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Four Novels of the 1980s: City Primeval / LaBrava / Glitz / Freaky Deaky
The 1980s was the decade when Elmore Leonard came into his own as the most popular and critically acclaimed crime writer in America. The four novels collected here show him at the top of his game. Each in its own way displays his unique ear for the jazzy cadences of American speech, his ability to create extraordinary characters on both sides of the law, and his genius for exhilaratingly unpredictable stories that slide on a dime from hard-edged menace to unexpected comedy.
For three months in 1978, Leonard shadowed detectives from Detroit’s homicide squad for a profile commissioned by The Detroit News. From that experience came the inspiration for City Primeval, perhaps his greatest Detroit novel, a modern-day showdown between a lawman and an outlaw filled with echoes of the Westerns that were Leonard’s early specialty. (This volume presents, as a special feature, “Impressions of Murder,” the brilliant piece Leonard wrote for The Detroit News Sunday Magazine.) LaBrava moves the action to a steamy, seamy Miami, as a Secret Service agent turned photographer finds himself embroiled in a scheme involving a long-forgotten, but still alluring, film noir actress. Old-time movie lore, local Florida history, and the intricacies of a complex extortion plot are interwoven in one of Leonard’s richest and most entertaining works.
Glitz, the novel that marked Leonard’s breakthrough as a best-selling author, plunges into the casually corrupt world of Atlantic City casinos—“an old seaside resort being done over in Las Vegas plastic”—populated by small-time hoods and hustlers. A police detective looking into the death of a cocktail waitress finds himself following the twisted trail of the unforgettable Teddy Magyk, perhaps Leonard’s most indelibly chilling bad guy. Freaky Deaky, one of the author’s own favorites, returns to Detroit for a carnivalesque ’60s flashback in which festering grudges left over from counterculture days are churned up in a brew of blackmail, bombs, and sex.
This volume, the second in The Library of America’s Elmore Leonard edition, contains a newly researched chronology of Leonard’s life, drawing on materials in his personal archive, and detailed annotations, which include early drafts of passages from City Primeval and LaBrava, and an account by editor Gregg Sutter of the research that went into the writing of these novels.
For three months in 1978, Leonard shadowed detectives from Detroit’s homicide squad for a profile commissioned by The Detroit News. From that experience came the inspiration for City Primeval, perhaps his greatest Detroit novel, a modern-day showdown between a lawman and an outlaw filled with echoes of the Westerns that were Leonard’s early specialty. (This volume presents, as a special feature, “Impressions of Murder,” the brilliant piece Leonard wrote for The Detroit News Sunday Magazine.) LaBrava moves the action to a steamy, seamy Miami, as a Secret Service agent turned photographer finds himself embroiled in a scheme involving a long-forgotten, but still alluring, film noir actress. Old-time movie lore, local Florida history, and the intricacies of a complex extortion plot are interwoven in one of Leonard’s richest and most entertaining works.
Glitz, the novel that marked Leonard’s breakthrough as a best-selling author, plunges into the casually corrupt world of Atlantic City casinos—“an old seaside resort being done over in Las Vegas plastic”—populated by small-time hoods and hustlers. A police detective looking into the death of a cocktail waitress finds himself following the twisted trail of the unforgettable Teddy Magyk, perhaps Leonard’s most indelibly chilling bad guy. Freaky Deaky, one of the author’s own favorites, returns to Detroit for a carnivalesque ’60s flashback in which festering grudges left over from counterculture days are churned up in a brew of blackmail, bombs, and sex.
This volume, the second in The Library of America’s Elmore Leonard edition, contains a newly researched chronology of Leonard’s life, drawing on materials in his personal archive, and detailed annotations, which include early drafts of passages from City Primeval and LaBrava, and an account by editor Gregg Sutter of the research that went into the writing of these novels.
1024 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2015
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129 people want to read
About the author
Elmore Leonard
211 books3,709 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 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 6, 2020
The 1980s Elmore Leonard In The Library of America
The line between genre literature written for entertainment and more thoughtful, artistic writing is frequently difficult to draw. A virtue of American culture is its attempt to break down this distinction, an attempt which sometimes is successful. Elmore Leonard (1925 -- 2013) is an example of a writer who straddles the line between popular entertainment and literature. In his long career, Leonard first wrote westerns before turning to the genre of crime fiction. His work has received deserved popular success as well as critical recognition.
The Library of America does an invaluable service in making America's literary accomplishments available and accessible. The LOA's volumes show the breadth and diversity of America's writing and history, from popular genres to works such as "Moby-Dick" and "Leaves of Grass". Leonard's writing has been well-served by the LOA. In 2016, it published three volumes of Leonard's crime fiction followed in 2018 by a volume of Leonard's western novels and stories. The three volumes of crime writings were edited by Gregg Sutter, Leonard's longtime research assistant. Leonard himself selected the works to be included in the LOA series.
This volume, "Four Novels of the 1980s" is the middle of the three volumes of Leonard's crime writings and includes four works, "City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit" (1980), "LaBrava" (1981), "Glitz" (1985), and "Freaky Deaky"(1988). The volume also includes Sutter's note on the meticulous factual research he and Leonard did for each novel together with a news article "Impressions of Murder" that Leonard wrote on the Detroit Police Department that became the basis for "City Primeval".
Leonard's writing has been growing on me. The first impression his works make usually turns on his gift for sharp, punchy, and colloquial dialogue. As I read further, I became interested in the diversity of Leonard's settings, which range in this volume from Detroit to Miami to Atlantic City. Each book shows its own strong sense of place. The strongest part of Leonard's writing may be his gift for characterization and for portraying ordinary people, good, bad, and ambiguously in-between. Leonard shows an understanding of people and his characters are finely etched. Probably for this reason, he is known as the "Dickens of Detroit". Leonard's crime stories and plotting is sometimes cumbersome and hard to follow. I think it sometimes is the weak part of his writing, but it always serves as a frame for character, setting, and language. Leonard's books are entertaining but also thoughtful and provocative.
My favorite work in this volume is "City Primeval" which is an affectionately gritty portrayal of the crime-ridden Detroit in the late 1970's. The book effectively combines crime fiction with the earlier western genre with which Leonard began his career. Leonard was a fan of movies and there are many allusions to film in his writing. (Many of his novels and stories were also filmed) This novel is a struggle between the strong, silent police investigator, Raymond Cruz, and the flamboyant killer, Clement Mansell, the "Oklahoma Wildman". Mansell's efforts to bring the Oklahoma Wildman to justice quickly pass beyond the necessary level for law enforcement and assume the character of a vendetta. The Detroit Police Department, with its slow patient supportive work, is the true hero of "City Primeval" which ranks as one of Leonard's best novels.
"LaBrava" is set in the deteriorated Miami of the 1980s and features the character, Joe LaBrava, a photographer and former secret service agent. The novel features a close look at the streets, hotels, and history of Miami and of its diverse residents. The characters are photographers, artists, and aging film noir actresses together with some rather dense villains. The plotting becomes cumbersome, but the book works through its language, setting and characterizations. The book received the 1984 Edgar Allen Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America for best novel.
"Glitz" is largely set in the high-roller gambling world of Atlantic City but it includes important scenes in Puerto Rico and Florida as well. The novel again pits good guy against bad guy in the persons of detective Vincent Mora, based in Miami and the viciously psychotic killer and mama's boy, Teddy Magyk. The book also has a strong component of romance between Mora and a club singer, Linda Moon, who also figures in Leonard's much later novel, "Be Cool". The title and the story capture the glitz and glitter of Atlantic City's lights and casinos which serve as a veneer for the corruption and violence underneath. "Glitz" became Leonard's first novel to become a best-seller.
"Freaky Deaky" was one of Leonard's own favorites among his novels. The story is set in Detroit of the 1980s but most of the major characters were formed during the counter-culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The primary characters in the story all are morally tarnished, even the protagonist, a sympathetically-portrayed detective who specializes in explosives, Chris Mankowski. The criminals in the story include two former radicals, Skip and Robin, who are plotting to attain the inherited wealth of another figure from the 1960s, the alcoholic, otiose Woody who is tended to by a sinister figure, Darnell, who, like Skip and Robin has served jail time. With their greed and stupidity, the criminals fight against one another as well as against their intended victim.. The book recalls the unlamented youth culture of the 1960s and what one character describes as "their own kind of freaky deaky. You remember that sexy dance? Man, we had people shooting each other over it."
The LOA is to be commended for its breadth of vision in including the works of Elmore Leonard in its series. My appreciation for Leonard has grown with this volume of 1980s novels. The book will interest readers who enjoy crime fiction as well as readers who want to explore the scope of American writing.
Robin Friedman
The line between genre literature written for entertainment and more thoughtful, artistic writing is frequently difficult to draw. A virtue of American culture is its attempt to break down this distinction, an attempt which sometimes is successful. Elmore Leonard (1925 -- 2013) is an example of a writer who straddles the line between popular entertainment and literature. In his long career, Leonard first wrote westerns before turning to the genre of crime fiction. His work has received deserved popular success as well as critical recognition.
The Library of America does an invaluable service in making America's literary accomplishments available and accessible. The LOA's volumes show the breadth and diversity of America's writing and history, from popular genres to works such as "Moby-Dick" and "Leaves of Grass". Leonard's writing has been well-served by the LOA. In 2016, it published three volumes of Leonard's crime fiction followed in 2018 by a volume of Leonard's western novels and stories. The three volumes of crime writings were edited by Gregg Sutter, Leonard's longtime research assistant. Leonard himself selected the works to be included in the LOA series.
This volume, "Four Novels of the 1980s" is the middle of the three volumes of Leonard's crime writings and includes four works, "City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit" (1980), "LaBrava" (1981), "Glitz" (1985), and "Freaky Deaky"(1988). The volume also includes Sutter's note on the meticulous factual research he and Leonard did for each novel together with a news article "Impressions of Murder" that Leonard wrote on the Detroit Police Department that became the basis for "City Primeval".
Leonard's writing has been growing on me. The first impression his works make usually turns on his gift for sharp, punchy, and colloquial dialogue. As I read further, I became interested in the diversity of Leonard's settings, which range in this volume from Detroit to Miami to Atlantic City. Each book shows its own strong sense of place. The strongest part of Leonard's writing may be his gift for characterization and for portraying ordinary people, good, bad, and ambiguously in-between. Leonard shows an understanding of people and his characters are finely etched. Probably for this reason, he is known as the "Dickens of Detroit". Leonard's crime stories and plotting is sometimes cumbersome and hard to follow. I think it sometimes is the weak part of his writing, but it always serves as a frame for character, setting, and language. Leonard's books are entertaining but also thoughtful and provocative.
My favorite work in this volume is "City Primeval" which is an affectionately gritty portrayal of the crime-ridden Detroit in the late 1970's. The book effectively combines crime fiction with the earlier western genre with which Leonard began his career. Leonard was a fan of movies and there are many allusions to film in his writing. (Many of his novels and stories were also filmed) This novel is a struggle between the strong, silent police investigator, Raymond Cruz, and the flamboyant killer, Clement Mansell, the "Oklahoma Wildman". Mansell's efforts to bring the Oklahoma Wildman to justice quickly pass beyond the necessary level for law enforcement and assume the character of a vendetta. The Detroit Police Department, with its slow patient supportive work, is the true hero of "City Primeval" which ranks as one of Leonard's best novels.
"LaBrava" is set in the deteriorated Miami of the 1980s and features the character, Joe LaBrava, a photographer and former secret service agent. The novel features a close look at the streets, hotels, and history of Miami and of its diverse residents. The characters are photographers, artists, and aging film noir actresses together with some rather dense villains. The plotting becomes cumbersome, but the book works through its language, setting and characterizations. The book received the 1984 Edgar Allen Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America for best novel.
"Glitz" is largely set in the high-roller gambling world of Atlantic City but it includes important scenes in Puerto Rico and Florida as well. The novel again pits good guy against bad guy in the persons of detective Vincent Mora, based in Miami and the viciously psychotic killer and mama's boy, Teddy Magyk. The book also has a strong component of romance between Mora and a club singer, Linda Moon, who also figures in Leonard's much later novel, "Be Cool". The title and the story capture the glitz and glitter of Atlantic City's lights and casinos which serve as a veneer for the corruption and violence underneath. "Glitz" became Leonard's first novel to become a best-seller.
"Freaky Deaky" was one of Leonard's own favorites among his novels. The story is set in Detroit of the 1980s but most of the major characters were formed during the counter-culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The primary characters in the story all are morally tarnished, even the protagonist, a sympathetically-portrayed detective who specializes in explosives, Chris Mankowski. The criminals in the story include two former radicals, Skip and Robin, who are plotting to attain the inherited wealth of another figure from the 1960s, the alcoholic, otiose Woody who is tended to by a sinister figure, Darnell, who, like Skip and Robin has served jail time. With their greed and stupidity, the criminals fight against one another as well as against their intended victim.. The book recalls the unlamented youth culture of the 1960s and what one character describes as "their own kind of freaky deaky. You remember that sexy dance? Man, we had people shooting each other over it."
The LOA is to be commended for its breadth of vision in including the works of Elmore Leonard in its series. My appreciation for Leonard has grown with this volume of 1980s novels. The book will interest readers who enjoy crime fiction as well as readers who want to explore the scope of American writing.
Robin Friedman
September 2, 2015
Overall, this set is fair representation of the authors work through the decade of the eighties, a time when the author really started to perfect his style and began receiving some critical acclaim, although to this day he is still underestimated.
This book has extensive notes by Greg Sutter, the author's researcher, which gives us even more insight into how serious the author took his job and how hard he worked at making his stories authentic.
There is also chronology in the back with a brief synopsis of each book. . This is a very nice compact hardcover book and would make an excellent addition for your collection or a gift for the diehard fan. 4.5 stars overall
This review is the copyrighted property of Night Owl Reviews. To read the full review go to: https://www.nightowlreviews.com/v5/Re...
This book has extensive notes by Greg Sutter, the author's researcher, which gives us even more insight into how serious the author took his job and how hard he worked at making his stories authentic.
There is also chronology in the back with a brief synopsis of each book. . This is a very nice compact hardcover book and would make an excellent addition for your collection or a gift for the diehard fan. 4.5 stars overall
This review is the copyrighted property of Night Owl Reviews. To read the full review go to: https://www.nightowlreviews.com/v5/Re...
September 16, 2025
Four great Leonard crime novels of the 80’s. The first three are gritty like his 70’s novels with the common theme of a wise and street smart protagonist against an evil antagonist
City Primeval is set in late 70’s Detroit and lays out a battle of wits and police procedure of Lieutenant Raymond Cruz against the despicable Oklahoma killerClement Mansell. Set in gritty Detroit, Leonard started this novel as a well researched feature essay on the Detroit Police homicide squad published in the Detroit News Sunday Magazine in 1978. The essay is included as an appendix.
LaBrava moves to Miami Beach at a period where the old, worn out art-deco hotels of South Beach are just starting to be discovered as a center of night life, mixing many New York widows beside emerging nightclubs. Protagonist, former secret service agent Joe LaBrava has left the feds and is trying to establish himself as a photographer with a fertile field of characters as subjects. The story involves an aging 50’s noir movie star, a large mid-Florida cracker bully who is partnering with a Marielito “boat-lifter” looking for opportunities to victimize older women and their savings. Again, great characters and dialog.
Glitz features Miami police lieutenant Vincent Mora recovering. In Puerto Rico after being shot in the hip. The story opens in Puerto Rico but then moved to the casinos of 1980s Atlantic City. Once again it is the interplay between a street smart cop Mira against a psychotic killer Teddy Magyk. What makes this book enjoyable is the cast of Atlantic City mob-connected Casino operators and their wives and girlfriends who become part of the plot.
Freaky Deaky returns to Detroit with a return of some of the police characters from City Primeval, but introduces a new character, younger bomb squad investigator Sgt Chris Mankowski who goes up against two hippy holdovers from late 60’s Ann Arbor who recently were released from prison. Freaky Deaky includes amusing references to 1960’s Detroit rock and drug and revolutionary culture. The villains are becoming a little more comical and less purely evil as they are in City Primeval and Glitz. It’s a shading if where Leonard will head with Get Shorty and other later books.
All well worth reading with.dialog that shines above most modern crime writing.
City Primeval is set in late 70’s Detroit and lays out a battle of wits and police procedure of Lieutenant Raymond Cruz against the despicable Oklahoma killerClement Mansell. Set in gritty Detroit, Leonard started this novel as a well researched feature essay on the Detroit Police homicide squad published in the Detroit News Sunday Magazine in 1978. The essay is included as an appendix.
LaBrava moves to Miami Beach at a period where the old, worn out art-deco hotels of South Beach are just starting to be discovered as a center of night life, mixing many New York widows beside emerging nightclubs. Protagonist, former secret service agent Joe LaBrava has left the feds and is trying to establish himself as a photographer with a fertile field of characters as subjects. The story involves an aging 50’s noir movie star, a large mid-Florida cracker bully who is partnering with a Marielito “boat-lifter” looking for opportunities to victimize older women and their savings. Again, great characters and dialog.
Glitz features Miami police lieutenant Vincent Mora recovering. In Puerto Rico after being shot in the hip. The story opens in Puerto Rico but then moved to the casinos of 1980s Atlantic City. Once again it is the interplay between a street smart cop Mira against a psychotic killer Teddy Magyk. What makes this book enjoyable is the cast of Atlantic City mob-connected Casino operators and their wives and girlfriends who become part of the plot.
Freaky Deaky returns to Detroit with a return of some of the police characters from City Primeval, but introduces a new character, younger bomb squad investigator Sgt Chris Mankowski who goes up against two hippy holdovers from late 60’s Ann Arbor who recently were released from prison. Freaky Deaky includes amusing references to 1960’s Detroit rock and drug and revolutionary culture. The villains are becoming a little more comical and less purely evil as they are in City Primeval and Glitz. It’s a shading if where Leonard will head with Get Shorty and other later books.
All well worth reading with.dialog that shines above most modern crime writing.
January 15, 2025
Part of the three-book "Elmore Leonard: The Classic Crime Novels" set, this second entry has four crime capers written in the 1980's.
City Primeval:
City Primeval is a great police procedural from Elmore Leonard, written in 1980. A Detroit bad guy kills a judge, and detectives investigating the crime are trying to figure out who did it and how they can prove it. The protagonist is a western-style stand-up smart cop working the case and the antagonist is one of those wonderful off-the-wall fun bad guys Leonard is famous for. The side characters are all integral and fun and flush out a good caper.
Verdict: A great western set in downtown 1980's Detroit. The police station conversation between Raymond and Clement before the halfway mark is just a great example of Leonard's dialogue-driven plot movement creating tension that fills the whole rest of the story.
Jeff's Rating: 5 / 5 (Excellent)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
LaBrava:
A 1982 crime novel set in Miami, LaBrava has the usual assortment of Leonard-style oddball characters and schemers; in this one, a photographer finds himself trying to foil an extortion attempt.
Verdict: This one's pace didn't work as smoothly as the other Elmore Leonard crime novels I've read so far and the characters were a little too cartoony for a realistic crime heist story this was trying to be. Still a fun read.
Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Glitz:
Glitz (1985) starts with a detective on medical leave in Puerto Rico being stalked by a convict just released from prison. The convict is one of those over-the-top psychopathic evil Leonard bad guys. The detective befriends a Puerto Rican girl who is hired to work in Atlantic City and the novel moves into multiple layers of criminal conspiracies, drug trafficking, casino operations, a homicide investigation that can't pin down the murderer, rich wanna-be big shots fighting above their weight classes, and Colombian drug cartels, all while that ex-convict tags along messing with the detective.
Verdict: A well-paced street detective story with a lot of adult content, most unnecessary, and a psychotic bad guy straight out of the creepiest of horror flicks.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Freaky Deaky:
"You're ready to go," Robin said, "aren't you?"
"Depending on what we're gonna blow up."
"Woody's limo."
"Not the theater, late at night?"
"The limo," Robin said. "With Woody in it. And Donnell too, his driver."
"What've we got against Donnell?"
"I don't like him."
Skip said, "I bet you said hi to him and he didn't remember who you were."
Freaky Deaky is a 1983 Detroit crime novel where two ex-cons, reuniting long after their former counterculture anarchist 60's hippy days, set aside their earlier political riot crime antics in favor of making some money instead, and perhaps settling some old grudges.
We've got the two hippies Skip and Robin but also an interesting Leonard-style cop named Chris who starts the book quitting from the Bomb Squad in a hilarious Chapter 1 sequence that had me chuckling as he and his partner were half-heartedly attempting to stop a bomb from blowing up a twice-convicted felon.
The cop's favorite hamburger toppings are green peppers with A1 sauce and I'll admit, I tried a few burgers that way and they are pretty good.
Verdict: Heavy on the usually great Elmore Leonard dialogue, but actually too heavy, because dialogue is all that moves the plot along. Folks threatening each other, messing with each other, reminiscing with each other, talking about what's going on. And way too much unnecessary adult content.
Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Averaging those four ratings puts this collection at a 3
City Primeval:
City Primeval is a great police procedural from Elmore Leonard, written in 1980. A Detroit bad guy kills a judge, and detectives investigating the crime are trying to figure out who did it and how they can prove it. The protagonist is a western-style stand-up smart cop working the case and the antagonist is one of those wonderful off-the-wall fun bad guys Leonard is famous for. The side characters are all integral and fun and flush out a good caper.
Verdict: A great western set in downtown 1980's Detroit. The police station conversation between Raymond and Clement before the halfway mark is just a great example of Leonard's dialogue-driven plot movement creating tension that fills the whole rest of the story.
Jeff's Rating: 5 / 5 (Excellent)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
LaBrava:
A 1982 crime novel set in Miami, LaBrava has the usual assortment of Leonard-style oddball characters and schemers; in this one, a photographer finds himself trying to foil an extortion attempt.
Verdict: This one's pace didn't work as smoothly as the other Elmore Leonard crime novels I've read so far and the characters were a little too cartoony for a realistic crime heist story this was trying to be. Still a fun read.
Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Glitz:
Glitz (1985) starts with a detective on medical leave in Puerto Rico being stalked by a convict just released from prison. The convict is one of those over-the-top psychopathic evil Leonard bad guys. The detective befriends a Puerto Rican girl who is hired to work in Atlantic City and the novel moves into multiple layers of criminal conspiracies, drug trafficking, casino operations, a homicide investigation that can't pin down the murderer, rich wanna-be big shots fighting above their weight classes, and Colombian drug cartels, all while that ex-convict tags along messing with the detective.
Verdict: A well-paced street detective story with a lot of adult content, most unnecessary, and a psychotic bad guy straight out of the creepiest of horror flicks.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Freaky Deaky:
"You're ready to go," Robin said, "aren't you?"
"Depending on what we're gonna blow up."
"Woody's limo."
"Not the theater, late at night?"
"The limo," Robin said. "With Woody in it. And Donnell too, his driver."
"What've we got against Donnell?"
"I don't like him."
Skip said, "I bet you said hi to him and he didn't remember who you were."
Freaky Deaky is a 1983 Detroit crime novel where two ex-cons, reuniting long after their former counterculture anarchist 60's hippy days, set aside their earlier political riot crime antics in favor of making some money instead, and perhaps settling some old grudges.
We've got the two hippies Skip and Robin but also an interesting Leonard-style cop named Chris who starts the book quitting from the Bomb Squad in a hilarious Chapter 1 sequence that had me chuckling as he and his partner were half-heartedly attempting to stop a bomb from blowing up a twice-convicted felon.
The cop's favorite hamburger toppings are green peppers with A1 sauce and I'll admit, I tried a few burgers that way and they are pretty good.
Verdict: Heavy on the usually great Elmore Leonard dialogue, but actually too heavy, because dialogue is all that moves the plot along. Folks threatening each other, messing with each other, reminiscing with each other, talking about what's going on. And way too much unnecessary adult content.
Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Averaging those four ratings puts this collection at a 3
July 19, 2020
City Primeval *** (out of 5) Read July 2016
LaBrava *** (out of 5) Read June 2017
Glitz *** (out of 5) Read May 2018
Freaky Deaky *** (out of 5) Read July 2020
Looks like 3 stars across the board in this second volume of Leonard's crime fiction. These are all enjoyable novels and the dialogue is as crackling as advertised, but none of them really stood out to me.
On to the '90s!
LaBrava *** (out of 5) Read June 2017
Glitz *** (out of 5) Read May 2018
Freaky Deaky *** (out of 5) Read July 2020
Looks like 3 stars across the board in this second volume of Leonard's crime fiction. These are all enjoyable novels and the dialogue is as crackling as advertised, but none of them really stood out to me.
On to the '90s!
April 20, 2018
Elmore Leonard is essential. But that doesn't mean he's always superb. His attitude to writing has a rock and roll attitude, not too much polish, gut-feel, honest and raw, and plenty of energy. With that in mind, like the best rock musicians, he's amazingly good at what he does. He's completely satisfying to read, so there's really nothing more to say. However, I will, the sentences, characters, settings and lightness of touch in all areas always impresses me. This particular collection contains some of his best novels. I loved three out of the four, so again, that's plenty. The magic of his work lies in the forward thrust of the story. His narratives relentlessly rush towards the end, like driving in a fast car, with great glances out the windows as you speed along. I've read two of these before, but one of the other magic elements of his work is that they are great to read again.
June 4, 2025
This book is a collection of gritty urban crime stories by Elmore Leonard. The plot lines of all of these are sort of like a Western recast into the mean streets of Detroit and other American cities. They all are a battle between a good cop and an outlaw that leads to a showdown at the end where the good cop wins and the outlaw is dead. There are elements of romance with the good cop trying to save a woman or two. What really shines in these novels is the dialogue between the characters. Tight and colloquial.
These novels make good beach reads. Short chapters that pull you into the story. But I made the mistake of reading all four back-to-back, which got a little tiresome when I got to Freaky Deaky. They all have a similar feel, just different locations and situations. So maybe give yourself a break between each novel instead of binging them like I did.
These novels make good beach reads. Short chapters that pull you into the story. But I made the mistake of reading all four back-to-back, which got a little tiresome when I got to Freaky Deaky. They all have a similar feel, just different locations and situations. So maybe give yourself a break between each novel instead of binging them like I did.
December 22, 2020
City Primeval -4, LaBrava -3, Glitz -4, Freaky Deaky -5 . Net result 4 stars. This selection of Leonard's novels demonstrates what he does so well: Carefully draw characters with matching, natural dialogue, subtle humor, plots that aren't over the top and most of all, great endings. In the back of the book are his research notes from each novel and an essay from his time spent riding the streets of Detroit with DPD. Also, as in each LOB book there is a detailed timeline of the author's life.
August 24, 2023
Dutch. In a handsome Library of American edition, with thorough annotation by his former researcher, Greg Sutter. I think the master would approve.
Read
November 14, 2023Read city primeval June 20th. Very different thriller encountered. Interesting, provocative. Fun.
Read
December 6, 2025City Primeval: 4/5
LaBrava: 2/5
Glitz: 2/5
Freaky Deaky: 4/5
LaBrava: 2/5
Glitz: 2/5
Freaky Deaky: 4/5
June 30, 2016
City Primeval and Glitz are the real gems here. LaBrava and Freaky Deaky are also-ran Elmore Leonard material, as far as I'm concerned - it's odd that they were included as exemplars of his "best work" of the '80s.
December 28, 2015
City Primeval on Oct. 18, 2015
LaBrava on Nov. 9, 2015
Glitz on Dec. 22, 2015
LaBrava on Nov. 9, 2015
Glitz on Dec. 22, 2015
Read
December 11, 2015Fiction L5812c 2015
October 14, 2015
Surprising.
October 20, 2015
So, I have only read Glitz. Pretty good.
September 3, 2016
City Primeval: 4 stars, February 13, 2016 to February 25, 2016
La Brava: 3 stars, April-May 2016
La Brava: 3 stars, April-May 2016
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews