Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Novel and Short Stories, October 1956

Well, that's one of the oddest Western pulp covers I've run across. I'm not sure I actually like it, but it's certainly eye-catching. The artwork is by Stanley Borack, who did the covers for a bunch of men's adventure magazines. Inside this issue of WESTERN NOVEL AND SHORT STORIES are stories by Elmore Leonard, Noel Loomis, S. Omar Barker, Edwin Booth, John H. Latham, and William Vance, which is a fairly strong line-up of writers.

Forgotten Books: Last Stand at Saber River - Elmore Leonard

(This post originally appeared in somewhat different form on January 21, 2006)

I’m on record as preferring Elmore Leonard’s early Westerns to his later crime novels, and LAST STAND AT SABER RIVER is a good reason why I feel that way. The set-up is fairly traditional: a former Confederate soldier returns home to Arizona Territory after being wounded and finds that Union sympathizers have taken over his ranch. Fightin’ and shootin’ ensues.

But what makes this such a fine book are the little touches. Instead of the usual hard-bitten loner who shows up so often in Westerns as the hero, Paul Cable is a family man with a wife (who is almost as tough as he is) and three small children. Several of the other characters aren’t really what they appear to be at first, or what the reader would expect. And the story is told in Leonard’s terse prose and wonderful dialogue. All in all, this is an excellent example of Leonard’s Westerns.

Forgotten Books: Escape From Five Shadows - Elmore Leonard

I've mentioned before that I prefer Elmore Leonard's Westerns to his crime novels, which puts me in the minority, I'm sure. Not that that bothers me. I've read all of Leonard's Western short stories and am working my way slowly through his Western novels.

Originally published in 1956, ESCAPE FROM FIVE SHADOWS is Leonard's third novel. It opens where a lot of novels might end: with the unjustly convicted protagonist's escape from prison. Corey Bowen, found guilty of rustling and sent to Yuma Prison, then to the work camp called Five Shadows, doesn't get away, though. He's recaptured and brought back, and that's just the beginning of a tense, low-key story that includes plenty of suspense and just enough action and romance.

As you'd expect from a novel by Elmore Leonard, even an early one, the dialogue is excellent and most of the characters can't be trusted as they play off of each other and try to gain an advantage. In addition to Corey Bowen, there are a couple of other inmates who are part of a second escape plan with him; the corrupt superintendent of the prison camp; a government official and his femme fatale wife; the beautiful daughter of a stagecoach station manager; and the Apache trackers whose job it is to go after prisoners who try to get away.

ESCAPE FROM FIVE SHADOWS is a slow burn of a novel that finally erupts in some excellent action scenes. As usual, Leonard's depiction of Arizona Territory is excellent, with the landscape almost becoming a character in its own right. If you've never read any of his Western novels, this would be a fine place to start.

Up in Honey's Room - Elmore Leonard

Since I read and enjoyed Elmore Leonard's Carl Webster collection COMFORT TO THE ENEMY not long ago, I thought I might as well go ahead and read UP IN HONEY'S ROOM, the other full-length novel featuring the gunslinging federal marshal from Oklahoma (following THE HOT KID).

I'm glad I read them in the order I did, since this book is a direct sequel to "Comfort to the Enemy", the title novella from that collection.  UP IN HONEY'S ROOM finds Carl going to Detroit during the waning days of World War II to chase down a couple of Germans who escaped from a POW camp in Oklahoma.  Once he gets there, he finds himself involved with the sometimes dangerous escapades of an amateur German spy ring operating in the city.  He also becomes involved with Honey Deal, a free-spirited young woman who was once married to one of those would-be German spies.

There's a lot of comedy in this one, along with a more serious plot at its center and some occasional outbreaks of violence.  As always, Leonard does a good job with the dialogue and the characters, and the storyline doesn't seem to wander around as much as in some other Leonard novels.  There are a few digressions, but mostly it's full speed ahead.  The period details are good, not too heavy-handed but enough to create an atmosphere of the American homefront during World War II.  I sometimes have a problem with the way Leonard's novels seem to peter out and don't have a strong ending.  This one is okay, although I thought it could have been a little more dramatic.

Overall, UP IN HONEY'S ROOM is a pretty entertaining novel.  I don't know if he plans to write any more about Carl Webster, but if he does, there's a good chance I'll read it.

Comfort to the Enemy - Elmore Leonard

I really have mixed emotions about Elmore Leonard's work.  I like his Westerns a lot, and I enjoy his crime novels, too, but they frustrate me because the plots meander around so much.  I guess I'm just too much of a plot guy.  But several years ago I read and liked his novel THE HOT KID, about U.S. Marshal Carl Webster, which was set during the Thirties in Oklahoma.  So when I came across Leonard's collection COMFORT TO THE ENEMY, which also features Webster, I thought I'd give it a try, and I'm glad I did.

There are two short stories, "Showdown at Checotah" and "Louly and Pretty Boy", which fill in more of the background concerning Carl Webster, and then the title novella, "Comfort to the Enemy", which is more of a novel as far as I'm concerned.  (I don't agree with people who claim that anything less than 70,000 words is a novella, but that doesn't really have anything to do with the subject at hand.)  Whatever you call it, "Comfort to the Enemy" is a really fine story, one of my favorites by Leonard.  Set during World War II, it finds Carl Webster investigating the murder of a prisoner in a POW camp full of Germans.  The plot is actually pretty straightforward, although Leonard does manage to work in some gangsters and Nazi saboteurs.  The whole thing generates a considerable amount of suspense by the end.

There's another Carl Webster novel, UP IN HONEY'S ROOM, that I haven't read yet.  I have a hunch that I'll be reading it soon, as much as I enjoyed COMFORT TO THE ENEMY.