52 Pickup by Elmore Leonard Read Free Book Online Page A

choice but to gun the fugitive down. Trouble was, Valdez killed an innocent man. And when he asked for justice — and some money for the dead man’s woman — they beat Valdez and tied him to a cross. They were still laughing when Valdez came back. And then they began to die. . .
    USA Today : “Although known for his mysteries, Leonard has penned some of the best Western fiction ever, including Valdez Is Coming .”
    Washington Post Book World : “A Leonard novel that still holds up as one of his very best.”
    From the novel:
    â€œYour minute’s up, boy.” Mr. Tanner glanced at his segundo again. “Teach him something.”
    The segundo drew the .44 on his right leg, cocked it and fired as he brought it up. And with the explosion the adobe chipped next to Bob Valdez’s face.
    Now those who were sitting and lounging by the fires rose and drew their revolvers, looking at the segundo and waiting their turn. One of them, an American, said “I know where I’m going to shoot the son of a bitch.”
    One of the others laughed and another one said, “See if you can shoot his meat off.” And another said, “It would fix this squaw-lover good.”
    Forty Lashes Less One (1972)
    A hellhole like Yuma Prison does all sorts of things to a man. Mostly it makes him want to escape. For two men facing life sentences — Harold Jackson, the only black man behind the walls, and Raymond San Carlos, an Apache halfbreed — a breakout seemed nigh on impossible. That is, until the law gave them two choices: rot in a cell, or track down and bring back the five most ruthless men in Arizona.
    New York Daily News : “Long before his slick, dark crime comedies, Elmore Leonard wrote some very tough and realistic Westerns.”
    From the novel:
    â€œYou want us to run twenty miles?”
    â€œYou’re an Apache Indian, aren’t you, Raymond? And Harold’s a Zulu. Well, by golly, an Apache Indian and a Zulu can run twenty, thirty miles a day, and there ain’t a white man in this territory can say that.”
    â€œYou want us to run twenty miles?” Raymond said again.
    â€œI want you to start thinking of who you are, that’s what I want. I want you to start thinking like warriors for a change instead of like convicts.”
    Gunsights (1979)
    Brendan Early and Dana Moon have tracked renegade Apaches together and gunned down scalp hunters to become Arizona legends. But now they face each other from opposite sides of what newspapers are calling The Rincon Mountain War. Brendan and a gang of mining company gun thugs are dead set on running Dana and “the People of the Mountain” from their land. The characters are unforgettable, the plot packed with action and gunfights from beginning to end.
    San Francisco Chronicle : “Classic Western fare.”
    Chicago Sun-Times : “Leonard’s special kind of tough guys were born in the Old West.”
    From the novel:
    Bren Early said to Moon, “Do you want to tell him to go stick it in his horse, or should I?”
    Sundeen turned toward his partners. They were getting ready.
    â€œI’ll give them three more steps,” Bren said and pulled his matched Smith & Wesson .44s. Moon drew his Colts.
    Three more strides and that was it.
    Sundeen was hollering something, and his two men on the ends fell dead in the first sudden explosion from the wall where Early and Moon stood with revolvers extended, aiming and firing.
    Bren said, “He’s used to having his way.”
    Moon said, “But he didn’t come prepared, did he?”
    Cuba Libre (1998)
    War in Cuba isn’t Ben Tyler’s concern. Still, sailing mares and guns into Havana harbor in 1898 —right past the submerged wreckage of the U.S. battleship Maine — may not be the smartest thing the recently prison-sprung horse wrangler ever did. Neither is shooting one of the local Guardia, though the pompous