Elmore Leonard is best known for his crime novels like Get Shorty, 52 Pick Up and Out Of Sight, but you can't beat his early westerns for entertainment. This is a classic showdown novel of a rancher protecting his land, at the end of the American Civil War.
After two years of fighting as a Confederate in Tennessee, Paul Cable brings his strong-minded wife Maggie and three young children back to their Arizona ranch. A new man is running the local supply depot - they feel cautious about Ed Janroe, and not because he has just one arm. Janroe tells them men have been living in their house for two years, their horses grazing on their land. Vern Kidston and his gang have been supplying the Yankee army with horses, feeling that rebel land in union territory belongs the them. Cable leaves the family at the depot to fight for what is his. None of the men are soldiers any more, it is a case of a man protecting his family home - as Cable had done for many years previously, defending against the marauding Chiricahua Indians - and he quickly clears the home, killing two men in a fair fight. Kidston simply wants the land because his horses needed to graze on it, and after two years had come to feel that the Saber River valley was rightfully his, no matter how many times they are run off the land.
Janroe has his own agenda, spurring Cable on and pitting the men against each other for his own benefit, as he is running underground weapons across the border from Hidalgo to the Confederates. Coercing Cable to kill the Kidston gang will fail, as these are men of honour who will not kill wantonly, despite the chances provided on both sides.
With the Civil War officially over, Janroe makes a last attempt to control the situation, leading to an unexpected finale. Out of uniform, these men are not enemies, and their desires not so dissimilar.
This is the fourth book Leonard had published, after The Bounty Hunters, The Law at Randado, and Escape From Five Shadows. With a title including Last Stand, of course there is a shoot-out lasting several pages, showcasing the skills of both men, as well as the western code: a man deserves the right to protect himself, and without that, it is simply murder. The added layer of an ex-Confederate in union territory was interesting, and this has been called one of Leonard's best westerns.
For a well rounded and entertaining read, I agree.
My other Elmore Leonard reviews:
1959 / Tradeback / 248 pages
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