A taut Western from genre king Elmore Leonard.
I’ve just got back from a lovely holiday in Greece, during which I did a fair bit of poolside reading, and Valdez is Coming was one of several books I sped through.
Elmore Leonard, who sadly died last summer, was a prolific master of gritty contemporary crime fiction, but he cut his teeth penning Westerns like this sinewy beauty.
It’s the straight-forward story of a part-time town constable, Bob Valdez, a laid-back nice guy with a hidden background as an Apache tracker for the army. In the opening pages Valdez is drawn into a face-off between an innocent local man and an infamous mercenary gunrunner, Frank Tanner. In the aftermath of this encounter, Valdez sets out to persuade Tanner to pay reparations to the local man’s widow. This in turn leads to a growing spiral of violence, causing Valdez to embrace his brutal past in order to see justice done.
It’s a gripping story. Leonard’s style was so perfectly pared down and readable even early in his career, with not a single word wasted. Valdez and Tanner are a classic Western hero / villain combo in a lot of ways – Valdez reminded me a bit of Gary Cooper’s character in High Noon. But the book avoids predictability with an unexpected ending and an different slant on the typical love story. And there are other well-drawn characters to keep you interested, including the malicious hoodlum R.L. Davis and Tanner’s clever and likeable second-in-command.
This a shot of pure Wild West pleasure, and you instantly know you’re in the hands of an expert storyteller, with a galloping thrill-ride across the mesa lying before you. Highly recommended for fans of the genre.
Edition:
Orion | 2005 | 200p | Paperback | Buy here
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