04/06/2015
Written while Leonard (Raylan) held a day job as an advertising copywriter, this posthumous collection showcases the early writing of the author of westerns and crime stories, revealing his particular genius in embryonic, pulpish form. Fans of Justified’s Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens will recognize his roots in straight-shooting Charlie Martz, a lawman in the New Mexico Territory who is featured in several stories. Aficionados of the classic movie westerns 3:10 to Yuma and The Tall T, both adapted from Leonard’s short stories, will find a familiar narrative in “Confession,” in which a Catholic priest defends his church against two cold-blooded outlaws. Readers familiar with the mean streets of Leonard’s Detroit will feel right at home with “One, Horizontal,” as a man seeks revenge on the mobsters responsible for crippling his brother. Tough guys, another Leonard constant, clash in “For Something to Do,” in which a veterinarian squares off against a jealous boxer over a woman. Leonard’s trademark pitch-perfect ear for dialogue is on full display with the battling husband and wife of “The Italian Cut.” And lovers of his movie-business satire, Get Shorty, will laugh knowingly at the antics of an overlooked American film extra making a sword-and-sandals epic in Spain in “The Only Good Syrian Footsoldier Is a Dead One.” Despite the occasional dips into purple prose, the 15 stories in this collection are an enjoyable illustration of a writer taking his first halting steps toward greatness. (June)

Why it’s hot: The great writer of Westerns and crime novels died in 2013, so this posthumous collection is a bonus.” — USA Today

“Gunslingers and suits dreamed up well before Get Shorty and Out of Sight are sketches of the heroes and villains for whom Leonard would become known.” — O, the Oprah Magazine

“Like Hemingway, Leonard excels in dramatizing the point at which apparently friendly mano a mano joshing threatens to erupt in violence. . . . Interesting [] for the signs and promises of the author’s future laconic command of dialogue and action and his knowing, lazy, wryly amused trademark voice.” — Kirkus Reviews

“These very early stories of Elmore Leonard exhibit a real understanding of how to create interesting characters, structure settings that are believable, and tell stories that are compelling and realistic.” — San Francisco Book Review

“The collection abounds with signs of the writer to come.” — Newsday

“Here we see a master craftsman in his apprenticeship. . . . Already Leonard’s imagination is pulled between present and past, between Midwest, West, and abroad, interests that would define his career. . . . Die-hard fans will find this one difficult to resist.” — Keir Graff, Booklist

“Quirky, tough, humorous, and always surprising characters. . . . There’s a reason Leonard has been labeled one of the best crime writers in America and why his clipped and witty dialog and economical writing style have found their way to television and film. He’s just a great storyteller.” — Library Journal (starred review)

“This book is honest and it’s raw, and we can picture Leonard so vividly working. . . . A meaningful insight into the mind of a burgeoning writer who would one day become an international bestseller. . . . It’s fascinating and inspiring to be invited to have a peek.” — New York Journal of Books

“Even [Leonard’s] breeziest efforts have a way of nailing our conflicted culture in all its stubborn glory and misfit dreams. “Charlie Martz and Other Stories” clues us into the dreams he was having when life in America was, at least on the surface, less turbulent.” — Chicago Tribune

“[Leonard] writes characters like no one else. . . . Even before he mastered the [] gritty style he’s most known for, he was able to evoke subtle tones and achingly beautiful moods. . . . These are exceptional stories written by an artist at work and at play.” — Shelf Awareness for Readers

“There’s much to welcome in this posthumous assortment by an author Stephen King hailed as, “the great American writer.” . . . This collection certainly serves up another batch of those gravelly, authentic, fringe-dwelling lives.” — CriminalElement.com

Even [Leonard’s] breeziest efforts have a way of nailing our conflicted culture in all its stubborn glory and misfit dreams. “Charlie Martz and Other Stories” clues us into the dreams he was having when life in America was, at least on the surface, less turbulent.

[Leonard] writes characters like no one else. . . . Even before he mastered the [] gritty style he’s most known for, he was able to evoke subtle tones and achingly beautiful moods. . . . These are exceptional stories written by an artist at work and at play.

Here we see a master craftsman in his apprenticeship. . . . Already Leonard’s imagination is pulled between present and past, between Midwest, West, and abroad, interests that would define his career. . . . Die-hard fans will find this one difficult to resist.

This book is honest and it’s raw, and we can picture Leonard so vividly working. . . . A meaningful insight into the mind of a burgeoning writer who would one day become an international bestseller. . . . It’s fascinating and inspiring to be invited to have a peek.

These very early stories of Elmore Leonard exhibit a real understanding of how to create interesting characters, structure settings that are believable, and tell stories that are compelling and realistic.

Why it’s hot: The great writer of Westerns and crime novels died in 2013, so this posthumous collection is a bonus.

Gunslingers and suits dreamed up well before Get Shorty and Out of Sight are sketches of the heroes and villains for whom Leonard would become known.

The collection abounds with signs of the writer to come.

There’s much to welcome in this posthumous assortment by an author Stephen King hailed as, “the great American writer.” . . . This collection certainly serves up another batch of those gravelly, authentic, fringe-dwelling lives.

Even [Leonard’s] breeziest efforts have a way of nailing our conflicted culture in all its stubborn glory and misfit dreams. “Charlie Martz and Other Stories” clues us into the dreams he was having when life in America was, at least on the surface, less turbulent.

Why it’s hot: The great writer of Westerns and crime novels died in 2013, so this posthumous collection is a bonus.

Gunslingers and suits dreamed up well before Get Shorty and Out of Sight are sketches of the heroes and villains for whom Leonard would become known.

★ 06/01/2015
In this anthology of 15 stories (11 of which have never been previously published), the early Leonard is working through the quirky, tough, humorous, and always surprising characters his many fans have come to expect. The geographical settings as well as the time periods vary, which gives readers a taste of a young writer's ability to experiment and flex, finding new voices and locations with which to captivate his audience. Featuring characters from an aging territorial lawman still capable of outsmarting hooligans to a matador-turned-migrant farm worker, the stories take us down bumpy dirt roads in New Mexico and on to villas in southern Spain and back to stage props and Hollywood sets. VERDICT There's a reason Leonard has been labeled one of the best crime writers in America and why his clipped and witty dialog and economical writing style have found their way to television and film. He's just a great storyteller. Leonard devotees will love this book, and new readers will want to check out his novels after reading this work of short fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 12/15/14.]—Russell Miller, Prescott P.L., AZ

This collection is packed with entertaining nuggets, and the narrators are all on target, but the Elmore Leonard stories themselves—most of them early, unpublished works—use styles and techniques that Leonard would later abandon or refine. For example, Will Patton starts the collection with the right mix of cynicism and fatalism in "One, Horizontal," a noir-ish first-person tale with an O. Henry ending, all elements that Leonard later shunned. This formula—great narration and unexpected stylings from Leonard—makes CHARLIE MARTZ an oddity among Elmore Leonard's 40+ audiobooks. The thematic seeds are there—the underestimated man, women and men as partners, the battle against social injustice—but the stories are missing the twinkling dialogue and light pacing of the mature Leonard. Kudos to all the narrators, especially Tish Hicks. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

2015-04-01
Fifteen mostly unpublished stories—Westerns, war stories, dispatches from Detroit—written in the 1950s. Leonard's son Peter notes in his brief introduction that Hemingway was the formative influence on his father's prose, and you'll find echoes of Papa everywhere here. The slight coming-of-age story "The Line Rider" and the will-he-or-won't-he-stray anecdotes "Arma Virumque Cano" and "Evenings Away from Home" drag their unprepared heroes into Hemingway territory; "Charlie Martz" and "First Western Siesta in Paloverde" bring the sheriff of Doña Ana County up against two shooters hungry for revenge; "Short Stories for Men: The Bull Ring at Blisston" forces an ex-bullfighter to cap one last bull in Michigan; and the Anglos stopping in a Torremolinos hotel in "A Happy, Lighthearted People" could have stepped right out of "Homage to Switzerland." More subtle echoes of Hemingway turn up in the twisted marital idyll of "The Italian Cut" and the moral dilemmas the heroes and heroines face in the Mexico of "Confession," the Malaya of "Time of Terror," and the Civil War of "Rebel on the Run." But the most obvious influence is in the testosterone posturing that drives the avenging brother of "One, Horizontal" and the farmer invited to become a sales rep in "The Trespassers." Like Hemingway, Leonard excels in dramatizing the point at which apparently friendly mano a mano joshing threatens to erupt in violence for the Hollywood extra in "The Only Good Syrian Foot Soldier Is a Dead One" and the rifle-toting ex-boyfriend of "For Something to Do," perhaps the most characteristic of all these tales. Not by any means apprentice work—Leonard's first four novels appeared over the same period as these stories—but interesting mostly for the signs and promises of the author's future laconic command of dialogue and action and his knowing, lazy, wryly amused trademark voice.