Gunsights: An Action-Packed Western Where Arizona Legends Become Enemies

by Elmore Leonard

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.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Thriller, Novels, Crime

290 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1979

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

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s gritty, high-quality writing - pithy, lean and tough, approaching McCarthy, but not as poetic or as philosophical as his; approaching McMurtry, but not as epic, sweeping or tragic as his. You could put the story up with 3:10 to Yuma or The Magnificent Seven, except the author does not romanticize the Old West one bit, no more than McCarthy or McMurtry do. A solid 4 star read.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

When two friends (and Arizona legends) Bren Early and Dana Moon find them on opposite sides of a land dispute, will them come to bloodshed over mining rights? And what of Sundeen, the bounty hunter that they should have killed years before...

Elmore Leonard passed away this week so I dropped what I was reading and gave this a read. While it's an early Leonard and not up to the standards of his later crime novels, all the Leonard hallmarks are still there: smooth dialogue, likeable characters, and lots of twists.

Dana Moon and Brendan Early are the ancestors of a lot of Leonard's later crime leads. They're capable, sharp-witted men, and know their way around a gunfight. When Moon finds himself on the wrong side of a mining company that Early has a stake in, things heat up.

As usual, some of the bad guys aren't all that bad and could easily be good guys under other circumstances, specifically Ruben Vega. Actually, Sundeen isn't a bad guy for a son of a bitch. If I had a hole in my cheek from a gunshot wound, I'd probably be tracking down Early and Moon myself.

Par for the course, there are lots of twists and turns. I liked that the newspaper men were fanning the flames a lot of the time. No one in the media every does that now...

The structure wasn't quite what I'm used to from Elmore Leonard but it worked well, incorporating a lot of flashbacks to establish how Early and Moon got to where they were.

To sum up, it wasn't my favorite Leonard but as with all of his books, it was still an entertaining read. If penis size was proportional to the ability to write entertaining dialogue and cool characters, Elmore Leonard could have whipped his member out and clubbed narwhals to death with it. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Treasure of the Rubbermaids 3: You Tell Them I'm Coming! - And Hell's Coming With Me!

The on-going discoveries of priceless books and comics found in a stack of Rubbermaid containers previously stored and forgotten at my parent’s house and untouched for almost 20 years. Thanks to my father dumping them back on me, I now spend my spare time unearthing lost treasures from their plastic depths.

It was good time to find this one while digging through the Rubbermaid stack. I’d been in the mood to read some westerns after seeing the new version of True Grit and rereading the novel, but I’d gotten a shock when checking out the Josey Wales books when I learned that the author was a former Ku Klux Klan member and all around lying asshat. Finding this in the Rubbermaid pile seemed like it could get me back on track, as long as it doesn’t turn out that Elmore Leonard was actually in the Hitler Youth.

This features a great opening line: The gentleman from Harper’s Weekly, who didn’t know mesquite beans from goat shit, looked up from his reference collection of back issues, and said, “I got it!”

Bren Early was a calvary officer and Dana Moon was a scout in Arizona in the late 1880s. They once crossed into Mexico hunting a renegade Indian who had kidnapped Kate McKean. They find the girl and capture the Indian, but a bounty hunter named Sundeen tried to force them to give up their prisoner. Early and Moon stand up to Sundeen and fight off him and his men, killing several of them.

The two men get reputations as gunfighters because of this incident, but their fame does them little good and brings a lot of grief. Years later, the two find themselves on opposite sides of a land war when a mining company that Bren works for tries to drive of the Indians and Mexicans living in the mountains of Arizona where Moon is working as an Indian agent and married to Kate.

Newspaper reporters from all over the country swarm the area hoping to witness an epic showdown between Bren and Moon, but the two men don’t seem in any hurry to fight each other. Plus, Sundeen shows up as an enforcer for the mining company and has revenge on his mind.

This may be a western instead of a crime novel, but it’s still Elmore Leonard so you get a large cast of offbeat characters and a plot that zigzags in unexpected directions. I also got a laugh that one of Bren and Moon’s friends is an ex-slave cavalry soldier named Bo Catlett because Leonard used the name Bo Catlett again in Get Shorty. Maybe he's supposed to be a descendent.

Leonard pulls his usual tricks of having the story come out in a series of encounters between characters and incorporates some flashbacks that tell us the story of how Bren and Moon got into their current positions.

A fun western with good characters, plenty of action and a lot of humor, this is Elmore Leonard proving yet again that he can tell a story like nobody else.

[Mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

An early Leonard effort, “Gunsights” is not a typical Western, but it’s not Leonard in his element, either. Pages of the kind of writing the older Leonard would have cut out bog this one down at first. The story does come to life later, but it’s loosely packed.

[Gary Sites · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my fifth Elmore Leonard western, and a bit of a letdown compared to the others. Although it was a good, enjoyable story, I found it a bit choppy with its time structure and switches in point of view. Great characters and the usual superb dialogue. I liked the ending, even though it felt too abrupt, and didn’t have enough meat to it. Still, if you like westerns, it will do you fine.

[Laura Akers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quotes:

“Reporters would ask Brendan Early ‘Do you think you will die by the gun?’
Answer: “If you don’t leave, somebody will.”

“If you’re going to spend your life standing on principle, you want to be sure everyone understands what that principle is.”


Union Army man Brendan Early and Scout Dana Moon have rescued a girl kidnapped by a Native American, assisted by their Black Union soldier friend Bo, and stood at a wall and gone against a group of cattle rustlers.
What they don’t realize is this will have far-reaching consequences.

They’re Arizona legends, but now newspapers want to pit them against each other over a mining land dispute. Early owns a share of the mine and Moon lives in the mountains with his Apache crew. Will they be able to remain friends?

This book is a masterclass in how to put together characters, scenes, and dialogue. It was the last western Leonard wrote before he moved on to write primarily crime fiction.

Set in 1893, it’s a classic western with the addition of a Black Union soldier, a savvy young reporter from Chicago, a corrupt sheriff, a cattle rustler set on revenge, and a tough young lady who keeps up with the men.

Leonard’s ability to capture the nuances of relationships the women have with the two main protagonists and the men have with each other take it out of genre fiction and into literary brilliance.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

He's Elmore Leonard, and he's a master. Great characters, lots of action. Excellent!

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this novel, two men are on opposite sides of a conflict between a mining company and a scattering of settlers on an Arizona mountainside: Apaches, Mexicans, and former 10th Cavalry regulars. The two central characters were at one time friends and partners, and the novel begins in Sonora with their retrieval of an Apache chief and a white girl.

While there, they are involved in the shooting of a gang who have been after the same chief to collect a large bounty. Now one of the two former partners is employed by the mining company attempting to drive the settlers out of their homes. The other is an Indian agent, defending them...

Read my review at my blog.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Gunsights" by Elmore Leonard is a fast-paced, action packed, no nonsense western.

[John Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Dutch's western short stories. However, this novel is disappointing and dull. Perhaps the earlier westerns are better.

[Marcos “MSMDragon” · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay story, but I didn’t enjoy the ending or the writing style. The characters were dull.

[Anthony Yodice · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love Westerns and Elmore Leonard than you will really enjoy this one. If you have not read a Western and/or Leonard before, this is a good one to start with.

[Heath Lowrance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bren Early and Dana Moon are occasional partners and uneasy friends who have been through more than their share of harrowing adventures together over the years. But it looks like fate may land them on opposite sides of a land war-- Moon has taken the job of Indian Affairs agent, tasked with protecting the interests of the residents of Rincon Mountain, and Early is in the employ of a powerful mining company that wants the native's off the mountain.

Tensions build as newsmen from around the country flock, anticipating an epic showdown between the two gunmen friends, and things are complicated further by the arrival of Phil Sundeen, a rustler who Early and Moon left for dead some years earlier. For Sundeen, the land war is the perfect opportunity for some revenge.

By coincidence, I read THE LAW AT RANDADO right before GUNSIGHTS; RANDADO is a very early Leonard and the villain in it is Phil Sundeen. GUNSIGHTS is Leonard's last western, written about 25 years later, and marks the return of Sundeen. The events of RANDADO aren't mentioned in GUNSIGHTS, but I thought it was an interesting choice to bring the sleazy bastard back for another appearance.

Dana Moon and Bren Early are both terrific characters, and not really typical of Leonard in that they are both rather taciturn. They are a lot alike in some ways, but over the course of the novel Leonard fleshes out their particular character traits, highlights the huge differences between them-- Moon is grounded and knows what he wants out of life, Early is rudderless and a bit in love with Death and Glory. And the supporting characters, especially Sundeen's conflicted man Ruben Vega, are all terrific.

Moon and Early would have been terrific series characters. Oh well. Great book.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are familiar with Elmore Leonard, you'll find the same snappy dialogue, tough good guys, and a$$hole bad guys that fill his other work. Still, it doesn't stand up to his crime fiction throughout the first half of the book, it goes back and forth from past to present. A couple of flashbacks are okay.. but for this story I don't think it was needed or perhaps not done as well as it could've been. Also, there was a very, very minor character that was brought in.. and then we are given the start of a subplot..and then nothing. It was as if Leonard forgot about it. It's not a big deal, really but considering how good the author is, it was frustrating.

That being said, it was still an entertaining and tough western novel.

However, I'd recommend you reading Leonard's crime fiction such as 52 Pick-Up, Bandits, or Out of Sight.

[Bobbie Darbyshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Newspaper reporters gather in a small town in Arizona to cover the escalating conflict between a mining company and the farmers and settlers whose land they are destroying. Two local gunfighters, erstwhile allies, find themselves on opposing sides.
I’m reading all Leonard’s books in order of publication, one every six months or so. This (the 18th) jumps about a lot, with a great many named characters, so not his best, but not bad. Some great characters, and the usual dollops of humour and just deserts.
I was interested to read in the author bio that Leonard said: “I’m inspired and motivated more by Hemingway’s ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ than by traditional Western novels and motion pictures.” It reminded me how his earliest novels, before he developed his own distinctive voice, were recognisably Hemingwayesque in style.

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent western with (at least for me) a nice surprise ending. Leonard does not glamorize the west, showing that even the good guys sometimes have ulterior motives. He also shows what persistence and bravery will do for you. Enjoy this one.

[Charles van Buren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unusual ending

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This review is from: Gunsights (Kindle Edition)

This is another of Elmore Leonard's gritty, realistic westerns. Great character development which makes the reader care about what happens to them. The ending is odd but believable.

[Norm · Rating 4 out of 5]

A suspenseful western novel by Elmore Leonard. Spent a couple late nights where I could not stop reading. Highly recommend this book.

[Evan Martinsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's crazy that considering my appreciation for Leonard's work, and my enjoyment of the Western genre (which I haven’t read near enough of), that I have never read one of his westerns before. But if Gunsights is any indication, they will undoubtedly be at or at least near the level of his other work. Gunsight is an enjoyable snappy read, with all of the charms of Leonard on display.

One thing I truly enjoyed about this book was the ways that Leonard has tweaked the usual formula for his stories- twenty pages in, you would have expected Brendan Early to be the hero, the knight in shining armor who solves all the problems, saves his friend and gets the girl too. But while it is clear that this is how Early views himself, that is not the direction the story goes at all, which is very clever. At first glance it could seem that his role in the story is unsatisfying, but it gives the book an unexpected angle, which is effective within a genre that relies very heavily on tropes.

There are amusing side notes throughout as well- the journalists keeping tabs on the situation are amusing in how useless and in the way they feel (with one exception of course), almost as though they are making the standoff into a circus (which, believe it or not does happen to show up). Leonard is able to make even the most minor characters jump off the page, usually only needing a few lines to make them feel real.

Where there is a let down, however, is in the relationship between Moon and Early, and in the ending. The initial setup the book introduces is that this is a conflict between two friends on different sides of the issue, but it never really feels like they are going to butt heads. If there had ever been a point or situation where it seemed like they were going to oppose one another, it would have added a lot of tension- instead, we are just waiting for the inevitable team up.

The ending has a pretty good final moment, but it could have done with a few extra fireworks beforehand. It's almost jarring how sudden the ending is, so the final showdown is kind of lacking. I’m pretty sure that Leonard did this on purpose though (to show how misplaced Early’s attempt to be heroic is), but still, you read a western and you want an explosive climax. What he was attempting is successful I think, but it has to be said that it is just not as much fun. Still, anytime I read a Leonard book, I can’t help but wonder why I am not reading one of these a month, the guy knows exactly what he is doing. (Grade:8/10)

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gunsights (1979) Elmore Leonard’s last (depending on how you define the genre) western is, like Forty Lashes Less One (1972), very much a child of the 70’s in terms of its attention to race and social issues. I mean, Leonard was paying attention to that stuff right along, but these later westerns somehow more tacitly acknowledge that there might be a reading demographic that will follow. It follows a 15 year trajectory in the lives of Dana Moon and Brendan Early. I expect that Captain Brendan Early is the same guy in the short story “Hurrah for Captain Early.” One of the villains, Phil Sundeen, is returning 25 years later after filling a similar role in The Law at Randado (1954). I’m pretty sure black cavalry veteran Bo Catlett has also appeared elsewhere. Sundeen is hiring gun thugs for mining interests. Dana Moon and Bo are organizing minority opposition—blacks, Apaches, Mexicans. Early is fulfilling the “good badman” role. This story also contextualizes the role of the media and such pop-cultural genres as wild west shows. Most Leonard novels have really memorable moments of characters fighting back while cracking wise, and this one has some great scenes. Highly recommended.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy Elmore Leonard's books, so I was looking forward to this one. It had an interesting premise set just before the turn of the 20th Century whereas two friends, former comrades in arms, end up on opposite sides of essentially a turf war between a mining conglomerate and a group of Apaches, Mexican migrants, and black ex-cavalrymen have built farms and homesteads.

As usual for Leonard, the characters are well written. Enough attention to the major players is given, while not getting too bogged down in extraneous details. The plot was pretty tight in that it stayed focused to the story, while using flashbacks to fill in details on the main character's common history and prior actions that led up to the current events. While written well, I thought the flashback narrative was overused. It was hard to keep track of which time frame I was reading. But that may also be a personal preference since I am not a big fan of flashbacks in books or movies. I think the story would not have suffered if he had written it in a linear timeline as opposed to the frequent flashbacks.


The story was pretty straight forward until towards the end during the big showdown. I still am not sure of why the Buffalo Bill-like Wild West showman shows up in the middle of the two sides approaching each other for the final battle. It reminded me of a parody skit you might see on Monty Python or Saturday Night Live (when SNL was good). The only thing I can think of was that it was a way for the author to resolve the big battle without having a mass killing off of characters except the bad guy. I certainly didn't see that coming.
Another issue I had was with the seemingly love interest of Bren Early, Janet Pierson. She was supposedly the mother of a teen who was killed during the robbery of a stage coach who Bren had tried to save but instead got accused of collaborating with the boy in robbing the stage coach. She was this shadowy figure that we finally meet late in the book, only to find out that she seems to be working for one of the officer's of the mining company. She seems fond of Bren who wants to marry her, but never commits. Then before the final showdown, we get the reveal of her being with the mining company officer and we never hear from her again. It was, in my opinion, one of the few times that Leonard wrote a character that was completely pointless to the story.


Overall, I enjoyed the story once I got used to the flashbacks.

One thing I should note, that the dialog in this book was written in the way that many people spoke back in the 1880's-1890's. As a result, there are a lot of racist words used in the dialog to describe the black calvarymen, the Apaches, and the Mexicans, that are frowned upon today.

[Jesse Hilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elmore Leonard's westerns are not as familiar to me as his crime fiction, and I wanted to start somewhere so I started here. I really liked the novel but it was flawed. I think it suffered a bit too much from what Leonard himself would have considered extraneous material: "I try not to write the parts that people tend to skip," to paraphrase.

The two main characters were on the same side, then they weren't, then they were, and maybe I was reading too fast but i missed the significance of all this. The role of the newspapermen in the conflicts was really fascinating but I think it introduced an element of narrative fogginess at times, as stories were told second- and third-hand. Even with the year being clearly stated I wasn't totally sure of the timeline.

All that being said, I was wrapped up in the standard Elmore Leonard tough-guy conflicts and arguments and faces hit with axe handles. The female characters were good too, very clear, believable, dignified, and vulnerable when it was called for.

[Matthew Pritchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

When it's cold and wet and I don't feel very well, I look for short books that are easy and enjoyable to read. This one caught my eye and for the next few hours all thoughts of rain and runny noses were forgotten.
Elmore Leonard is best known for his crime novels (and the numerous film adaptions of them) but he cut his teeth writing Western novels which, in my opinion, are some of the best books of this genre ever printed.
All of Leonard's hallmarks are here: the breakneck pace of the writing, the snappy dialogue, the brilliant characterisation, the attention to historical detail; like all good writers, he does a lot with very little.
Some might look down their noses at "genre" fiction, but that is their hard luck, as Leonard's standard of writing is so high, he pushes this Western novel as close to being "literary" as is possible.

[Tim Deforest · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1887, Dana Moon was an army scout and Bren Early was a calvary officer--both tasked to rescue a woman captured by Apaches. This mission violently plays out in a way that makes them famous--and also makes them a deadly enemy. In 1893, the two men find themselves on opposite sides in a range war between a mining company and homesteaders.

Reporters covering the events expect the two men to meet in battle. But Dana and Bren have no intention of killing one another. Violence ensues anyways, caused both by their mutual enemy and by a thuggish, dishonest deputy sheriff.

This is a fun novel. Not surprisingly for an Elmore Leonard novel, it's full of unique characters and sharp dialogue. The story is puncuated with violence while unexpected and (in one case) bizarre plot twists zigzag throughout. All this comes together to form a very entertaining Western.

[Zak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wild West show in the 1890s.  For most of the story, though, “gunsights” seems to be about an expected shoot-out between Dana Moon and Brendan Early, two friends with a cross-hatched history who find themselves, sort of, on two sides of a land war in Arizona. The reader’s thinking, this is the turning point in the friendship of the two men, and now they will try to shoot each other to death, just for spite.

But Gunsights isn’t that kind of western or that kind of adventure novel.  Emotions here, as in Leonard’s other books, aren’t blunt instruments of love, hate, greed and compassion.  Rather, they’re subtle layers of colors, such as, love overlaid with confusion or duty overlaid with stubbornness or friendship overlaid with irritation.

[Maduck831 · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I hope so," the McKean girl said. "We can kiss and you can touch me up here if you want, but that's all till I see what my future is." / "It's a deal," Moon said. / He never did make it to the whorehouse. In fact, he swore he would never visit one again as long as he lived. (58)

She said, "That C.S. Fly, he should take all pictures of famous people in their underwear, and when they're not looking." (221)

Kate shook her head, resigned or admiring or both. She said to Moon, "You're the sights. You and your partner." / Maurice Dumas got out his notebook and started writing it all down as fast as he could. (284)

[Thomas Tyrer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only bad thing about finishing "Gunsights" is that I believe I only have one Elmore Leonard Western left to read. Fortunately, I still have a lot of his crime dramas, but there's none better for writing Westerns than. Leonard. This one didn't disappoint, and especially so within the context of ongoing riots and protests today in response to a white Minneapolis cop killing an African American by stepping on his neck while in custody as the man begged for his life. We live in a current world that seems totally devoid of honor or any code of conduct that means sacrificing one's self to the greater good. Leonard reminds me why that is wrong.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

audio done very well by Josh Clark
My low rating for this for this favorite author of mine is:

Story poorly put together
I understand that going back and forth in time is a common tool, however, it must be done
skilfully. This one was not. Which leads me to believe that it may have been mended together
from his magazine stories.

anyway I do not recommend this; unless like me, you want ALL Leonard's works

To pay homage to his Detroit Tigers: "This was a swing and a miss"

[Grant Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This quickly became one of my favorite westerns and one of my favorite El Leonard novels. Dana Moon and Bren Early, individuals and sometimes partners find their paths interweaving. Sometimes it's on purpose, sometimes it's not. But usually it means they're (one, the other, or both) in trouble. It has all the hallmarks of Leonard; great characters, great dialogue, great action, and all come together in a great story thanks to his great writing. A true master of the art.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elmore Leonard's books are like candy, but the good kind. "Gunsights" included an element I didn't expect but greatly enjoyed: newspapermen from the big cities in the east, converging on a tiny town in Arizona to scoop what they hoped would turn into a war. Ending was strange.

Supposedly someone is turning this into a film. Surprised it hasn't been done already. Bren Early and Dana Moon are prime for cinema.