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Confession
In this never-before-published story, Elmore Leonard, the late “modern master of American genre writing,” puts a darkly playful twist on the Wild West showdown. Set in a dusty Arizona town when Apaches still roamed the land, “Confession” tells the tale of Father Schwinn, a gentle but imposing priest who smokes cigars, swills whiskey, and feels right at home with the rough cowboys and stagecoach drivers who hang out at the local saloon. When two saddlebags filled with cash mysteriously appear on the steps of Father Schwinn’s church, he finds himself caught up in a crime that puts his vows of nonviolence to the test.
Written in 1958, when Leonard was working as a copywriter for an ad agency in Detroit, “Confession” shows the nascent genius of a man who would reinvent contemporary storytelling with western tales like “3:10 to Yuma,” “The Tall T,” and “Hombre,” all of which made their way to the big screen. A destined-to-be-classic tale by the “absolute master” of violence, vice, and eventual redemption.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elmore Leonard wrote forty-five novels and nearly as many western and crime short stories across his six-decade career, including the bestsellers “Road Dogs,” “Up in Honey’s Room,” “The Hot Kid,” “Mr. Paradise,” “Tishomingo Blues,” and the critically acclaimed collection of short stories “When the Women Come Out to Dance.” Many of his books have been made into movies, including “Get Shorty,” “Out of Sight,” and “Jackie Brown.” “Justified,” the hit series from FX, is based on Leonard’s character Raylan Givens, who appears in “Riding the Rap,” “Pronto,” the short story “Fire in the Hole,” and the novel “Raylan.” Leonard received the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA, and the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America. He was known to many as the “Dickens of Detroit” and had lived in the Detroit area since 1934.
PRAISE FOR ELMORE LEONARD
“In cowboy writing, Leonard belongs on the same A-list as Louis L’Amour, Owen Wister, and Zane Grey.” —The New York Daily News
“Leonard has penned some of the best western fiction ever.” —USA Today
“Even the earliest of his western yarns shows Leonard to be a master storyteller.”
—The Los Angeles Times
“People look on writers that they like as an irreplaceable resource. I do. Elmore Leonard, every day I wake up and—not to be morbid or anything, although morbid is my life to a degree—don’t see his obituary in the paper, I think to myself, ‘Great! He’s probably working somewhere. He’s gonna produce another book, and I’ll have another book to read.’ Because when he’s gone, there’s nobody else.” — Stephen King
“Elmore Leonard is an awfully good writer of the sneaky sort; he is so good you don’t even notice what he’s up to.” —The New York Times Book Review
“[Leonard’s] finely honed sentences can sound as flinty/poetic as Hemingway or as hard-boiled as Raymond Chandler. His ear for the way people talk—or should—is peerless.” —The Detroit News
“[Leonard’s] characters leap from the page with a few short keystrokes, like a form of bloodstained haiku. —The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
A major literary star … He defies categorization, and when you do try to categorize him, you are invariably wrong. —The Chicago Tribune
“Leonard is the best in the His dialogue snaps, his characters are more alive than most of the people you meet on the street, and his twisting plots always resolve themselves with a no-nonsense plausibility.” —Newsday
“An authentic American icon.” —The Seattle Times
“Elmore Leonard may be the last hope for the written word.” —The New York Observer
A master of narrative … A poet of the vernacular … Leonard paints an intimate, precise, funny, frightening, and irresistible mural of the American underworld.”
—The New Yorker
Written in 1958, when Leonard was working as a copywriter for an ad agency in Detroit, “Confession” shows the nascent genius of a man who would reinvent contemporary storytelling with western tales like “3:10 to Yuma,” “The Tall T,” and “Hombre,” all of which made their way to the big screen. A destined-to-be-classic tale by the “absolute master” of violence, vice, and eventual redemption.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elmore Leonard wrote forty-five novels and nearly as many western and crime short stories across his six-decade career, including the bestsellers “Road Dogs,” “Up in Honey’s Room,” “The Hot Kid,” “Mr. Paradise,” “Tishomingo Blues,” and the critically acclaimed collection of short stories “When the Women Come Out to Dance.” Many of his books have been made into movies, including “Get Shorty,” “Out of Sight,” and “Jackie Brown.” “Justified,” the hit series from FX, is based on Leonard’s character Raylan Givens, who appears in “Riding the Rap,” “Pronto,” the short story “Fire in the Hole,” and the novel “Raylan.” Leonard received the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA, and the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America. He was known to many as the “Dickens of Detroit” and had lived in the Detroit area since 1934.
PRAISE FOR ELMORE LEONARD
“In cowboy writing, Leonard belongs on the same A-list as Louis L’Amour, Owen Wister, and Zane Grey.” —The New York Daily News
“Leonard has penned some of the best western fiction ever.” —USA Today
“Even the earliest of his western yarns shows Leonard to be a master storyteller.”
—The Los Angeles Times
“People look on writers that they like as an irreplaceable resource. I do. Elmore Leonard, every day I wake up and—not to be morbid or anything, although morbid is my life to a degree—don’t see his obituary in the paper, I think to myself, ‘Great! He’s probably working somewhere. He’s gonna produce another book, and I’ll have another book to read.’ Because when he’s gone, there’s nobody else.” — Stephen King
“Elmore Leonard is an awfully good writer of the sneaky sort; he is so good you don’t even notice what he’s up to.” —The New York Times Book Review
“[Leonard’s] finely honed sentences can sound as flinty/poetic as Hemingway or as hard-boiled as Raymond Chandler. His ear for the way people talk—or should—is peerless.” —The Detroit News
“[Leonard’s] characters leap from the page with a few short keystrokes, like a form of bloodstained haiku. —The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
A major literary star … He defies categorization, and when you do try to categorize him, you are invariably wrong. —The Chicago Tribune
“Leonard is the best in the His dialogue snaps, his characters are more alive than most of the people you meet on the street, and his twisting plots always resolve themselves with a no-nonsense plausibility.” —Newsday
“An authentic American icon.” —The Seattle Times
“Elmore Leonard may be the last hope for the written word.” —The New York Observer
A master of narrative … A poet of the vernacular … Leonard paints an intimate, precise, funny, frightening, and irresistible mural of the American underworld.”
—The New Yorker
26 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 30, 2013
21 people are currently reading
124 people want to read
About the author
Elmore Leonard
214 books3,716 followersElmore John Leonard lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before settling in Detroit in 1935. After serving in the navy, he studied English literature at the University of Detroit where he entered a short story competition. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.
Father of Peter Leonard.
Father of Peter Leonard.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 26, 2014
For as much as I like Leonard's crime fiction, I think his westerns may be even better. This is yet another tightly written short story from the master, and I can only wonder at why it wasn't previously published and included in the The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard. It's definitely of equal quality to the stories collected there.
February 28, 2019
A short story, which I thought was a full book. It was good, typical Leonard conversations but it was too short.
December 18, 2014
read this in july on the kindle and here it is december...the 18th, may it do ya fine. at some point in the near future i will have read all that leonard has to offer. i don't know what is left though i know the number left to read is small in comparison to what i have read. leonard never disappoints...his stories are a joy to read. in almost all of them, westerns included, there is a comedic vein that makes the telling that much better.
this is a short...i think...looking at how it starts:
someone would say, "but, father, over three thousand dollars. who has that much to give?" and he would say, "nuno." because he would see it in his mind that way: the boy, nuno, coming through the trees riding a broomstick, slapping his hip for speed but held back by the saddlebags that hung down from his shoulder and bounced against his legs; saddlebags heavy with three-thousand and fifty-five dollars in u.s. currency.
this story has a kind of o. henry flavor to it...there is a beginning, a middle, and an end, a satisfying conclusion, may it do ya fine...and if it doesn't you're not paying attention. like i said, leonard never disappoints. if you love to read and you have not read leonard, you're missing out. big big.
this is a short...i think...looking at how it starts:
someone would say, "but, father, over three thousand dollars. who has that much to give?" and he would say, "nuno." because he would see it in his mind that way: the boy, nuno, coming through the trees riding a broomstick, slapping his hip for speed but held back by the saddlebags that hung down from his shoulder and bounced against his legs; saddlebags heavy with three-thousand and fifty-five dollars in u.s. currency.
this story has a kind of o. henry flavor to it...there is a beginning, a middle, and an end, a satisfying conclusion, may it do ya fine...and if it doesn't you're not paying attention. like i said, leonard never disappoints. if you love to read and you have not read leonard, you're missing out. big big.
June 4, 2016
I was mildly cheesed after I got this because I realized a little late that I had paid a couple of bucks for one short story. On the other hand, artists have to sell their work so I guess I can justify it that way. I just want readers to be fully aware that if you purchase this, it is a short story and not a series of shorts or a novel.
With that being said, I loved it. Elmore wrote 3:10 to Yuma and I like his style. His western genre is dark and humorous, just like the crime genre stuff he has put out.
I this short, Father Schwinn, a tough priest in the unforgiving southwestern frontier, is a cigar chomping, whiskey swilling clergy who ministers to the same. Two saddlebags full of cash that were previously stolen, arrive on the doorstep of his mission. From there, it is an unconventional old west showdown that ensues.
The writing is good, the characters are very well drawn and it is a great example of short story writing and telling. A writing class could have a great time using some of the tools and see if they can construct something as good as Leonard. If you are a fan, you can appreciate it and if you aren't, its an inexpensive introduction of what his western writing is like.
January 5, 2014
A western involving a priest, two thieves, and a saddlebag full of loot left in the priest's care. How he deals with them is the crux of this early Elmore Leonard short story.
April 21, 2016
Short
Very short not worth the price. Somebody looking to make a quick buck. Love his writing but this should be a freebee!
Very short not worth the price. Somebody looking to make a quick buck. Love his writing but this should be a freebee!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews