Dave Flynn

Now here’s something you rarely hear crime writing legend Elmore Leonard credited with….

Cindy Fazzi, author of a series of novels about Domingo, a modern day bounty hunter, suggests that that “pop culture has long mythologized and even romanticized” the occupation, and suggests that Leonard  himself helped popularize the profession in the latter half of the 20th century with his debut novel, The Bounty Hunters (1953).

In the book, DAVE FLYNN is a former U.S. Calvary and Civil War veteran who’s seen too much, and is now content, working as an Army guide and sometime-bounty hunter. Pretty much a “legend in the rugged Arizona Territory,” he’s hired (for four dollars a day) to lead R.D. Bowers, a young, inexperienced Army lieutenant, into Mexican territory.

Unofficially.

Their secret mission? To track down an aging but still violent Mimbre Apache renegade, Soldado Viejo, and bring him to justice. Along the way, they encounter corrupt Mexican authorities, a vicious band of scalp hunters from north of the border, and a wagon train massacre of Mexicans — including a family Dave was close with.

Like much of his work — both his westerns and his later crime novels —Leonard zeroes in on the complex and often questionable nature of what passes for justice, and highlights his early interest in characters on the fringes.