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davidscrimshaw's review
5.0
Because I skipped the introduction, the only tip-off I had that these stories were written early in Elmore Leonard's career is that none of them had settings after 1955 or 1960.
Very satisfying and a good thing about reading Elmore Leonard short stories is that you can put the book down after a story. Whereas with a novel, you have to read the whole thing straight through even if it means you stay awake all night long.
Very satisfying and a good thing about reading Elmore Leonard short stories is that you can put the book down after a story. Whereas with a novel, you have to read the whole thing straight through even if it means you stay awake all night long.
brother_stephen's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
luana420's review against another edition
3.0
Some good, some less so.
I read this out of a completionist impulse, but it was short and alright enough that I did not regret it. Best stories are definitely ones with the communist militia girl, the bullfighter and the padre. Kinda interesting to see ideas get reworked (two Charlie Martz stories, two different home invasion stories). Even Elmore Leonard's a guy who puts his pants on one leg at a time!
I read this out of a completionist impulse, but it was short and alright enough that I did not regret it. Best stories are definitely ones with the communist militia girl, the bullfighter and the padre. Kinda interesting to see ideas get reworked (two Charlie Martz stories, two different home invasion stories). Even Elmore Leonard's a guy who puts his pants on one leg at a time!
markfeltskog's review against another edition
Because the words "Unpublished Stories" are in such small print on the cover of this book, I want to reiterate, as Goodreads does in its entry for this book, that this is a selection of stories from Elmore Leonard that he never published. There's a good reason for that: several of them are nearly unreadable.
So why five stars for this book, you may ask? Because it is a glimpse inside the workshop of a master. One seldom has a chance to see what a publisher--or even a writer--rejects. That said, there are also a few gems here: the two stories that give this book its title, featuring a character, Charlie Martz, whom it would have been interesting to see more of. The standout in this collection, and the piece which indicates that Elmore Leonard was on his way to becoming the towering stylist he was, is "The Bull Ring at Blisston." I won't spoil the story other than to say it by itself is worth the price of admission to this collection.
So why five stars for this book, you may ask? Because it is a glimpse inside the workshop of a master. One seldom has a chance to see what a publisher--or even a writer--rejects. That said, there are also a few gems here: the two stories that give this book its title, featuring a character, Charlie Martz, whom it would have been interesting to see more of. The standout in this collection, and the piece which indicates that Elmore Leonard was on his way to becoming the towering stylist he was, is "The Bull Ring at Blisston." I won't spoil the story other than to say it by itself is worth the price of admission to this collection.
laurenelizabeth_'s review against another edition
3.0
Three stars because some of the stories were good and some were not so good. Which is to be expected especially since they were early works and some unpublished works. But it's brilliant to see an author's changing style and development.
samhouston's review
4.0
Entertaining compilation of 15 very early Elmore Leonard short stories running the gamut from hard core westerns to equally hard core crime fiction happening in mid-twentieth century Detroit.
As in any short story collection, some stories are stronger than others, but none of them fail either to entertain or display the early talent that would very soon mark Leonard's work as a novelist and short story writer. This one might be a little harder to find than Leonard's better-known work, but I recommend it to his longtime fans - and to those readers who still have the thrill of jumping on the Elmore Leonard bandwagon ahead of them.
As in any short story collection, some stories are stronger than others, but none of them fail either to entertain or display the early talent that would very soon mark Leonard's work as a novelist and short story writer. This one might be a little harder to find than Leonard's better-known work, but I recommend it to his longtime fans - and to those readers who still have the thrill of jumping on the Elmore Leonard bandwagon ahead of them.
jlansner's review
3.0
There's a reason these stories were never published. The collection starts out bad -- the opening story, "One, Horizontal" reads like a teenager trying to write a pulp crime story -- and advances through a bunch of mediocre entries before arriving at a few stories that would feel like lesser entries in a regular Leonard collection. It's interesting to see Leonard developing his voice and style, but unless you're a hard-core fan, you should skip this book.
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