The Law at Randado Mass Market Paperback – July 2, 2002

"The Law at Randado" is an early novel of Elmore Leonard, authored in the 1950s. It is highly readable and a traditional American Western. It is of medium length and moves at a brisk pace. I feel the author keeps the storyline moving by relying heavily upon dialogue and de emphasizing descriptions of scenery. There is no obscenity. There is some violence which is consistent with American Westerns as a genre. I liked the novel very much.I had read some other work by Elmore Leonard in the past as he is an iconic American author. "3:10 to Yuma" is a good short story that inspired a decent movie, both in the 1950s. Recently I was reading a different novel, "The Man Who Came Uptown" by George Pelecanos. It is very clear that Mister Pelecanos is a fan of Elmore Leonard. I have been reading various authors who Mister Pelecanos mentions. I find myself liking a lot of the same authors and works that Mister Pelecanos likes. This includes Elmore Leonard.I read this novel on Kindle and purchased the accompanying audiobook, narrated by Richard Poe. I felt Richard Poe's narration is excellent. I am quite positive that Richard Poe's narration addd to my enjoyment of this very good novel.In summary I completely enjoyed this novel and the accompanying audiobook. I have read other works by Elmore Leonard and liked all of them, "3:10 to Yuma" being a very good American Westen short story. I have already obtained a subsequent novel by Mister Leonard, "Escape from Five Shadows" and intend to read it in the relatively near future. Thank You....

Though I grew up watching westerns on television and at the movies, I was never a fan of the western in written form (I'm a science fiction reader and writer). However, for years and years, everyone told me that I absolutely HAD to read Elmore Leonard. I'd seen some of the movies made from his books. (I even saw Stick which starred Burt Reynolds in the late Seventies, I think, a movie no one ever talks about.) Then I started reading him. The crime novels first. Then the short stories. Then the westerns. And boy was that ever a revelation. I was genuinely surprised to realize that Leonard's westerns had long been part of my movie-going childhood. I remember seeing Valdez is Coming and loving it. I started reading the mass market paperbacks of his westerns, first the four or five short story collections, then I started in on the novels. The Law at Randado is my favorite. (Sadly, Hombre is not. Don't know why. Too grim,. I guess.) Anyway, the one feature of Leonard's westerns that really impressed me, besides the crisp writing and the keen evocation of the landscape (and its indigenous peoples) of southeastern Arizona--of which I am very familiar--is the uncanny way Leonard has of making his westerns seem not like westerns at all. I never once, especially in The Law at Randado, thought I was reading "a western". Horses, guns, bad guys, renegade Apaches, rustlers, etc. Leonard has a way of pulling you into the human side of his stories and all you can do is marvel as he puts his characters through their paces and, more often or not, wind up with a totally unpredictable ending. Such is the case with The Law at Randado. Not only do you get a real sense of how lawless some of the settlements in the desert Southwest actually were in the late 19th century, you get to see how Leonard makes it all come alive without resorting to a single western cliche. (These were written mostly in the Fifties, in Leonard's youth and if there were any cliches to speak of in his novels or short stories that got translated into movies, they were HIS cliches. They were original to him. (One of his most original westerns is Forty Lashes Less One. Not only is it totally unpredictable, it's quite funny.) I'm a fan. Totally. I've read everything. And while he doesn't bat a hundred (who does?) a great deal of his work is top-notch and the very best of its kind. (And you'll never see the climax of The Law at Randado coming. Thoroughly original, to say the least!)

I love to read western novels and until recently had never heard of Elmore Leonard. It was either Goodreads or the 'Justified' website where saw his name as a western writer. I downloaded his first western novel, The Bounty Hunters to my Kindle and was hooked. In The Law at Randado, the main character, deputy Sheriff Kirby Frye, is learning his job OJT. He is taken advantage of, loses his fights, and initially the respect of the Randado citizens. Very slowly and I might add, painfully he is mentored almost by non-involvement by his boss, Sheriff John Danaher, Sheriff of Pima County, Tucson. As the story progresses the deputy grows in both his humanity and professionalism. The story moves quickly and the word descriptions of the people, towns, landscape are so vivid that your imagination captures you instantly. If you love raw old west adventure, read The Law at Randado.

Kirby Frye is the new deputy at Randado. He is young, but he knows what is right, and that puts him on a collision course with Phil Sundeen, the son of a rich cattle rancher. Sundeen talked the town council into hanging two cattle rustlers, but the law says a crime had been committed. Frye will try to bring those responsible to justice. This wasn't my favorite Elmore Leonard western.

Another classic Elmore Leonard western. Two men are arrested for rustling and town leaders, urged on by the son of the wealthy rancher, form a kangaroo court. They decide to hang the men and do so. When the deputy sheriff in charge of the town returns he confronts the men responsible. He is run out of town, but returns with the sheriff and deals with those responsible.There are a lot of standard Western themes in this story; the young deputy, the entitled son of the wealthy rancher, the tough older mentor. All great themes. While some of the plot is predictable, there are some really great twists and turns on these themes. I would say more about them, but then that would ruin the story.

The next step in my project to read all Elmore Leonard’s novels. ‘The Law at Randado’, his second (1954), pits the reckless, spoiled son of a rich Arizona cattle rancher and his motley supporters against an unproven new deputy sheriff and the uncertain authority of county law. Story impact is diluted by too many points of view, and I found the choreography of the fist and gun fights a little laboured and hard to follow, but it’s fascinating to feel Leonard’s development since his first (The Bounty Hunters, 1953). Again he delivers the great visuals of the classic western, but now the echoes of Hemingway are fainter, his spare style feels like his own, the characters feel more developed and engaging, and his humour begins to feature, particularly in the final, fabulous showdown between hero and villain.

Just excellent. If you like a western you won't find better.

Like science fiction, western novels vary in quality, the good, the bad and the ugly, as it were. This one is top notch from a great writer.

Only given 4 stars as "Valdez is coming" and "Hombre" at 5 set the standard and rest judged against them.

I like that the characters have flaws, several in come cases. It makes for interesting reading.