The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories

by Elmore Leonard

The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories is a raw, hard-bitten collection that gathers together the best of Leonard's western fiction, to life. In "The Tonto Woman, " a young wife, her face tattooed by Indian kidnappers, becomes society's outcast - until an outlaw vows to set her free.... In "Only Good Ones, " we meet a fine man turned killer in one impossible moment.... "Saint with a Six-gun" pits a doomed prisoner against his young guard - in a drama of deception and compassion that leads to a shocking act of courage.... In "The Colonel's Lady, " a brutal ambush puts a woman into the hands of a vicious renegade - while a tracker attempts a rescue that cannot come in time ... and in "Blood Money, " five bank robbers are being picked off one by one, but one man believes he can make it out alive.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Short Stories, Collections

345 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Elmore 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.

Reviews

[Brian Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most authors of any genre should read this collection of short stories. Then you'll learn how to get character, emotion and description into a few pages while still managing to engage the reader.

Can't really find fault with any of the stories. They're more well thought out, and not all relying on a shown down to lead to the action than a lot of other Westerns.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book of Western short stories. There are some real gems in here. Elmore Leonard is great at thinking up plots that grab your interest. He always starts out in a mundane scene – but things get real interesting real fast. Three or four stories are sad, but most of them have the good guys coming out on top in the end, and saving the woman to boot. I enjoy Westerns.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masterful brevity. Leonard never uses seven words when he can use four.

[Michael Brantley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is every Elmore Leonard short story entertaining, it is a lesson in writing. They all move quickly and then they are done. Very enjoyable read.

[Renaissance · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly enjoyable book of short stories by the famed Westerns writer. As to be expected, some stories were more engaging and well-written than others. Over all, I was not usually satisfied with the endings, although some had a welcome surprising ending. Also, after a while of reading, many stories became "formulaic" and thus a bit boring.

Regardless, a relaxing read each evening as I took time to read a story each evening. I am not terribly familiar with Leonard's writing, but I feel he must have some real gems out there.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up partly because I like Leonard's hard urban fiction and partly because I've seen some Western movies recently.
Leonard's command of language is apparent, his characters are sharply drawn, and most surprising, he displays social consciousness in quite a number of stories such as "Only Good Ones," "The Kid," and "The Big Hunt."

[Hugh Mcaloon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceptional collection of short stories. I'd love to have seen some of these get extended into novellas or novels. And, I think, one was turned into a movie... twice! Evocative descriptions, characters you can root for and against... terrific writing makes terrific reading.

[Mavis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not as interesting as i thought it would be.

Stories did not grab interest, better to read ( for ex:) Olive Oatman's true story.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories" is a collection of 19 western short stories by Elmore Leonard; tales of crimes, capers, outlaws, loners, Apaches, marshalls, tough guys, tough girls, and morons. Leonard's early shorts are focused and concise, interesting and character-driven justice and morality tales with no frills, bells, or whistles, immersive and tense but without excess or unneeded prose, direct and quick. I think all of these were written in the 1950's, except for "The Tonto Woman" which was first published in 1982. As such, these have a lighter but related edge to Leonard's later dialogue- and character-driven crime capers.

Highlights include "The Captives," "Jugged," "Blood Money," "Three-Ten to Yuma," "The Boy Who Smiled," and "Saint with a Six Gun."

I found three of these stories free online for those who might have a few minutes to spare:

Saint with a Six Gun: https://readerslibrary.org/wp-content...

The Boy Who Smiled: https://readerslibrary.org/wp-content...

And the classic Three-Ten to Yuma: https://loa-shared.s3.us-west-2.amazo...

Verdict: A good collection of Leonard western short stories.

Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: most PG, some PG-13

[A.J. Vanderhorst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read most of Leonard's books now, with plans to read them all, I wouldn't say these western short stories represent his best work. However, some of these stories really shine (Three Ten to Yuma inspired two films) and "average to good" Elmore is still better than 90% of what's out there.

The characters are vivid. The setting is immersive so you feel the sweat and creaking leather and kick of the carbine. When the dialog doesn't crackle, it still gets the job done.

Four stars, but if it was almost anyone else, I'd be tempted to give it five.

[David Fontana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of stories by Elmore Leonard! My favorites are likely 3:10 to Yuma, The Captives, No Man’s Guns, and some others. There were a select few here that didn’t appeal to me, but regardless, Elmore Leonard really has a knack for creating well-defined characters and situations in the old West. I may be giving Leonard a short break after this and moving into other stuff, but it’s been a hell of a ride!

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elmore Leonard has written many wonderful and fun to read novels. The short stories in this book are gems. They were amazing and a joy to read, despite the fact that several stories are sad and tragic. Leonard is a skilled writer and has a capacity to draw you into his stories and care about his characters. You won’t go wrong in picking up a copy of this book for a wonderful reading experience.

[Fred White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of these stories are flat out amazing. I think my favorite is "The Colonel's Lady". It also contains the short story that has been made into a movie twice, "3:10 to Yuma". I even think there have been Gunsmoke stories loosely based on some of the stories in this book.

[Jean Salvas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a big fan of short stories. But there were a couple that were very good. 3:10 to Yuma was a surprise considering the two movie releases with Glenn Ford and Russell Crowe.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

excellent short stories

[Mdaly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic short story collection; each one a morality play where good faces evil in all its many guises.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories were all included in the Complete Western Stories collection

[Wendopolis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elmore Leonard is the master of the short story, and never has it been more apparent than in this collection of Western stories. Highly recommended.

[lola Franco · Rating 4 out of 5]

so different from get shorty, which i loved.
he writes good short stories.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was amazed to find out how many of these stories were written in the 50s, as the writing style was utterly timeless.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

19 stories:

The Tonto Woman
The Captives
Only Good Ones
You Never See Apaches ...
The Colonel's Lady
The Kid
The Big Hunt
Apache Medicine
No Man's Guns
Jugged
The Hard Way
Blood Money
Three-Ten to Yuma
The Boy Who Smiled
Hurrah for Capt. Early
Moment of Vengeance
Saint with a Six-Gun
The Nagual
Trouble at Rindo's Station

[Ken Schloman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although many readers today don't associate Leonard with westerns, he is the author of many westerns , several of which have made it to the movie screens. HOMBRE, VALDEZ IS COMING and of course 3:10 TO YUMA are the best known. This collection of short stories is classic Leonard. They a great intro to his work in the western genre. One warning--- 3:10 TO YUMA, the movie, is a significant expansion of the short story, contained in this volume,on which it is based.

[Yofish · Rating 4 out of 5]

A set of short stories--Westerns. It's Elmore Leonard, so, well, we get his Westerns.

"The Tonto Woman" was made into a movie nominated for an academy award for live short in 2008---that's how I got to the book.

All the stories are basically good. There's a little too much of Apaches are bad while whites are good. Whatever. I was a little disappointed in "3:10 to Yuma"---the Glen Ford movie might have been better.

None of them really really stood out, but all are good.

[Barry Brierley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before he moved over into 'crime' novels, Dutch Leonard was a superb writer of westerns. Not shoot-'em-up Louis L'Amour stuff, but beautifully conceived characters, experiencing human issues in a western setting. This is a collection of short stories, each one better than the one before it. Excellent, excellent writing.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great set of short stories. Elmore writes better characters for a 20 page story than most writers can create for their books. Full of excitement, betrayal, and strong men and women. Stories are the perfect length to pick up and finish quickly with a satisfactory ending. Contains perfect "slices" of the American west.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Western - 19 short stories including "Three-Ten to Yuma". Story Collection contains: The Tonto woman—The captives—Only good ones—You never see Apaches—The colonel’s lady—The kid—The big hunt—Apache medicine—No man’s guns—Jugged—The hard way—Blood money—Three-ten to Yuma—The boy who smiled—Hurrah for Capt. Early—Moment of vengeance—Saint with a six-gun—The nagual—Trouble at Rindo’s station

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only ended up reading Three-ten to Yuma and a few others, but they were all great. Each had a bit of a twist to the characters and their motivation that kept the stories interesting and unpredictable even though they were all about essentially the same thing (as far as I could tell).

[Mark Pool · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the Tonto Woman story, but I'm not sure I even finished this book. I'm not a big fan of short stories.

[Bobbye · Rating 3 out of 5]

to be fair, i only read a three stories - but i liked them all. Very good dialogue (but i guess that is to be expected) and just the right amount of short to keep me interested.

[E.J. Cullen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I usually like Leonard, a little bit of this one is quite enough.