A Man Named Yuma

“He heard the moan plain enough but took another step. He wasn’t sure. An adobe shed had cut off his view above and from the front yard. Keeping well out from the shed, cutting around past its mud corner, he suddenly saw the man. He was staked out, naked and spread-eagled.”

This is the opening from A Man Named Yuma, written by the always reliable T. V. Olsen. This gritty tale of the southwest matches Elmore Leonard in its leanness of prose and its laconic testosterone infused-spirit.

While being a formulary Western, it is mighty well done and well-worth an afternoon on the front porch for fans of Leonard, Garfield, Shirreffs, and, hell, Olsen himself.