Best-selling author Elmore Leonard has written many books that have been turned into films.

“Get Shorty” and “Jackie Brown” are two classics which began as stories by Leonard.

The man who brought these stories plus “Out of Sight,” “Maximum Bob” and most recently “Cuba Libre,” is back with a new book, entitled “The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories.”

I wouldn’t want to insult your intelligence, so I’ll assume that you figured out by the title that this book is a collection of stories, and that they’re western in theme.

Fans of Leonard may know that before he was a master storyteller of the con-game, he was unparalleled in western writing. With “The Tonto Woman,” Leonard couldn’t have come back to his roots in a better form.

Short and sweet, each tale is portrayed in a manner that doesn’t allow the reader to forget a moment of the plot.

“The Boy Who Smiled” tells of a 14-year-old bent on justice. “The Hard Way” is the story of a good man turned killer in one horrible moment. And “The Tonto Woman” portrays a hard cowboy with a soft spot for a marked and scorned woman.

Vivid imagery dots the book, making it even more memorable.

“Only Good Ones” opens with, “Picture the ground rising on the east side of the pasture with scrub trees thick on the slope and pines higher up.” In one clear sentence, the reader is brought to the scene around which the entire story revolves.

Most unique about Leonard’s style of writing is the sudden climax of each western. Instead of slowly building up to the defining point of the story, he suddenly snaps the reader from an everyday scenario to a one-blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.

Later, in “Only Good Ones,” the course of action shifts with just one line of dialogue. “‘Where’s he going?’ Mr. Malsom said. The others looked up, stopped in whatever they were doing or thinking by the suddenness of Mr. Malsom’s voice.”

In all the excitement, though, the moral is always obvious. In “The Hard Way,” it becomes clear that sometimes the good guys don’t win and are forced to join the bad guys.

While some may cringe at the word “western,” each of Leonard’s tales of the wild west are universal in time and location.

Since “The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories” is a collection, the reader can skip stories with unappealing titles, which makes for the perfect weekend read.

3 1/2 stars out of five

Kelsey Foutch is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Waterloo.