Picket Line

This previously unpublished 1970 novella from suspense master Leonard (Djibouti), who died in 2013, offers a diverting window into a key period of his career. Written before Leonard’s breakthrough, when he was a hired-gun author of westerns, the novella developed out of a film treatment inspired by Cesar Chavez’s 1965 Delano grape strike, which eventually became the 1974 film Mr. Majestyk. The book follows a large cast of characters who converge around a strike against Texas melon grower Stanzik Farms. Vincent Mora, a Chavez-inspired ex-priest, is the strike’s patient ringleader, who’s trying to persuade more growers to recognize and work with labor unions while meeting resistance from all sides. Other key players include Francisco “Chino” de la Cruz, an ex-con newly arrived from California, who takes a job at Stanzik and gravitates toward the union mainly as a means of sticking it to whatever man he can, and Connie Chavez, a charismatic 20-year-old devoted to the revolution in all its forms. With resonant themes and taut pacing, the novella paints an intense and immersive portrait of a small-town clash that heats up quickly and stays hot, though its roots as a plot outline are clear. This may not stand with the author’s best work—the ending is especially abrupt—but Leonard diehards will rejoice all the same. Agent: Jeff Posternak, Wylie Agency. (Sept.)