especially uninteresting to me; it was set far enough in the past as to play in a "Western" setting, which was simply less cool to me than the "2015" setting of Part II. I would go on to enjoy Coen Brothers movies like No Country for Old Men (a "neo-Western") and True Grit (a remake of a "classic" Western), but didn't really continue on to explore the genre much further.
In high school, there was like a "meme" where kids who weren't really into music beyond whatever stupid shit comes on the radio might explain their tastes with the phrase "I listen to everything... except country and rap." "Everything" in this context means "Top 40, 'classic' rock, and 'alternative' rock" radio stations, omitting or avoiding the country stations or black music stations - but these kids wouldn't explore music much beyond what is popular and accessible. I was rather late in getting into hip-hop, being around 2010 with a trifecta of Kanye West, Waka Flocka Flame, and Big Boi releases that became very important to me that year. I don't think I'd ever unironically used the "except country and rap" line myself, but at least I had stopped dealing with popular radio years ago, finding music my own way by reading up on genres on Wikipedia, until I got into Pitchfork and /mu/, but I was at least somewhat "proud" to get into rap, if not simply to avoid being one of "those kids." But country still eluded me. It wasn't really until 2023 that I decided to take the time to "get into" country - which basically worked, so now I do listen to "everything," so to speak.
The above paragraph is somewhat irrelevant, but part of the point is broadening my horizons to accept country music has also made me want to check out more Western movies, and maybe some Western prose fiction - since I feel Cormac McCarthy, whom I've read before, kinda blatantly exceeds what might be considered the limits of the genre, and so maybe doesn't really "count." If I recall correctly, I got to The Bounty Hunters here because I was watching Justified on Hulu some time ago, which I ended up loving, and which is based on the work of Elmore Leonard, then I happened to rewatch Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, which I think I'd known was based on a Leonard novel, but which I'd forgotten, and was reminded of in the course of rewatching the movie. I wanted to jump later into Leonard's fiction career, with the sort of crime stories adapted into these programs, but... well, quite simply, he wrote Westerns first. And I was able to find a cheap eBay lot of six Western paperbacks, including two Leonard novels. I read this one first because it came out first.
****
Being, as I am, not terribly familiar with this genre of prose, I was pleasantly surprised to find this 1953 novel leans closer in spirit to the spaghetti Westerns of the '60s than what I imagined to be a "squeaky clean" image of like a John Wayne ilk. There's nothing too graphic here, nothing like e.g. Blood Meridian, but there's still a bit of a "rawness": some "bitch" and "goddamn" words, some bloody scalpings, some bloody gunshots, allusion to rape (but which doesn't happen), allusion to prostitution (which does), and a scene where a Mexican girl's tits flop around a little after some manhandling by a drunken bounty hunter (this is treated more like "look how evil Lazair's men are" than "dude ¡check out these perky brown tetas!"). Probably very much a product of its time, Apache characters are almost all brutal, inhuman monsters; there's a good-guy Apache, Three-cent, whose accidental murder is kinda glossed over, but the feeling is more "we don't have time to worry about this just now" and not so much "well, that sucks, but he's not white so..."
I have no reason not to believe the Golden Age of western (I'm going to start lowercasing the genre name) fiction isn't meant to establish itself on the sheer badassery of its heroes. David Flynn isn't too much of a "deep" character, instead being mostly a cipher to allow the plot and action to move forward. There's a tropey take on romance, where Flynn wants to settle down at the end of the novel with young Nita, but the book doesn't end with a romantic embrace as one might expect from episodes of western TV shows. Flynn also has a rather logical view on what is or is not appropriate for his mission; he's not gonna jump into a gang of Apaches, guns blazing, because in the world of this book you will get your shit rocked for trying that mess. In fact, Flynn doesn't really kill too many people here; the climax of the novel is mostly just Mexicans chasing the Apaches off while Flynn stands in awe.
Probably something weird about the novel is how young Bowers is shown to have more character growth, but is less of a focal character than Flynn. In the above-referenced climax, a Mexican cavalry is led by Bowers, who shows strong leadership qualities after the trial-by-fire that is the novel's central suicide mission. At the start of the story, Bowers is a cocksure kid who kinda pisses Flynn off with how straight-laced he is w/r/t Army culture, versus how ignorant he'd be of the harsh wilderness of Apache country. Bowers starts off a little standoffish, not understanding why he'd need this civilian to lead him through Mexico to hunt and capture Apache warlord Soldado. Over time, Bowers grows to respect Flynn's knowledge and ability. The idea to gaslight Santana into helping create a resistance against Duro and Lazair is ultimately Flynn's, but Bowers comes into his own well enough to make that task his.
There are five antagonistic forces at play, which all kinda overlap each other and kinda muddy the direction of the story, which isn't a great thing, but Leonard handles it all decently. You have Colonel Deneen, who sends Flynn on the mission because of a long-standing vendetta regarding Flynn having witnessed Deneen shoot himself in the foot (literally) to get out of war after being spooked by shelling. It later turns out Bowers is singled out among the Army Cavalry to join Flynn because Deneen vaguely suspects Bowers's father might have noticed the wound way back when, and might have told his son the story, which... just goes to show how twisted Deneen is. The main target of the mission is Soldado Viejo, a Mimbres Apache known for his brutality, and who... kinda doesn't really factor into the story as much as the back of the book would suggest. We have Curt Lazair, a bounty hunter out to kill and scalp Soldado for the reward (the American government only wants to force Soldado onto a reservation). We have Frank Rellis, an ambitious drunk who joins Lazair for funsies, but who tries to hunt Flynn and Bowers, thinking they came to Soyopa to follow him after he shot Flynn's buddy, Madora, in the dark, back at the start of the novel. And we have Lieutenant Duro, who has kind of taken over Soyopa, and allows Lazair to scalp Mexicans and dress the scalps up to look Indian as part of a bounty racket.
The first page in this copy of the book is that sort of "preview" thing you see often, and it details a duel challenge between Flynn and Rellis. This actual scene doesn't appear in the novel until the fifteen chapter... out of twenty. Rellis seems like he's just a generic stinker whose only purpose is to get shot by Flynn as a show of Flynn's badassery, but... this dude lasts a long ass time. His eventual comeuppance is appreciated, to be sure, but it's hardly tied to the plots of Deneen, Duro, Soldado, or really even Lazair, with whom Rellis is most closely associated. Now, the defeat of Rellis does kinda link to Sargeant Santana's own level-up in badassery, which will accordingly boost Bowers, and lead to the big climactic battle, so that's something. Soldado is nominally the main villain, but the narrative role is more adequately taken by Lazair or Rellis. The thing is, Lazair is "defeated" when Flynn rescues Nita, and kinda just checks out of the story; I think he's supposed to be the dude the Apaches torture near the very end? Soldado has a very tense scene in the middle of the book when Flynn and Bowers first encounter him, but he's not visible ever again, and the novel kinda just ends with him getting away (though it's suggested the Mexican and American Armies will team up to nab him). Duro gets got by Hilario, father of Nita, which kinda works, but it might be more generically "poetic justice" if Duro was killed by Santana or if Hilario ended up killing Lazair. I don't know, the fact that Hilario does Duro in makes me feel this is maybe almost a "revisionist" western (if that's even a "thing" in western novels). A lot of stuff here is cool, but my ignorance of the genre makes it hard to tell if it's to be expected or if Leonard is changing the game.
I will definitely be reading the other Leonard western I own, soon. And I definitely have an interest in checking out his non-western crime novels as well. I just don't know if enjoying this novel would necessarily mean I'd enjoy other, non-Leonard westerns, so I'll continue to dip my toes in the genre, rather than just cop dozens of books at once (like I was tempted to do...).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 25, 2025
6/10
Solid is as solid does. Very light with some great lines and monologues. A bit too heavy on the environment descriptors, which don't add a whole lot. Could pound this out in a weekend if you were so inclined.
Solid is as solid does. Very light with some great lines and monologues. A bit too heavy on the environment descriptors, which don't add a whole lot. Could pound this out in a weekend if you were so inclined.
May 5, 2022
*No spoilers, I'm not like that*
This was just a classic Western story to it's core from start to finish and excellently done by the great Elmore Leonard, who is seriously becoming my favourite author.
I like the pace of this book and how the stories slowly progressed through the book. It was definitely a slow-burner but of course everything came around full circle.
The characters are good,typical
frontier types and it is very easy to get into them. Yes, the dialogue is very little and could be strectched out more, but for what it is, it's good.
Now! The main part of this book that is confusing to me isn't actually the story but the actual book itself. I seen on many websites that this book has over 336 pages in it. But the one I read had 172 pages. Is there two different books? Because I'm so confused about it,hahaha.
Did I read the first book? Is there a series? Or is the book with 336 pages a collection of stories under the same name?
Anyway, great book, definitely recommend it.
Onto the next one!
The Marc Knight
This was just a classic Western story to it's core from start to finish and excellently done by the great Elmore Leonard, who is seriously becoming my favourite author.
I like the pace of this book and how the stories slowly progressed through the book. It was definitely a slow-burner but of course everything came around full circle.
The characters are good,typical
frontier types and it is very easy to get into them. Yes, the dialogue is very little and could be strectched out more, but for what it is, it's good.
Now! The main part of this book that is confusing to me isn't actually the story but the actual book itself. I seen on many websites that this book has over 336 pages in it. But the one I read had 172 pages. Is there two different books? Because I'm so confused about it,hahaha.
Did I read the first book? Is there a series? Or is the book with 336 pages a collection of stories under the same name?
Anyway, great book, definitely recommend it.
Onto the next one!
The Marc Knight
March 25, 2020
It was a “Good Read” 😉
Entertaining!
Entertaining!
January 8, 2025
Not my favorite but an exciting introduction to frontier fiction. This one’s Leonard’s debut so I look forward to reading later novels to see how his writing evolves.
July 25, 2014
Assuredly, from the piles of critical praise he received over his prolific career, Elmore Leonard is skilled at what he does. He's written novels, screenplays, short stories and though not every piece of work has garnered critical acclaim, he's one of the structural foundations of modern crime writing. Thus, it comes as some shock that his first novel, The Bounty Hunters, is such a drag to read. Before he wrote crime, Leonard honed his chops as a writer of Westerns and The Bounty Hunters is his not only his first Western but his very first book. And it shows. A lot. The Bounty Hunters feels, un-ironically, like a dime store paperback. The sort of thing that nowadays you'd leaf through in the book aisle of a Walmart. Two men, one a seasoned bounty hunter, the other a fresh-faced military officer, are sent by a corrupt colonel down into Mexico to capture a notorious Apache. Along the way they realize there's more at hand and more at stake then previously believed.
And that's about it. Leonard's first book is just sort a rote adventure story with uninspiring dialogue and a plot that never gets the injection of adrenaline a book like this really needs. Instead the reader spends most of the time reading the narration of two "tough" characters who "know the land" and their enemies, a bunch of corrupt Mexicans and outlaw Americans. There's a lot of shooting, but none of it is interesting, and by the first 100 pages I'd already grown completely bored of the characters and anything that might happen to them.
You can see the beginnings of something here. Leonard can write dialogue, part of the time, and he creates a number of enjoyable enough characters and then pits them against each other, but it never really amounts to much. It's trashy, pulp but without the skill that would later define Leonard.
And that's about it. Leonard's first book is just sort a rote adventure story with uninspiring dialogue and a plot that never gets the injection of adrenaline a book like this really needs. Instead the reader spends most of the time reading the narration of two "tough" characters who "know the land" and their enemies, a bunch of corrupt Mexicans and outlaw Americans. There's a lot of shooting, but none of it is interesting, and by the first 100 pages I'd already grown completely bored of the characters and anything that might happen to them.
You can see the beginnings of something here. Leonard can write dialogue, part of the time, and he creates a number of enjoyable enough characters and then pits them against each other, but it never really amounts to much. It's trashy, pulp but without the skill that would later define Leonard.
October 10, 2013
I've read very little Elmore Leonard. Yeah, I know, that's on me.
Recently, I read Pronto, the first Raylan Givens novel, and saw what all the fuss was about. Leonard writes characters as much as he writes novels, and his dialogue is spot on. Spot. On.
So, my next journey with Leonard was to go back and see where it all began. Plus, I've always felt like I haven't read enough good westerns. Meaning I was primed to enjoy The Bounty Hunters. I wanted to. I was jazzed to.
But I didn't.
The dialogue, even all the way back in his first book, is already there. On point. Cutting, sharp, fantastic. But The Bounty Hunters read like Leonard, who writes these characters so well, was drawing up some character profiles, throwing them together and hoping something would develop. After a third of the book, a book that had a pretty good hook in the beginning, I felt very little had developed. The stage was getting more and more populated with little regard to who this person was and what they hoped to achieve in the narrative. It came to the point that confusion was the order of the day, and as much as wanted to continue, I just couldn't.
Doesn't mean I won't read Leonard again. I will. It's obvious he can write. You don't need me to tell you that.
How far will I move forward? I don't know. I still feel that hankerin' for a good western.
Not recommended, but it was interesting to see such fantastic dialogue from Leonard from the very start.
Recently, I read Pronto, the first Raylan Givens novel, and saw what all the fuss was about. Leonard writes characters as much as he writes novels, and his dialogue is spot on. Spot. On.
So, my next journey with Leonard was to go back and see where it all began. Plus, I've always felt like I haven't read enough good westerns. Meaning I was primed to enjoy The Bounty Hunters. I wanted to. I was jazzed to.
But I didn't.
The dialogue, even all the way back in his first book, is already there. On point. Cutting, sharp, fantastic. But The Bounty Hunters read like Leonard, who writes these characters so well, was drawing up some character profiles, throwing them together and hoping something would develop. After a third of the book, a book that had a pretty good hook in the beginning, I felt very little had developed. The stage was getting more and more populated with little regard to who this person was and what they hoped to achieve in the narrative. It came to the point that confusion was the order of the day, and as much as wanted to continue, I just couldn't.
Doesn't mean I won't read Leonard again. I will. It's obvious he can write. You don't need me to tell you that.
How far will I move forward? I don't know. I still feel that hankerin' for a good western.
Not recommended, but it was interesting to see such fantastic dialogue from Leonard from the very start.
December 10, 2022
I'm getting old... Twice in the last week I've re-read two books without recalling reading them before... Tis time around I enjoyed this one more... The flaws are still there, but the writing is still pretty good. I really need to read some new stuff... lol
This one is billed as Leonard's first novel, and though it is a gritty western that gets the historical details and the proper flavor, etc. It still seems somehow lacking. Leonard refined his craft as he wrote and his stuff got better and better. This one is a fine example of a decent, but not great, western.
I think one of the problems with the novel is too many bad guys. There are the Indians, portrayed here as noble, but vicious savages, the overbearing cavalry officer, the commander of the rurales, and the scalp hunting band who murder for money. Oh, and there is another bushwhacking scumbag that complicates matters.
Still, Leonard manages to tie this one together. Since it was his first novel, I think we should cut him some slack.. It just got better from here.
Read
August 6, 2017The Bounty Hunters was Elmore Leonard’s first novel. He had published a number of short stories in Western magazines before this. As a writer of westerns he was brilliant. The love of character is evident from this first novel.
The Bounty Hunters follows Dave Flynn, former cavalry officer turned scout as he leads a young lieutenant into Mexico on the trail of an Apache war chief. Along the way they encounter American scalp hunters who work for the local Mexican commander. Trouble with these scalp hunters is that they aren’t particular with whose scalps they take. A young woman, the daughter of a friend, is taken by the scalp hunters and Flynn goes after them.
All the classic western themes are here. The rugged individual, the dangerous situations. We have good guys, we have bad guys, and in the end both the good guys and bad guys get their reward. Bounty Hunters delivers all that could be expected from a western written by Elmore Leonard.
The Bounty Hunters follows Dave Flynn, former cavalry officer turned scout as he leads a young lieutenant into Mexico on the trail of an Apache war chief. Along the way they encounter American scalp hunters who work for the local Mexican commander. Trouble with these scalp hunters is that they aren’t particular with whose scalps they take. A young woman, the daughter of a friend, is taken by the scalp hunters and Flynn goes after them.
All the classic western themes are here. The rugged individual, the dangerous situations. We have good guys, we have bad guys, and in the end both the good guys and bad guys get their reward. Bounty Hunters delivers all that could be expected from a western written by Elmore Leonard.
July 20, 2014
I was so wowed by my first Elmore Leonard (“Swag”) in April that I decided I would read all of his books in order of publication. He wrote westerns before crime, and this, “The Bounty Hunters” (1953), was his first. Not a patch on “Swag”, but I wasn’t expecting it to be – I want to see Elmore Leonard’s development.
Hero, Dave Flynn, is sent by a US army baddie to bring back an Apache renegade who is hiding out in Mexico. There are too many threads and the choreography of the plot gets confusing, but I enjoyed three things about it very much: 1) the visuals of a classic western brought superbly to life on the page; 2) the clear promise of the spare craftsmanship of his later books; and 3) most intriguing, many echoes of Hemingway, so much so that in places it felt derivative of “For Whom The Bell Tolls”.
I’ll be fascinated to see how quickly Leonard developed his own voice, and I’ve sent off today for the next one: “The Law at Randado” (1954).
Hero, Dave Flynn, is sent by a US army baddie to bring back an Apache renegade who is hiding out in Mexico. There are too many threads and the choreography of the plot gets confusing, but I enjoyed three things about it very much: 1) the visuals of a classic western brought superbly to life on the page; 2) the clear promise of the spare craftsmanship of his later books; and 3) most intriguing, many echoes of Hemingway, so much so that in places it felt derivative of “For Whom The Bell Tolls”.
I’ll be fascinated to see how quickly Leonard developed his own voice, and I’ve sent off today for the next one: “The Law at Randado” (1954).
August 3, 2020
I began reading Elmore Leonard with his early collections of Western stories and now conclude the Western portion of Leonard's work with, ironically, his first novel, "The Bounty Hunters." I wasn't aware "Bounty Hunters" was Leonard's first novel when I picked it up to read, but you can already see the good attributes Leonard would continue to develop into true gold as he matured. I have to say that I am somewhat sad to end Leonard's Westerns just because they are all so good. They've always been a great means for me to clean my mental palate of confusion and frustration because the good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, and there's little consternation or fretting over what needs to get done. Leonard's protagonists' live by an unfortunately outdated code of conduct where truth, honor, loyalty and duty still rule.
August 9, 2013
This was Elmore Leonard’s first published novel, written in his late twenties. In it, already fully developed, is the trademark edge that he brings to his fiction. With its opening scene in a barbershop in Contention, Arizona, we get just that—an exchange of contentious dialogue that’s both bristling and funny. It’s the same mastery of verbal dispute between people at sharp odds with each other that makes “Justified” so much fun today. . .
Read my review at my blog.
Read my review at my blog.
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