"Valdez Is Coming" by Elmore Leonard

This is a simple story and doesn't take too long to read. A western story that is a bit far fetched, winning when the odds are 19 to 1 and all the adversities are expert gunmen. It is well written but doesn't seem to have an ending. I guess we have to make up our own mind as to how it is supposed to end. 

"Mr Majestyk" by Elmore Leonard.

A well written book, easy to read. A plausible story with our Rambo like hero. Lots of action.

"Last Stand at Saber River" by Elmore Leonard

I'm not much of a western reader but I really enjoyed this book. Great characters and well written with action all the way. It does end abruptly and the hero does not ride off into the sunset.

"The Big Bounce" by Elmore Leonard

This  is the story of a washed up baseball player, now a petty criminal, neither career amounting to anything, looking for the next score. He meets his match with a seductress who pushes her boundaries and drags him along. It is not a western as I first suspected but tries to be a crime novel that comes off more like a bunch of juvenile delinquents. More talk than action.

"The Moonshine War" by Elmore Leonard

This book reminds me of pirates looking for buried treasure. Except in this case the pirates are moonshiners and the buried treasure is moonshine. It is an easy to read book which leans to our perception of backwoods people and moonshiners in particular. I enjoyed the story although I felt that it ended too soon. It could have used another chapter. I look upon a story as an historical event and I want to know the outcome, how the characters made out. I need the story to have an ending, happy or otherwise. 

"Escape From Five Shadows" by Elmore Leonard

As a western you would expect a story of cowboys and Indians. It is, but with a twist.
"Escape From Five Shadows" is a story that recalls movies from the 50's. Instead of a town and a rancher's daughter, it's a prison and a stage depot manager's daughter. You would expect the hero to be rugged and good looking and he is. To escape prison and run away with the manager's daughter may be  the gist of the story, but it is also a story of justice and injustice, western style.

The Law at Randado by Elmore Leonard

Once in awhile I read a western just to keep in touch with the genre. This a story of a western town where the town's elite decide that they don't need the state's judicial system and set up there own court. Of course these are just vigilantes who mete out their own sort of justice. Most of the story is the give and take to get the town back on track. I thought it was a slow starter with the fight scenes dragging on. I pushed on and found it a good story and enjoyed the battle for supremacy at the end.