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Stick
“A little beauty of a story….A hot, fast read with pungent characters.”
— Los Angeles Times “A slam-bang, no-bull action thriller…and nobody but nobody writes better dialogue.”
— New York Daily News It’s an established Elmore Leonard is “the uncontested master of the crime thriller” ( Washington Post ) who “does crime fiction better than anyone” ( Cleveland Plain Dealer ), and nowhere is this more obvious than in the pages of Stick . One of his most acclaimed noir masterworks, it is the story of ex-con Ernest “Stick” Stickley who’s nudged from the straight-and-narrow path when a big time drug dealer randomly selects him to die and a perfect revenge/payday opportunity presents itself. The author of Raylan , featuring U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, the sometimes trigger-happy protagonist of TV’s Justified , Leonard is indeed the king, holding court with the best of the best, including Coban and Connally, and the late great John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Robert B. Parker.
— Los Angeles Times “A slam-bang, no-bull action thriller…and nobody but nobody writes better dialogue.”
— New York Daily News It’s an established Elmore Leonard is “the uncontested master of the crime thriller” ( Washington Post ) who “does crime fiction better than anyone” ( Cleveland Plain Dealer ), and nowhere is this more obvious than in the pages of Stick . One of his most acclaimed noir masterworks, it is the story of ex-con Ernest “Stick” Stickley who’s nudged from the straight-and-narrow path when a big time drug dealer randomly selects him to die and a perfect revenge/payday opportunity presents itself. The author of Raylan , featuring U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, the sometimes trigger-happy protagonist of TV’s Justified , Leonard is indeed the king, holding court with the best of the best, including Coban and Connally, and the late great John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Robert B. Parker.
416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
511 people are currently reading
1542 people want to read
About the author
Elmore Leonard
211 books3,699 followersElmore John Leonard lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before settling in Detroit in 1935. After serving in the navy, he studied English literature at the University of Detroit where he entered a short story competition. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.
Father of Peter Leonard.
Father of Peter Leonard.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 226 reviews
May 29, 2012
Fresh out of jail after the events of Swag, Ernest Stickley tries to go legit and winds up back in the thick of things once again. While lying low as a chaffeur, can Stick stay alive long enough to collect the $5,000 he's owed?
Stick is a by the numbers, run of the mill Elmore Leonard book. I can't imagine it's anyone's favorite Leonard. However, it is enjoyable in the same way all of Leonard's books are enjoyable. It contains all the Leonard hallmarks: lowlifes, broads with loose morals, slick dialogue and more double crossing than you can shake a stick it at.
Stick is the return engagement of Ernest Stickley, one of the loveable lowlifes from Swag. While Stick is a pretty slick character in the mold of most Elmore Leonard protagonists, he wasn't as interesting as Swag's other lead, Frank Ryan. Too bad Ryan died in prison from drinking moonshine.
The plot is pretty simple. Stick's supposed to help deliver some money, get's double crossed, and then spends a lot of his time looking over his shoulder and trying to get even. The supporting cast is a mixed bag, from Chucky, the man with the womanly hips, to Nestor, the Cuban drug dealer who practices Santeria, to Kyle McLaren, the lady financial wizard that Stick has his eye on.
Leonard's dialogue is the star of the show, as it normally is. I guess my main grip with Stick is that I felt like I've read it a few times before. It's was good but didn't stand out at all compared to the other Leonard's I've read. It's still a three star read though.
Stick is a by the numbers, run of the mill Elmore Leonard book. I can't imagine it's anyone's favorite Leonard. However, it is enjoyable in the same way all of Leonard's books are enjoyable. It contains all the Leonard hallmarks: lowlifes, broads with loose morals, slick dialogue and more double crossing than you can shake a stick it at.
Stick is the return engagement of Ernest Stickley, one of the loveable lowlifes from Swag. While Stick is a pretty slick character in the mold of most Elmore Leonard protagonists, he wasn't as interesting as Swag's other lead, Frank Ryan. Too bad Ryan died in prison from drinking moonshine.
The plot is pretty simple. Stick's supposed to help deliver some money, get's double crossed, and then spends a lot of his time looking over his shoulder and trying to get even. The supporting cast is a mixed bag, from Chucky, the man with the womanly hips, to Nestor, the Cuban drug dealer who practices Santeria, to Kyle McLaren, the lady financial wizard that Stick has his eye on.
Leonard's dialogue is the star of the show, as it normally is. I guess my main grip with Stick is that I felt like I've read it a few times before. It's was good but didn't stand out at all compared to the other Leonard's I've read. It's still a three star read though.
October 6, 2022
Readers first met Ernest Stickley, Jr. in Swag where Stickley was teamed up with Frank Ryan. Ryan had developed a list of rules and promised Stick that if they followed the rules they could be a very successful team of armed robbers. For a month or so they were untouchable but then they broke the rules and wound up in prison in Jackson, Michigan.
Ryan died in prison from alcohol poisoning. Stick has now competed his sentence and has traveled down to Florida in hopes of seeing his daughter who lives with her mother in Miami. First, though, he hooks up with a buddy from Jackson named Rainy. Rainy is a drug runner who is tangled up with a mostly harmless bad guy named Chucky Buck. Rainy needs to make a delivery for Chucky and asks Stickley if he would mind tagging along.
The errand goes sideways and Stick is now hiding out from some very bad people who would like to do him considerable harm. Outside of a bar, he meets a wealthy investor named Barry Stam. Stam is locked out of his Rolls Royce and his chauffer is off drunk somewhere. Stick, a former car thief, had been thinking of boosting the Rolls, but now helps Barry out by getting him into the car, starting it without the keys, and driving Barry home. At which point, Stick becomes the new chauffer living in very nice quarters above the garage.
Soon thereafter, Stick is enmeshed with a group of very wealthy, very strange, and very horny people. Meanwhile, allies of Chucky Buck are still searching for Stick, aiming to eliminate him from the planet. While this is not Leonard's most successful book, it's still a lot of fun. It features a lot of oddball characters and, as always in an EL novel, the dialogue sparkles. The plot is a bit convoluted, but who cares? This is a very funny, enjoyable read, and it was nice to catch up with Ernest Stickley, Jr. again.
Ryan died in prison from alcohol poisoning. Stick has now competed his sentence and has traveled down to Florida in hopes of seeing his daughter who lives with her mother in Miami. First, though, he hooks up with a buddy from Jackson named Rainy. Rainy is a drug runner who is tangled up with a mostly harmless bad guy named Chucky Buck. Rainy needs to make a delivery for Chucky and asks Stickley if he would mind tagging along.
The errand goes sideways and Stick is now hiding out from some very bad people who would like to do him considerable harm. Outside of a bar, he meets a wealthy investor named Barry Stam. Stam is locked out of his Rolls Royce and his chauffer is off drunk somewhere. Stick, a former car thief, had been thinking of boosting the Rolls, but now helps Barry out by getting him into the car, starting it without the keys, and driving Barry home. At which point, Stick becomes the new chauffer living in very nice quarters above the garage.
Soon thereafter, Stick is enmeshed with a group of very wealthy, very strange, and very horny people. Meanwhile, allies of Chucky Buck are still searching for Stick, aiming to eliminate him from the planet. While this is not Leonard's most successful book, it's still a lot of fun. It features a lot of oddball characters and, as always in an EL novel, the dialogue sparkles. The plot is a bit convoluted, but who cares? This is a very funny, enjoyable read, and it was nice to catch up with Ernest Stickley, Jr. again.
August 31, 2016
Elmore Leonard is one of my three favorite authors. That said, his work is either dynamite TNT or a bottle rocket, which might be a gracious way of saying he can write a dud. With forty-five novels and at least forty-two short stories to his credit, not every one of Dutch's enterprises was going to be a masterpiece. Published in 1983, Stick gets very, very close to that mark.
In a continuation of his 1976 novel Swag, Stick finds Detroit heist man Ernest Stickley Jr. in Miami, paroled after serving seven years in Jackson Prison for armed robbery. A scarecrow from Oklahoma out of step with the latest fashions or action on the streets, Stick is in Florida to visit a friend from Jackson named Rainy Moya (three to four for possession with intent to deliver) and to reunite with his 14-year-old daughter, whom Stick hasn't seen since he went inside.
After sipping bourbon at a marina bar called Wolfgang's and readjusting to novelties like lights and women, Stick accompanies Rainy to the penthouse of Charles Gorman III, alias Chucky, a wheeler-dealer in the drug trade whose experiences in Vietnam make it difficult for him to stand still. Chucky has contracted Rainy to deliver $200,000 to a Cuban business associate. Making the bagman and his buddy wait, Chucky meets with Kyle McLaren, an investment analyst -- a blonde investment analyst -- to discuss how he might make vast sums of cash work for him. Kyle isn't intimidated by Chucky but makes it clear she does not do laundry.
Stick takes a stroll through Chucky's expensive penthouse. A man of few words, he makes something of an impression on Kyle, but his vagrancy offends Chucky, who sends along Eddie Moke, a redneck goon who works for the Cuban, to escort Rainy and Stick to the drop-off. As the Cubans approach, Moke tries to bully Stick into making the delivery. Rainy ultimately agrees to but as he steps out of the van, is shot to death by the Cubans. Stick smacks Moke upside the head and flees into the night.
Certain that Chucky set them up, Stick returns to Wolfgang's the next day to wait and see what happens. He comes to the aid of Barry Stam, a wealthy investor who gets his kicks brushing shoulders with criminals. Stranded at the bar while his chauffeur is drunk someplace, Barry takes a bet that Stick can break into his Rolls Royce and start the engine in 50 seconds. On the drive to Barry's home in Biscayne Bay, the men get to know each other, in that great, great, great Elmore Leonard dialogue:
"What do you do? When you're not hot-wiring cars."
"Same as you," Stick said. "Nothing. Only when I'm doing it I'm not investing, trading or speculating. When I do nothing, I believe in doing nothing."
"How many cars you steal in your career?"
"Somewhere between three and four hundred."
"There any money in it?"
"I don't know. I don't do it anymore," Stick said. "That was a long time ago."
"You just happen to have a jump-wire in your bag."
Stick didn't say anything to that. Why bother.
Barry offers Stick a job as a driver, with room and board provided in a garage apartment which Stick shares with a servant named Cornell, a quick-witted ex-con. Entertainment is provided by Barry's regal and bored wife, Diane, who lives in the house, and Barry's hot-headed mistress Aurora, who's being stashed on Barry's yacht, the Seaweed. Stick discovers that his boss is close friends with Chucky and that the brains behind his investment portfolio is the woman in Chucky's penthouse, Kyle.
Meanwhile, Chucky is under the gun to track down Rainy's mystery friend by Nestor Soto, a Paraguayan Indian drug smuggler who lost $200,000 and one of his men in a federal sting he blames Chucky for. By keeping his ears open and his mouth shut, Stick is able to hide in plain sight from the men out to kill him, and through a relationship with Kyle, begins learning how to steal without a gun: become a stockbroker.
Elmore Leonard has a gift for surfing readers across the peaks of a seedy crime story; South Florida, ex-cons and scams are common elements, as are women with the most dangerous weapon on the planet: a mind. The plots aren't important. What's important are the characters. Leonard introduces us to their desires, their fears, their colorful backgrounds and friendships, with some of the best dialogue you can find in a book. Not much seems to happen, we're simply hanging out with his characters. Until one of them pulls a gun and then I'm flipping pages to make sure my friends are all going to be okay.
Stick is unique in that rather than being built around a caper, there's an upstairs/ downstairs dynamic involving master and servant. I imagined Leonard watching chauffeurs gossip in the parking lot of a country club and thinking, "I bet there's a story with these guys." The author's heart is clearly with labor, which I always enjoy, and the romance between Stick and Kyle doesn't have a false note in it. Leonard's women tend to love men who make a living outside the law and in some cases, are even turned on by it, but Kyle isn't a groupie. She is her own woman who meets a guy on her particular frequency. He just happens to be a convicted armed robber.
One of the novel's fans was Burt Reynolds, who starred as the title character and directed a maligned film version. Featuring Candice Bergen as Kyle, George Segal as Barry and Charles Durning as Chucky, the film's release was delayed from August 1984 to April 1985 as Universal demanded much of the second half be reshot, focusing less on banter and more on tough guy stuff. In the interim, Reynolds had suffered a broken jaw filming City Heat. With his physical health and his commercial appeal on the wane in the reshoots, Reynolds seems to fade away as a leading man before our eyes. It is not a pleasant experience. Hollywood wouldn't begin to do Elmore Leonard justice until Get Shorty ten years later.
In a continuation of his 1976 novel Swag, Stick finds Detroit heist man Ernest Stickley Jr. in Miami, paroled after serving seven years in Jackson Prison for armed robbery. A scarecrow from Oklahoma out of step with the latest fashions or action on the streets, Stick is in Florida to visit a friend from Jackson named Rainy Moya (three to four for possession with intent to deliver) and to reunite with his 14-year-old daughter, whom Stick hasn't seen since he went inside.
After sipping bourbon at a marina bar called Wolfgang's and readjusting to novelties like lights and women, Stick accompanies Rainy to the penthouse of Charles Gorman III, alias Chucky, a wheeler-dealer in the drug trade whose experiences in Vietnam make it difficult for him to stand still. Chucky has contracted Rainy to deliver $200,000 to a Cuban business associate. Making the bagman and his buddy wait, Chucky meets with Kyle McLaren, an investment analyst -- a blonde investment analyst -- to discuss how he might make vast sums of cash work for him. Kyle isn't intimidated by Chucky but makes it clear she does not do laundry.
Stick takes a stroll through Chucky's expensive penthouse. A man of few words, he makes something of an impression on Kyle, but his vagrancy offends Chucky, who sends along Eddie Moke, a redneck goon who works for the Cuban, to escort Rainy and Stick to the drop-off. As the Cubans approach, Moke tries to bully Stick into making the delivery. Rainy ultimately agrees to but as he steps out of the van, is shot to death by the Cubans. Stick smacks Moke upside the head and flees into the night.
Certain that Chucky set them up, Stick returns to Wolfgang's the next day to wait and see what happens. He comes to the aid of Barry Stam, a wealthy investor who gets his kicks brushing shoulders with criminals. Stranded at the bar while his chauffeur is drunk someplace, Barry takes a bet that Stick can break into his Rolls Royce and start the engine in 50 seconds. On the drive to Barry's home in Biscayne Bay, the men get to know each other, in that great, great, great Elmore Leonard dialogue:
"What do you do? When you're not hot-wiring cars."
"Same as you," Stick said. "Nothing. Only when I'm doing it I'm not investing, trading or speculating. When I do nothing, I believe in doing nothing."
"How many cars you steal in your career?"
"Somewhere between three and four hundred."
"There any money in it?"
"I don't know. I don't do it anymore," Stick said. "That was a long time ago."
"You just happen to have a jump-wire in your bag."
Stick didn't say anything to that. Why bother.
Barry offers Stick a job as a driver, with room and board provided in a garage apartment which Stick shares with a servant named Cornell, a quick-witted ex-con. Entertainment is provided by Barry's regal and bored wife, Diane, who lives in the house, and Barry's hot-headed mistress Aurora, who's being stashed on Barry's yacht, the Seaweed. Stick discovers that his boss is close friends with Chucky and that the brains behind his investment portfolio is the woman in Chucky's penthouse, Kyle.
Meanwhile, Chucky is under the gun to track down Rainy's mystery friend by Nestor Soto, a Paraguayan Indian drug smuggler who lost $200,000 and one of his men in a federal sting he blames Chucky for. By keeping his ears open and his mouth shut, Stick is able to hide in plain sight from the men out to kill him, and through a relationship with Kyle, begins learning how to steal without a gun: become a stockbroker.
Elmore Leonard has a gift for surfing readers across the peaks of a seedy crime story; South Florida, ex-cons and scams are common elements, as are women with the most dangerous weapon on the planet: a mind. The plots aren't important. What's important are the characters. Leonard introduces us to their desires, their fears, their colorful backgrounds and friendships, with some of the best dialogue you can find in a book. Not much seems to happen, we're simply hanging out with his characters. Until one of them pulls a gun and then I'm flipping pages to make sure my friends are all going to be okay.
Stick is unique in that rather than being built around a caper, there's an upstairs/ downstairs dynamic involving master and servant. I imagined Leonard watching chauffeurs gossip in the parking lot of a country club and thinking, "I bet there's a story with these guys." The author's heart is clearly with labor, which I always enjoy, and the romance between Stick and Kyle doesn't have a false note in it. Leonard's women tend to love men who make a living outside the law and in some cases, are even turned on by it, but Kyle isn't a groupie. She is her own woman who meets a guy on her particular frequency. He just happens to be a convicted armed robber.
One of the novel's fans was Burt Reynolds, who starred as the title character and directed a maligned film version. Featuring Candice Bergen as Kyle, George Segal as Barry and Charles Durning as Chucky, the film's release was delayed from August 1984 to April 1985 as Universal demanded much of the second half be reshot, focusing less on banter and more on tough guy stuff. In the interim, Reynolds had suffered a broken jaw filming City Heat. With his physical health and his commercial appeal on the wane in the reshoots, Reynolds seems to fade away as a leading man before our eyes. It is not a pleasant experience. Hollywood wouldn't begin to do Elmore Leonard justice until Get Shorty ten years later.
July 24, 2010
If you were reading my reviews about six months ago, you may remember when I went through a phase of choosing books to read that I wanted to get rid of. Well, I'm doing it again. I have a pile of books on my floor that I generally don't want to read, but they are also books that I have some desire to read. Does this make sense? If books could be rated on a scale of -1 to 1, where -1 is a book I'd rather stick razor blades up my urethra than have to read, and 0 is total ambivalence and 1 is 'oh my fucking God it's the five hundred extra pages of Infinite Jest, I must read this shit now!', then these books are like a .1 or maybe a .05. Kind of like I'll look at them and think, 'eh (not Eh!), someday I'll want to read this'. Well, guess what asshole, someday just became now. I'm once again subjecting myself to the book karma of bad book choices of the past. Or not.
I wasn't excited to read this book. I only choose it because I was feeling especially masochistic after once again forgetting to pay my electricity bill for an embarrassingly long amount of time. So, my thought process went like this: if you are going to sit out in the sun and get sun-burn on your ankle while waiting for the electric company to once again show up and give you electricity back again, then you sure as fucking hell aren't going to be sitting there enjoying your book; no, you are going to be reading something that you can get rid of when you are done; you are going to read this awful looking mystery novel; now get out there into to the sun and read; asshole.
One might think that this book doesn't look so bad, but that is only because they aren't looking at my early 1980's soft-color cover. It looks like something sleazy and Jacqueline Susan-esque. It looks like a Mickey Spillane novel but twice the length. It looks like torture.
But guess what? It's not!
This book is actually quite a bit of fun, and I almost gave it four stars. And I would have if it weren't for of the unbelievable plot points. Or maybe they aren't plot points, they are just unbelievable. Like the chapter where out of the blue the main character sleeps with three women, which are almost all the women in the book, one right after another (but not at the same time). The romp from one bed to the next comes out of left field, and well, it's kind of silly. Similarly, there are too many scenes where the protagonist does everything right, sort of like in the original Batman movie, with Adam West, when Batman is attacked by a shark there happens to be 'Bat Shark Repellent' on his utility belt in a big fucking container that was never there before and is never there again. It's just too convenient. Putting aside those types of moments the book is a pretty entertaining book, and not at all a bad book to read while sitting in the hot summer sun waiting to have someone come by and give you back your electricity because you are too much of a moron to remember to pay the bill.
I wasn't excited to read this book. I only choose it because I was feeling especially masochistic after once again forgetting to pay my electricity bill for an embarrassingly long amount of time. So, my thought process went like this: if you are going to sit out in the sun and get sun-burn on your ankle while waiting for the electric company to once again show up and give you electricity back again, then you sure as fucking hell aren't going to be sitting there enjoying your book; no, you are going to be reading something that you can get rid of when you are done; you are going to read this awful looking mystery novel; now get out there into to the sun and read; asshole.
One might think that this book doesn't look so bad, but that is only because they aren't looking at my early 1980's soft-color cover. It looks like something sleazy and Jacqueline Susan-esque. It looks like a Mickey Spillane novel but twice the length. It looks like torture.
But guess what? It's not!
This book is actually quite a bit of fun, and I almost gave it four stars. And I would have if it weren't for of the unbelievable plot points. Or maybe they aren't plot points, they are just unbelievable. Like the chapter where out of the blue the main character sleeps with three women, which are almost all the women in the book, one right after another (but not at the same time). The romp from one bed to the next comes out of left field, and well, it's kind of silly. Similarly, there are too many scenes where the protagonist does everything right, sort of like in the original Batman movie, with Adam West, when Batman is attacked by a shark there happens to be 'Bat Shark Repellent' on his utility belt in a big fucking container that was never there before and is never there again. It's just too convenient. Putting aside those types of moments the book is a pretty entertaining book, and not at all a bad book to read while sitting in the hot summer sun waiting to have someone come by and give you back your electricity because you are too much of a moron to remember to pay the bill.
October 22, 2019
Forget that earlier review (way down below) from 2013.
This is from my most recent (2019/October) re-read of possibly my all-time favorite Elmore Leonard novel.
This is the 2nd novel with Ernest Stickley, Jr, 42 years old, originally from Norman, Oklahoma most recently from Jackson, Michigan. From a prison they have up there.
Stick was doing a seven year stretch for events that occurred in the novel
aka
which is why you need to read that novel before reading this one,
.
Stick has killed four men but for god's sake, please don't tell anyone else about those previous unfortunate events.
All he wants to do now is go straight.
He's down in Florida to see his now teenage daughter.
Maybe look for a job.
Just following the flow of the currents of his life.
It all goes to hell in the first chapter.
Read it and weep.
Suffice to say he runs afoul of some pretty terrifying characters.
Stick lays low for a while.
Moves south, closer to Miami but then returns. He really wants to get to know his teenage daughter.
Months later, in that Florida sun he's lost his prison pallor and he's looking like a life guard and nursing a vengeance trip.
He's sitting on the steps of an upscale bar contemplating going back to stealing cars and he's got his eyes set on a vintage Rolls Royce when the owner of the Rolls, a screwy lawyer/stock investor winds up hiring him as a chauffeur.
The gentleman likes to play the streetwise tough guy.
Trying to sound on the muscle now, a hard-nose. The guy should try out for the movies. See if in about a hundred years he could take Warren Oates's place. Christ. Why wouldn't he just relax and enjoy being rich? One the phone again, talking to his Rorie. The little asshole big-dealer sitting in the back seat of his limo in his tennis whites trying to sound like a hardass and coming off like Eddie Fisher doing Marlon Brando.
Soon, Stick is part of the happy family, living in his bachelor pad in the live-in garage apartment on the man's multi-million dollar estate.
This is an action packed thriller that is laugh-out-loud funny. Certainly Dutch Leonard's funniest situations and dialogue up to this point in his career.
I finished the last page and a quarter laughing.
Which is a rarity when it comes to reading crime thrillers.
Along with RYAN'S RULES aka SWAG, I would recommend this to Dutch Leonard newcomers and
longtime fans.
==============================================================================
Recommended to new Elmore Leonard fans and old.
This was the third Elmore Leonard book I read after reading Unknown Man No. 89 and City Primeval.
Probably best enjoyed if you read Swag first.
I read most of early novels out of sequence and I've been a fan for over 30 years.
This is from my most recent (2019/October) re-read of possibly my all-time favorite Elmore Leonard novel.
This is the 2nd novel with Ernest Stickley, Jr, 42 years old, originally from Norman, Oklahoma most recently from Jackson, Michigan. From a prison they have up there.
Stick was doing a seven year stretch for events that occurred in the novel
aka
which is why you need to read that novel before reading this one,
.Stick has killed four men but for god's sake, please don't tell anyone else about those previous unfortunate events.
All he wants to do now is go straight.
He's down in Florida to see his now teenage daughter.
Maybe look for a job.
Just following the flow of the currents of his life.
It all goes to hell in the first chapter.
Read it and weep.
Suffice to say he runs afoul of some pretty terrifying characters.
Stick lays low for a while.
Moves south, closer to Miami but then returns. He really wants to get to know his teenage daughter.
Months later, in that Florida sun he's lost his prison pallor and he's looking like a life guard and nursing a vengeance trip.
He's sitting on the steps of an upscale bar contemplating going back to stealing cars and he's got his eyes set on a vintage Rolls Royce when the owner of the Rolls, a screwy lawyer/stock investor winds up hiring him as a chauffeur.
The gentleman likes to play the streetwise tough guy.
Trying to sound on the muscle now, a hard-nose. The guy should try out for the movies. See if in about a hundred years he could take Warren Oates's place. Christ. Why wouldn't he just relax and enjoy being rich? One the phone again, talking to his Rorie. The little asshole big-dealer sitting in the back seat of his limo in his tennis whites trying to sound like a hardass and coming off like Eddie Fisher doing Marlon Brando.
Soon, Stick is part of the happy family, living in his bachelor pad in the live-in garage apartment on the man's multi-million dollar estate.
This is an action packed thriller that is laugh-out-loud funny. Certainly Dutch Leonard's funniest situations and dialogue up to this point in his career.
I finished the last page and a quarter laughing.
Which is a rarity when it comes to reading crime thrillers.
Along with RYAN'S RULES aka SWAG, I would recommend this to Dutch Leonard newcomers and
longtime fans.
==============================================================================
Recommended to new Elmore Leonard fans and old.
This was the third Elmore Leonard book I read after reading Unknown Man No. 89 and City Primeval.
Probably best enjoyed if you read Swag first.
I read most of early novels out of sequence and I've been a fan for over 30 years.
April 9, 2023
So I've come to the conclusion that this just isn't my type of book.
May 22, 2020
When he was on form, no-one could match him. This is Elmore hitting something near full power. Grubby, brilliantly drawn characters, great plotting and bloody hilarious.
Some of the dialogue and the character descriptions are so skillfully done. I could quote a hundred lines from this book that left me in awe of his ability to convey so much with so little. I'm also a complete sucker for the ex-con-gone-straight set up.
Fucking class.
Some of the dialogue and the character descriptions are so skillfully done. I could quote a hundred lines from this book that left me in awe of his ability to convey so much with so little. I'm also a complete sucker for the ex-con-gone-straight set up.
Fucking class.
September 24, 2013
"You getting along all right?"
"You mean are we making ends meet without any help from you? Not one cent in over seven years? Yes, thank you, we're doing just fine."
"I sent you a couple hundred from Jackson."
"You sent a hundred and eighty-five dollars. Mr. Wonderful."
"I'm going to help out," Stick said. "In fact"-- he dug out his wallet-- "I got paid this morning. I even got a raise. I thought I was going to get fired for something I did, he gave me a raise. So I can let you have... here's three hundred. How's that?"
"In seven years," Mary Lou said, "I'd say it's pretty shitty. What would you say?"
He knew this would happen. "I'm going to give you something every week now, for Katy. Or every month." He laid the bills on the end table.
"You bet you are," Mary Lou said. "At least till you go to prison again. When do you think that'll be?"
It was hard to not get up and walk out. Stick said, "Not ever again. I've changed."
"Does the man you work for know you're a convict?"
"I'm an ex-convict, Mary Lou." The thought came into his mind that Mary Lou would make a pretty good hack at a women's correctional facility. Or even a men's. He said, "Tell me how your mother's doing."
She said, "Mama's dead." Giving him a withering look, as though he were the cause of it.
"I'm sorry to hear that, I really am."
"Why, 'cause you got along so well? You never said a kind word about mama in your life."
"I couldn't think of any," Stick said, seeing that tough old broad squinting at the Temptations on Ed Sullivan, saying, "Is that niggers?"
"You mean are we making ends meet without any help from you? Not one cent in over seven years? Yes, thank you, we're doing just fine."
"I sent you a couple hundred from Jackson."
"You sent a hundred and eighty-five dollars. Mr. Wonderful."
"I'm going to help out," Stick said. "In fact"-- he dug out his wallet-- "I got paid this morning. I even got a raise. I thought I was going to get fired for something I did, he gave me a raise. So I can let you have... here's three hundred. How's that?"
"In seven years," Mary Lou said, "I'd say it's pretty shitty. What would you say?"
He knew this would happen. "I'm going to give you something every week now, for Katy. Or every month." He laid the bills on the end table.
"You bet you are," Mary Lou said. "At least till you go to prison again. When do you think that'll be?"
It was hard to not get up and walk out. Stick said, "Not ever again. I've changed."
"Does the man you work for know you're a convict?"
"I'm an ex-convict, Mary Lou." The thought came into his mind that Mary Lou would make a pretty good hack at a women's correctional facility. Or even a men's. He said, "Tell me how your mother's doing."
She said, "Mama's dead." Giving him a withering look, as though he were the cause of it.
"I'm sorry to hear that, I really am."
"Why, 'cause you got along so well? You never said a kind word about mama in your life."
"I couldn't think of any," Stick said, seeing that tough old broad squinting at the Temptations on Ed Sullivan, saying, "Is that niggers?"
April 28, 2022
The more colorful and cool these people are, the less they register with the reader. This reader, anyway. And that gave this novel as a certain indifferent, cruise-control, plug-and-play vibe that made it about as essential as the sine-wave shimmer of the Florida heat in summer. STICK's Ernest Stickley distinguishes himself from half a dozen other supercool lovable Leonard criminals only in the fact that his name isn't Jack. And for that reason, he doesn't really ... stick. Perhaps being played, badly and unmemorably, by Burt Reynolds was exactly the cinematic fate he, and this coasting novel, deserved.
July 7, 2013
It's rained like a motherfucker for four days straight during this July 4 so time I should have been putting into my tan and chlorine intake was wasted having nothing to do but read. I suppose I could have watched Law and Order: SVU reruns but there's a certain point when you can recite the Benson/Stabler banter down to the dramatic pause and that means it's time to rest the Mariska Hargitay obession, at least for a short time. So I unplugged the appliances and scrambled around the house for something fun that would take my mind off the fact that a tsunami was likely to wash through my living room any second and that I would probably die with my eyes pecked out by ducks angry that I never feed them. I chose this book, which I'd read yonder back in the 80s when it was fresh and before the Burt Reynolds abomination forever tainted it by association. I'd recently picked up a paperback copy for $2 at the now defunct (or soon-to-be defunct) Gnu's Room in Auburn AL. It'd been sitting around for two months while I pretended I would get to it. So I did and now I can report Stick is as good as I remember when I read books without worrying if I could articulate why they're good or not for people on this website. I will say my only disappointment is that my $2 copy is not this great Hachette UK cover
but this rather lame one
which except for the gun looks more like a Danielle Steel jacket, all lace and sheets and whatnot. When I want an Leonard Elmore (as my wife calls him) novel, I want some eye-popping neo-pulp graphics, preferably with hues of orange and funky typography.
That said, there's little doubt that STICK has to rank up in the top tier of Leonard's works, one where the wacky Floridians, coke-head Cubans, and sexy ladies with the "sweet can[s]" as they're inevitably described walk a line between clever/comical and cartoony. In fact, I'd put this No 2 to Rum Punch in the cool category. Our main man Stickley is a savvy con, a bit smarter and more likable than Louis Gara from The Switch and Punch and not resentfully Clooney-esque like Jack Foley of Out of Sight and Road Dogs. It's hard to picture a dupe/villain named Chucky without thinking of a murderous doll and Jennifer Tilley's cleavage, but that is an anachronism and one far preferable to what was done to poor Charles Durning (RIP) when forced to incarnate the pill-head minor druggie in the aforementioned Reynolds vehicle, where Durning looks like a cross between Andy Rooney, a Jan and Dean backup musician, and your 68-year-old aunt with the bad dye job:
There are two other comic characters that walk right up to the line of silliness, the wannabe financial wiz Barry and Stick's roomie Cornell. Let's face it: very few of Leonard's African-American characters transcend the Huggy Bear School of Jive Skin-Slippin', but Cornell has charm and by the time you discover (minor spoiler) he services Barry's wife in some pretty un-PC dress-up scenarios, you see he's in on the joke (and he tells Stick he's in on the joke early on). The only other thing I thought was a little farfetched was a Hollywood scenario brought in to scam Chucky with a project called---prepare to wince, my funky brothers---Shuck and Jive. OK. The book's 30 years old---still, Airplane was already out by then, and jive was a groaner even then, so maybe a little less of the 70s funkdiloquence might've been warranted.
Those are very minor quibbles though. What's great about the book is Leonard's brilliance with plot (I know, everybody loves his dialogue, but that's a cliche, so I'm going with plot). He's so deft about taking left turns without pulling Big Reveal moments that you feel like you're leaning back while reading, just bein' cool and diggin' it (see how infectious the HBSJSS is?), without being artificially yanked to the edge of your seat. The ending is the coup de grace, a clever twist that makes you smile for the beautiful losers of the world. Rereading the book after all these years makes me want to go back and rediscover its predecessor, SWAG, which I remember seeing in book stores in 76 and mistaking it for SWAT, my favorite TV show. Alas, it's hard to pick up 70s Leonard and not think that compared to today Detroit wasn't all that bad off back then.
but this rather lame one
which except for the gun looks more like a Danielle Steel jacket, all lace and sheets and whatnot. When I want an Leonard Elmore (as my wife calls him) novel, I want some eye-popping neo-pulp graphics, preferably with hues of orange and funky typography.
That said, there's little doubt that STICK has to rank up in the top tier of Leonard's works, one where the wacky Floridians, coke-head Cubans, and sexy ladies with the "sweet can[s]" as they're inevitably described walk a line between clever/comical and cartoony. In fact, I'd put this No 2 to Rum Punch in the cool category. Our main man Stickley is a savvy con, a bit smarter and more likable than Louis Gara from The Switch and Punch and not resentfully Clooney-esque like Jack Foley of Out of Sight and Road Dogs. It's hard to picture a dupe/villain named Chucky without thinking of a murderous doll and Jennifer Tilley's cleavage, but that is an anachronism and one far preferable to what was done to poor Charles Durning (RIP) when forced to incarnate the pill-head minor druggie in the aforementioned Reynolds vehicle, where Durning looks like a cross between Andy Rooney, a Jan and Dean backup musician, and your 68-year-old aunt with the bad dye job:
There are two other comic characters that walk right up to the line of silliness, the wannabe financial wiz Barry and Stick's roomie Cornell. Let's face it: very few of Leonard's African-American characters transcend the Huggy Bear School of Jive Skin-Slippin', but Cornell has charm and by the time you discover (minor spoiler) he services Barry's wife in some pretty un-PC dress-up scenarios, you see he's in on the joke (and he tells Stick he's in on the joke early on). The only other thing I thought was a little farfetched was a Hollywood scenario brought in to scam Chucky with a project called---prepare to wince, my funky brothers---Shuck and Jive. OK. The book's 30 years old---still, Airplane was already out by then, and jive was a groaner even then, so maybe a little less of the 70s funkdiloquence might've been warranted.
Those are very minor quibbles though. What's great about the book is Leonard's brilliance with plot (I know, everybody loves his dialogue, but that's a cliche, so I'm going with plot). He's so deft about taking left turns without pulling Big Reveal moments that you feel like you're leaning back while reading, just bein' cool and diggin' it (see how infectious the HBSJSS is?), without being artificially yanked to the edge of your seat. The ending is the coup de grace, a clever twist that makes you smile for the beautiful losers of the world. Rereading the book after all these years makes me want to go back and rediscover its predecessor, SWAG, which I remember seeing in book stores in 76 and mistaking it for SWAT, my favorite TV show. Alas, it's hard to pick up 70s Leonard and not think that compared to today Detroit wasn't all that bad off back then.
June 9, 2017
Stick, recently released from prison (7 years for armed robbery), accepted a Floridian ex-con acquaintance's offer to earn $5000 to be bodyguard during a drug money exchange, but it goes bad. Should he run or stay? Unexpectedly, he meets a slightly off rich guy who needs a chauffeur. As things are in Elmore Leonard novel, it turns out the stupid rich guy knows a drug guy who knows the people Stick was trying to avoid - and an attractive female investment advisor is on the scene, as well. Perhaps Stick can find a way to maneuver around, stay alive, maybe get the girl as a girlfriend, and make some money. He could somehow make something work, right?
Great beach read. Not Leonard's best, but still. Who wants a literary read every day? Not me, gentle reader.
Great beach read. Not Leonard's best, but still. Who wants a literary read every day? Not me, gentle reader.
October 18, 2022
“If common sense, intelligence, caution, all the straightarrow stuff ever failed him there was bullshit to fall back on.”
Elmore Leonard, never change.
December 11, 2017
I read Elmore Leonard novels to cleanse my pallet after my reading tastes have been damaged by reading other, lesser writers of this genre, and most of them are lesser. You can say that some of his books are better than others (and this isn’t one of his best) but when you enter into Leonard’s world of petty crooks and two-bit hit men it always feels fun and exciting.
August 6, 2011
I have this adage: If all else fails, read Elmore Leonard. If I'm at a loss on what to pick up next, I can always turn to Elmore Leonard for a guaranteed good read. He's a master of characterization and dialogue, and he makes it all look so easy.
Stick is no exception. The main character is a likeable anti-hero, who is just trying to get his life back on track after spending some years in Jackson, a prison in Michigan. A simple job, intended to earn Stick some spending money goes south, and he spends the rest of the book trying to get what is rightfully his. Stick is filled with colorful characters, and a plot that will keep you reading late into the night.
Stick is no exception. The main character is a likeable anti-hero, who is just trying to get his life back on track after spending some years in Jackson, a prison in Michigan. A simple job, intended to earn Stick some spending money goes south, and he spends the rest of the book trying to get what is rightfully his. Stick is filled with colorful characters, and a plot that will keep you reading late into the night.
May 22, 2016
No one does the cool crime caper better than Leonard and this is another great read, full of wit and humour and so much style.Set in 80's Miami and focusing on ex con Ernest Stickley and a sweet revenge scam.This creates such a great setting you can almost feel the breeze through the palm trees and not a cloud in the sky!.Con men, low lifes, double crossing and so much brilliant dialogue between characters,it's also really clever as things develop and feels more deeply involving than maybe some of his other work.
October 17, 2022
Some authors just have a gift for dialogue. Think Ed McBain and all the wonderful exchanges that drive his excellent 87th Precinct novels. And here, in Stick, Elmore Leonard demonstrates his gift for making the reader feel he or she is listening, not reading, as the characters interact with each other. It's a rare talent, and Leonard certainly demonstrates it.
Ernest Stickley (aka, Stick) has just finished serving seven years for armed robbery. He travels to Florida to see his little girl (his ex, not so much), and meets up with a fella he'd befriended while in prison, named Rainy, who apparently hasn't learned his lesson and is a running drugs for some dangerous people. Stick is an immensely likeable character, and it's easy to root for him, even when he's doing something less than noble.
Much of the story develops from a chance encounter outside of a bar, where Stick had been eyeing a Rolls Royce (he's a man with many talents, and boosting cars is one of them), when the owner, one Barry Stam, appears. Barry is a rich, self-important man who spends all his waking hours investing his money-- stocks, ventures, property, and the like. Barry's chauffeur is once again drunk and MIA, leaving Barry locked out of the car. Instead of stealing the Rolls, Stick bets him $100 that he can have the car unlocked and running in under 30 seconds. Not only does he succeed, but agrees to drive Barry home (while he sits in back, talking to his broker on the phone) and, once there, is offered the job as new chauffeur. Now living in some very nice quarters above the garage, Stick becomes friends with another employee and begins to learn a lot about Barry's world- the world of finance- while observing the wacky gatherings at Barry's place and paying attention to conversations in the back seat as he drives Barry and various people to and fro.
There's some sex, some anti-semitic jokes, and a few paragraphs that might put off a sensitive reader, but consider when the book was penned and the author before judging. The plot is complicated and twisty, the experiences through which Leonard puts Stick are clever and funny, and the dialogue is... well... just read the book and you'll see what I mean. Other reviewers have noted that this was not Leonard's most successful book, but I found it massively entertaining and will be eager to go back and find/read Swag, where we first get to meet Mr. Stickley. Four solid stars.
Ernest Stickley (aka, Stick) has just finished serving seven years for armed robbery. He travels to Florida to see his little girl (his ex, not so much), and meets up with a fella he'd befriended while in prison, named Rainy, who apparently hasn't learned his lesson and is a running drugs for some dangerous people. Stick is an immensely likeable character, and it's easy to root for him, even when he's doing something less than noble.
Much of the story develops from a chance encounter outside of a bar, where Stick had been eyeing a Rolls Royce (he's a man with many talents, and boosting cars is one of them), when the owner, one Barry Stam, appears. Barry is a rich, self-important man who spends all his waking hours investing his money-- stocks, ventures, property, and the like. Barry's chauffeur is once again drunk and MIA, leaving Barry locked out of the car. Instead of stealing the Rolls, Stick bets him $100 that he can have the car unlocked and running in under 30 seconds. Not only does he succeed, but agrees to drive Barry home (while he sits in back, talking to his broker on the phone) and, once there, is offered the job as new chauffeur. Now living in some very nice quarters above the garage, Stick becomes friends with another employee and begins to learn a lot about Barry's world- the world of finance- while observing the wacky gatherings at Barry's place and paying attention to conversations in the back seat as he drives Barry and various people to and fro.
There's some sex, some anti-semitic jokes, and a few paragraphs that might put off a sensitive reader, but consider when the book was penned and the author before judging. The plot is complicated and twisty, the experiences through which Leonard puts Stick are clever and funny, and the dialogue is... well... just read the book and you'll see what I mean. Other reviewers have noted that this was not Leonard's most successful book, but I found it massively entertaining and will be eager to go back and find/read Swag, where we first get to meet Mr. Stickley. Four solid stars.
November 5, 2024
This book is awful. What a letdown after loving Swag. It’s so bad that now I wonder about my assessment of that book. This just goes on and on, if they’d edited out half the book it would still have been far too long.
I wasn’t reading this to get smarter, I feel like a crime novel only has to pass one test. Don’t be boring. Cheap thrills? Bring them on. What, you want to test my credulity? Please, go right ahead. Just don’t put me to sleep. I’m actually angry at this book right now, if it wasn’t on my iPad I would throw it on the floor.
I wasn’t reading this to get smarter, I feel like a crime novel only has to pass one test. Don’t be boring. Cheap thrills? Bring them on. What, you want to test my credulity? Please, go right ahead. Just don’t put me to sleep. I’m actually angry at this book right now, if it wasn’t on my iPad I would throw it on the floor.
November 6, 2020
Better than I expected it to be. I actually liked Stick and empathised with him in most of the sticky situations he got himself into. May look up other Leonard books featuring Stick.
December 26, 2022
It’s a total pleasure to listen once again to the voice of Frank Mueller. To combine his fabulous delivery with Elmore Leonard’s wonderfully warped characters makes for a most enjoyable eight hours.
January 5, 2018
I've seen more movies made from Elmore Leonard's books than I've read his novels. I think Stick is the second or third novel. It's a bit of a slow starter, but builds a good momentum, gathering your interest along the way. The story is kind of a rags to riches tale of a simple, but smart guy who tries to get back on his feet after a stint in federal penitentiary.
Stick also became a movie, starring Burt Reynolds. If I call correctly it was a bit slow too, but a likable flick.
Stick also became a movie, starring Burt Reynolds. If I call correctly it was a bit slow too, but a likable flick.
July 18, 2015
... 7/10
Alright, so certain writers frequently write about writers, some write about espionage, others often write about sports, or diseases, and so on. All kinds of subjects and themes. Having been exposed to Elmore Leonard's work four times now (if we can count the movies L.A. Confidential and Jackie Brown), which admittedly is not a lot considering how prolific he was, I'm becoming more and more convinced that his most frequent subject is film. I read Be Cool, regrettably, and enjoyed this one a lot more-- yet once again it came back to movies. He's the most film-oriented novelist I know of.
That said, this is the story of an ex-con in Miami, Ernest "Stick" Stickley, nearly murdered just for riding shotgun on an ill-fated, criminal pay-off, and then taking a creative form of a revenge on the man who set him up. It's entertaining stuff, to be sure. Leonard is a direct, economical writer who clearly honed his talent over the years (this was early 1980's work, closer to the prime of his career than Be Cool...) and his dialogue is justifiably admired for its realistic, idiomatic qualities. It rings true. His characters are all, well, characters: uniquely human and interesting. I especially liked Cornell, Kyle / Emma, and Stick himself. There are plenty of coincidences and unpredictable turns of the plot here which actually only serve to make the story truer to life, easier to believe. This includes Stick's "near" completion of a sexual hat trick one night.
My only critiques are that it's naturally a little dated, with all the TV and film references circa 1982, and that at times there seems to be something in effect which I like to call reverse dramatic irony. The characters know more about what's going on than the reader, when it ought to be the other way around.
Alright, so certain writers frequently write about writers, some write about espionage, others often write about sports, or diseases, and so on. All kinds of subjects and themes. Having been exposed to Elmore Leonard's work four times now (if we can count the movies L.A. Confidential and Jackie Brown), which admittedly is not a lot considering how prolific he was, I'm becoming more and more convinced that his most frequent subject is film. I read Be Cool, regrettably, and enjoyed this one a lot more-- yet once again it came back to movies. He's the most film-oriented novelist I know of.
That said, this is the story of an ex-con in Miami, Ernest "Stick" Stickley, nearly murdered just for riding shotgun on an ill-fated, criminal pay-off, and then taking a creative form of a revenge on the man who set him up. It's entertaining stuff, to be sure. Leonard is a direct, economical writer who clearly honed his talent over the years (this was early 1980's work, closer to the prime of his career than Be Cool...) and his dialogue is justifiably admired for its realistic, idiomatic qualities. It rings true. His characters are all, well, characters: uniquely human and interesting. I especially liked Cornell, Kyle / Emma, and Stick himself. There are plenty of coincidences and unpredictable turns of the plot here which actually only serve to make the story truer to life, easier to believe. This includes Stick's "near" completion of a sexual hat trick one night.
My only critiques are that it's naturally a little dated, with all the TV and film references circa 1982, and that at times there seems to be something in effect which I like to call reverse dramatic irony. The characters know more about what's going on than the reader, when it ought to be the other way around.
June 23, 2020
I think everything Elmore Leonard writes is 5 star material, and this was my favorite of all.
Stick is fresh out of prison and meets up with his old prison buddy Rainy in Florida to begin a new life that includes his daughter. But after hanging around with Rainy at the exact wrong moment and barely escaping a setup assassination that leaves Rainy dead, Stick is out to, well, not get revenge exactly. He wants the money that should have been paid to Rainy haha. Full of fun characters, a cool setting, and Elmore Leonard's world famous dialogue, Stick was super fun.
Stick is fresh out of prison and meets up with his old prison buddy Rainy in Florida to begin a new life that includes his daughter. But after hanging around with Rainy at the exact wrong moment and barely escaping a setup assassination that leaves Rainy dead, Stick is out to, well, not get revenge exactly. He wants the money that should have been paid to Rainy haha. Full of fun characters, a cool setting, and Elmore Leonard's world famous dialogue, Stick was super fun.
April 29, 2015
This is probably a 2 star book if you compare it to most of Elmore Leonard's other books, but it's a quick read with some fun characters and a satisfying ending. Leonard's writing is a treat as always. Great beach read.
September 9, 2018
This book might not be for everyone, but it's definitely for me. Guns, cars, drugs, sex, murder, and great characters.
January 23, 2020
It's been yeeeeears since I read this book the first time, and I remember not liking it the first time because the plot didn't go at all the way I expected. Now, of course, I value that quality of Elmore Leonard novels most of all.
The characters in this one are a rich mix, all of them beautifully drawn, none more so than the main pair of Ernest "Stick" Stickley, ex-con turned chauffeur (after being a car thief and armed robber in the earlier "Swag"), and Emma "Kyle" McLaren, a bored but brillian financial adviser who's not averse to cutting a hotshot down to size. Their clear-eyed conversations, and growing awareness of their soulful connection and what they have to teach each other, are a real joy to behold.
The bad guys are pretty bad, all of them involved in the '80s Miami drug trade. There's Chucky Gorman, the would-be wheeler dealer who's bombed on Quaaludes most of the time and while in Vietnam fragged his own captain; Nestor, the scary South American kingpin who dreams of a jaguar wandering through his native village; and Moke, another in Leonard's long line of inept cracker criminals.
The comedy is pretty droll, too, including a couple of scenes that rival "Get Shorty" for spoofing the movie industry. Stick has a great sense of humor and timing, which is one way he and Kyle connect, and Leonard's descriptions of rich people's lives in South Florida are pretty great, especially what goes on between Stick's boss's wife and the houseman, another ex-con named Cornell. Moke has such inordinate pride in his cowboy hats that of course Stick makes mincemeat ouf of them. Meanwhile Stick is dealing with his ex-wife, who's started seeing a dental faith healer. I only wish Leonard could have worked in a scene with that guy.
As per usual, Leonard does one thing that bothers me: Having Stick using the word "colored" in reference to African-Americans. It just sticks in my craw, that's all.
The characters in this one are a rich mix, all of them beautifully drawn, none more so than the main pair of Ernest "Stick" Stickley, ex-con turned chauffeur (after being a car thief and armed robber in the earlier "Swag"), and Emma "Kyle" McLaren, a bored but brillian financial adviser who's not averse to cutting a hotshot down to size. Their clear-eyed conversations, and growing awareness of their soulful connection and what they have to teach each other, are a real joy to behold.
The bad guys are pretty bad, all of them involved in the '80s Miami drug trade. There's Chucky Gorman, the would-be wheeler dealer who's bombed on Quaaludes most of the time and while in Vietnam fragged his own captain; Nestor, the scary South American kingpin who dreams of a jaguar wandering through his native village; and Moke, another in Leonard's long line of inept cracker criminals.
The comedy is pretty droll, too, including a couple of scenes that rival "Get Shorty" for spoofing the movie industry. Stick has a great sense of humor and timing, which is one way he and Kyle connect, and Leonard's descriptions of rich people's lives in South Florida are pretty great, especially what goes on between Stick's boss's wife and the houseman, another ex-con named Cornell. Moke has such inordinate pride in his cowboy hats that of course Stick makes mincemeat ouf of them. Meanwhile Stick is dealing with his ex-wife, who's started seeing a dental faith healer. I only wish Leonard could have worked in a scene with that guy.
As per usual, Leonard does one thing that bothers me: Having Stick using the word "colored" in reference to African-Americans. It just sticks in my craw, that's all.
August 13, 2022
Synopsis: Elmore Stickley, the surviving member of the armed robbery team from "Swag," is released from prison and finds his way to Florida, where he quickly gets embroiled in the schemes of coke dealers, movie producers, and investment brokers.
One of the best Elmore Leonard books...it has it all.
1) Guy moves from Oklahoma to Detroit to Florida (all he's missing is Harlan County)
2) Love affair between not quite middle-aged people who are dissatisfied with their careers and ready to change
3) Rapid-fire technical lingo
4) Ludicrous sexual encounters (maybe the wildest of any EL book)
5) Nice bow-tie like ending that unravels into problems at the last second
Effortlessly sliding between like five perspectives without ever losing you (and this was even on an .epub that had formatted all dialogue into one line). Great humor without being jokey, tension and suspense without being contrived, tough guys without gunfighting or anything. He just has the unparalleled feel for the tension between these characters that he can get moving it seems with not effort at all. I think that the scenes in the car where Stick and the investor asshole Barry are chatting shop are some of the most effective, displaying Leonard's love of the intimidating power of technical jargon. It's very Michael Mann, different kinds of hypercompetent dudes, but there's warm interiority and humor too. The investment advisor Kyle MacLaren is one of the better women characters in the Leonard books, tough without being Whedonish, intelligent without being abstracted.
Bottom Line: this is as good a book as EL ever wrote, imo.
One of the best Elmore Leonard books...it has it all.
1) Guy moves from Oklahoma to Detroit to Florida (all he's missing is Harlan County)
2) Love affair between not quite middle-aged people who are dissatisfied with their careers and ready to change
3) Rapid-fire technical lingo
4) Ludicrous sexual encounters (maybe the wildest of any EL book)
5) Nice bow-tie like ending that unravels into problems at the last second
Effortlessly sliding between like five perspectives without ever losing you (and this was even on an .epub that had formatted all dialogue into one line). Great humor without being jokey, tension and suspense without being contrived, tough guys without gunfighting or anything. He just has the unparalleled feel for the tension between these characters that he can get moving it seems with not effort at all. I think that the scenes in the car where Stick and the investor asshole Barry are chatting shop are some of the most effective, displaying Leonard's love of the intimidating power of technical jargon. It's very Michael Mann, different kinds of hypercompetent dudes, but there's warm interiority and humor too. The investment advisor Kyle MacLaren is one of the better women characters in the Leonard books, tough without being Whedonish, intelligent without being abstracted.
Bottom Line: this is as good a book as EL ever wrote, imo.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 6, 2018
An amateur thief gets out of prison only to find himself up to his neck in another caper.
You know, I always find it easier to read an Elmore Leonard book when recalling that he started out writing Westerns. Dry tone, humor more situational and ironic than anything else, characters whose lives have gone all to hell. This is a funny novel--you just wouldn't know it to read it. Only on second thought does it all fall together, which is either something you like or something you don't. I have to work at it but enjoy it when I do.
You know, I always find it easier to read an Elmore Leonard book when recalling that he started out writing Westerns. Dry tone, humor more situational and ironic than anything else, characters whose lives have gone all to hell. This is a funny novel--you just wouldn't know it to read it. Only on second thought does it all fall together, which is either something you like or something you don't. I have to work at it but enjoy it when I do.
January 12, 2024
Elmore Leonard at his best. Florida’s criminal underbelly teems with tough talking criminals, greedy hustlers and dangerous babes in this gritty thriller. A narrative that clips right along with snappy dialogue and terse prose in the style of Hemingway. Get ready for a fly on the wall, front row seat for some witty conversations, gun violence sex, car chases and sketchy shit. Great book!
March 31, 2024
This isn't my genre. Maybe that's why I felt it dragged. Stick and Kyle are solid characters. Chucky and Barry were annoying. I dug the 1980s theme. Over all, I felt a little underwhelmed. I kept thinking there was going to be some big moment but the built was slow and when it got there, it just got there.
October 16, 2021
It's a 5-star hattrick! It's the same as my last 2 reviews really: blissful characters, minor as well as the main ones, and oh, their dialogue. I'm going to read another author now, but I'll miss Elmore and his wonderful, disreputable characters. I'll be back for more.
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