by Terrance Mc Arthur

This week we have a review of The Flying Z, a modern Western crime novel by Leo W. Banks, along with an interesting interview with Leo. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of the book and link to purchase it–you may not be able to see the Amazon links if you have ad blocker on.

The Flying Z by Leo W. Banks
Review by Terrance McArthur

The Flying Z by Leo W. Banks. Hmmm. By the cover, it’s a Western. Let’s see. Desolate landscape. Remote ranch. Tough cowboy. Doddering old uncle. Beautiful young woman. Truck? Drug traffickers? A Mustang…by Ford?

It’s not your grandfather’s Western. It’s a modern Western Noir. Near the Mexican border of Arizona, the Flying Z Ranch is home to Will Zachary and his early Alzheimer’s uncle Buck. Will has an uneasy agreement with Marcelino, a drug lord whose couriers cross Flying Z land: don’t kill Buck, and you can use one trail. When the college-bound Merry O’Hara drives her sports car into a ditch while heading for Stanford University, things start to change. The drug runners desecrate hallowed ground. Will fights back. Marcelino takes revenge. Things get bloody. Things also get sexy. The question is: When you fight inhumanity, how much humanity will you lose?

Some of Will’s reactions and methods seem extreme, but the landscape is extreme. The provocation is extreme.

Will and Merry are a tempestuous couple. She is drawn to him by his sense of justice, yet repulsed by the violent means he employs. Still, the attraction remains, even though she runs away to avoid it. Will can’t believe he is attracted to a citified woman from the other side of the country.

The supporting characters have a grounding in reality. Even though they are recognizable types, they belong in this landscape—

• The uncle who taught Will everything, but doesn’t remember much of it;
• The mechanic who can fix anything she puts a mind to;
• The county sheriff who knows the law and knows what’s right.

One part Shane, two parts Death Wish, with dashes of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, and a whisper of Walter Brennan, The Flying Z gives a healthy dose of yesterday in the middle of a scoop of today.

Terrance V. Mc Arthur worked for the Fresno County Public Library for three decades. He is retired, but not retiring. A storyteller, puppeteer, writer, actor, magician, basketmaker, and all-around interesting person, his goal is to make life more unusual for everyone he meets.

Interview with Leo W. Banks:

KRL: How long have you been writing?

Leo: From the beginning. When I was ten, I wrote a book about the Civil War. It was ten pages long. I was proud of it. I bound it up with cardboard covers and had my father, a math professor, write an introduction. He said it was so good it would be read for hundreds of years. I still have it. At Boston College, I wrote about sports for the student newspaper and later spent seven years reporting for The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. From there, I’ve written for the Boston Globe, the LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, and others. I switched to fiction six years ago.

Leo W. Banks

KRL: Wow impressive! When did your first novel come out, what was it called, and would you tell us a little about it?

Leo: Double Wide came out in 2017. The lead character is Whip Stark, a once-promising baseball player whose career washes out amid a trumped-up cocaine scandal in Mexico. He returns to the states and buys a trailer park in the remote desert west of Tucson to figure out what’s next.

He gets involved investigating the death of his former catcher, at the same time that he’s dealing with his tenants. They’re oddballs and outcasts, but at Double Wide they find a place to belong, and it’s usually around the kitchen table of Whip’s Airstream. Double Wide won two Spur awards from the Western Writers of America – for Best First Novel and Best Western Contemporary Novel.

KRL: Have you always written mysteries/suspense and if not, what else have you written?

Leo: My first three novels fall into the mystery/suspense category. My current novel, which came out August 1, doesn’t fall into any easy category and that’s part of what I like about it. The Flying Z is a contemporary Western crime novel that’s also part love story.

It describes the lives of Arizona rancher Will Zachary and newly arrived Harvard grad, Merry O’Hara, as they try to build a life together while battling a drug cartel trying to take over the ranch.

KRL: What brought you to choose the setting and characters in your latest book/series?

Leo: I’ve spent a lot of time in southern Arizona ranch country. The area is rich in characters and the landscape is certainly unique. What are those forty-foot-tall spiny things, anyway? The Flying Z gives readers a window into a way of life far removed from their own. Book editors and agents always say they want to bring readers into unknown worlds, and this is certainly one.

KRL: Do you write to entertain or is there something more you want the readers to experience from your work?

Leo: I want to give readers a few hours away from the hurricane of daily life. Fiction is supposed to be fun. Nonfiction is for solving the world’s problems. A few years ago, I wrote about my philosophy: “After a good lead character, fast pacing, a few murders, some humor, some Mexican food, some smooching in the dark, no semicolons, no parentheses, no long passages of dialogue, no more than two bald-headed characters, and absolutely no redheads, make sure you have a good title.”

KRL: Do you have a schedule for your writing or just work whenever you can?

Leo: I start at 7:30 in the morning, go until 11, take an hour and a half for lunch and go again until 2 p.m. By then, I can’t see straight so I take a nap, then get up the next morning and do it again. I work on weekends, too, but fewer hours.

KRL: Do you outline? If not, do you have some other interesting way that you keep track of what’s going on, or what needs to happen in your book when you are writing it?

Leo: I do a pretty general outline that includes an ending and allows for changes along the way. Some writers say their characters tell them what those changes will be. I look at it differently. When I’m not at the computer, my characters are free to do whatever they want, but when I’m back working, they’re on the clock and do exactly what I say!

KRL: Did you find it difficult to get published in the beginning?

Leo: In my garage I’ve got copies of books I’ve written over the years. All were rejected. Truth is, they weren’t very good. Writing is like drywall. The more you do it the better you get.

KRL: Do you have a great rejection/critique or acceptance story you’d like to share?

Leo: A publisher sent me a rejection letter that began, Dear Mr. Barks.

KRL: Most interesting book signing story, in a bookstore or other venue?

Leo: For my first novel, I did a signing at Signing Wind Bookshop in Benson, Arizona. The bookstore, now closed, was on a working cattle ranch. I signed books to the sound of donkeys braying.

KRL: What are your future writing goals?

Leo: Keep writing books. Get better.

KRL: Who are your writing heroes?

Leo: I like a lot of the old crime stalwarts – Jim Thompson, James M. Cain, Chester Himes, Donald Westlake, Raymond Chandler, and Cornell Woolrich, whose short story became Hitchcock’s movie, Rear Window. Some of Hemingway’s best work gives me chills. Snows of Kilimanjaro is an example. Jack Schaefer is up there, too. He wrote Shane, a great American novel that also happens to be very influential in the life of Arizona rancher Will Zachary, my hero in The Flying Z.

KRL: What kind of research do you do?

Leo: The key to research is to do it, then put it aside. That sounds nuts, but too much research can bog you down. Take from it what you need to write confidently and forget the rest. My second novel, Champagne Cowboys, had a military sniper angle. I interviewed a Navy seal who held nothing back. We talked for a long time, but the only thing I used was his remark that snipers think of their work as a math problem. They do measurements to get the correct distance, wind speed and more. Only after those calculations are made is the shooter ready. Nothing matters more than the math. That was the only part of the research I used.

KRL: What do you like to read?

Leo: I often go back and re-read books I’ve loved in the past, both fiction and nonfiction. I can’t get enough of The Sun Also Rises, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Killer Angels. The latter is Michael Shaara’s nonfiction historical novel about the battle of Gettysburg. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1975. His descriptions of the characters are the best you’ll find anywhere.

It doesn’t get talked about much anymore, but I liked Truman Capote’s 1958 novel, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, about a young female escort in New York City. His writing was beautiful and economical, and he gave us an unforgettable heroine in Holly Golightly.

KRL: What are your favorite TV shows or movies?

Leo: TV shows — Cheers, Breaking Bad, and Seinfeld, which I can’t get enough of. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. My movie favorites run from dark to westerns to romantic. They include – Unforgiven, Rio Bravo, Godfather, Goodfellas, and Open Range. On the romantic side, who doesn’t like When Harry Met Sally? and Love, Actually?

KRL: Have you any advice for aspiring or beginning writers?

Leo: First, understand that you can’t be a writer without being a reader. When I taught at the University of Arizona, I’d tell students if their house isn’t crowded with books you can’t wait to get to, do something else.

Advice for beginners? Sorry to say, there is no good advice, apart from putting your butt in the chair and words on the screen. It doesn’t matter what kind of writing it is. It can be for the local shopper. Just get in the habit of producing readable words. The more you do it, the better you’ll get, and most importantly, the work will rid you of any flowery notions about what the writing life is like.

You say you want to write a novel? Here’s what you do: Go into a room alone every day and type away for four to five hours. Understand that all first drafts are lousy, so after you’ve written 300 pages, the hero is standing tall and your bad guy is dead, you have to go back, take it apart and do it all over again. There is no such thing as writing, only rewriting!

After a year of that, comes the hard part – trying to sell it.

KRL: What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

Leo: In high school, I put out a short-lived humor magazine under the name Gomez Mapini, a freedom fighter known around the world. Only recently have I satisfied the curious and confirmed that, yes, I am Gomez.

The content of the Timmy News mirrored that of National Lampoon. Copies might still be kicking around the seedier precincts of downtown Boston.

KRL: Have you any pets?

Leo: Duke, the king of all Black Labs.

KRL: Is there anything you would like to add?

Leo: I carry dog bones in my pocket. Duke is the biggest beneficiary, but so are random dogs I might encounter that might need of a snack.

KRL: Website? Twitter? Facebook? Instagram?

Leo: Facebook, yes. Website, yes. Leowbanks.com

To enter to win a copy of The Flying Z, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Z” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen August 26, 2023. You must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Also listen to our new mystery podcast where mystery short stories and first chapters are read by actors! They are also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify. A new episode goes up next week.

You can use this link to purchase the book. If you have ad blocker on you may not see the Amazon link. You can also click here to purchase the book.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.