What do you think?
Rate this book
Four Later Novels: Get Shorty / Rum Punch / Out of Sight / Tishomingo Blues
Widely hailed as the greatest crime novelist of his era, Elmore Leonard was a master of popular entertainments of the highest order. Library of America caps its three-volume edition of Leonard’s crime novels—prepared in consultation with the author before his death in 2013 and edited by his longtime researcher, Gregg Sutter—with this final installment gathering four wickedly funny and wildly inventive books from the 1990s and early 2000s, the period when his novels were discovered by some of Hollywood’s leading filmmakers. These later works explore new terrain (including Hollywood itself), and enliven Leonard’s fictional universe with a succession of vividly imagined denizens, a tumultuous and expressive crew whom he delights in setting on intricate collision courses.
In Get Shorty (1990), a Miami loan shark hits on a way to break into Hollywood as a producer. Drawing on his long history in the film industry, Leonard offers up a sharp-edged satiric tour of the studios, gleefully demonstrating a professional criminal’s natural affinity for the scams of show business. Perhaps the funniest of Leonard’s novels, Get Shorty was memorably filmed with John Travolta and Gene Hackman.
Rum Punch (1992) fields a complex story involving drug dealers, Federal agents, and an airline stewardess under pressure. Its bittersweet center is Max Cherry, a West Palm Beach bail bondsman with heart and integrity who, in a way he could not have anticipated, is challenged to start over again in middle age. The source for Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Rum Punch is both a superb caper and a wry and melancholy meditation on the hazards of staying honest and the stresses of getting older.
A real-life prison break provided the impetus for Out of Sight (1996). In this high-risk fusion of violent adventure and unlikely romance, Jack Foley, a career bank robber, and Karen Sisco, a deputy U.S. marshal, are flung together under unusual circumstances and embark on a manhunt that leads through Florida and back to Leonard’s original literary haunt, Detroit. Included as a special feature is “Karen Makes Out,” the story in which Leonard first introduced Sisco.
Inspired by the subculture of Civil War reenactments, Leonard made it the background for Tishomingo Blues (2002), an exuberant tale in which a young high-diving daredevil, a washed-up ballplayer, and an assortment of heavies and tricksters both local and from out of town come together in Tunica—“the Las Vegas of the South”—to relive the Battle of Brice’s Cross Roads.
This volume contains a newly researched chronology of Leonard’s life making use of materials in his personal archive, detailed annotations, and an account by editor Gregg Sutter of the research that went into the writing of these novels. A Detroit native, Sutter first met Elmore Leonard in 1979 and began working for him in 1981. He is currently at work on a biography of Leonard, from his unique perspective as his full-time researcher for more than thirty years.
In Get Shorty (1990), a Miami loan shark hits on a way to break into Hollywood as a producer. Drawing on his long history in the film industry, Leonard offers up a sharp-edged satiric tour of the studios, gleefully demonstrating a professional criminal’s natural affinity for the scams of show business. Perhaps the funniest of Leonard’s novels, Get Shorty was memorably filmed with John Travolta and Gene Hackman.
Rum Punch (1992) fields a complex story involving drug dealers, Federal agents, and an airline stewardess under pressure. Its bittersweet center is Max Cherry, a West Palm Beach bail bondsman with heart and integrity who, in a way he could not have anticipated, is challenged to start over again in middle age. The source for Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Rum Punch is both a superb caper and a wry and melancholy meditation on the hazards of staying honest and the stresses of getting older.
A real-life prison break provided the impetus for Out of Sight (1996). In this high-risk fusion of violent adventure and unlikely romance, Jack Foley, a career bank robber, and Karen Sisco, a deputy U.S. marshal, are flung together under unusual circumstances and embark on a manhunt that leads through Florida and back to Leonard’s original literary haunt, Detroit. Included as a special feature is “Karen Makes Out,” the story in which Leonard first introduced Sisco.
Inspired by the subculture of Civil War reenactments, Leonard made it the background for Tishomingo Blues (2002), an exuberant tale in which a young high-diving daredevil, a washed-up ballplayer, and an assortment of heavies and tricksters both local and from out of town come together in Tunica—“the Las Vegas of the South”—to relive the Battle of Brice’s Cross Roads.
This volume contains a newly researched chronology of Leonard’s life making use of materials in his personal archive, detailed annotations, and an account by editor Gregg Sutter of the research that went into the writing of these novels. A Detroit native, Sutter first met Elmore Leonard in 1979 and began working for him in 1981. He is currently at work on a biography of Leonard, from his unique perspective as his full-time researcher for more than thirty years.
1000 pages, Hardcover
Published August 30, 2016
6 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
Elmore Leonard
211 books3,707 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 17, 2023
The Later Elmore Leonard In The Library Of America
American literature shows a great deal of breadth, depth, and diversity. In a time of polarization, Americans should learn from and share the accomplishments of their culture in literature and in other endeavors. One of the unique features of American literature, and culture, is the blurring of boundaries between "serious" edifying writing and "popular" writing for entertainment. The United States has produced literature, music, and art that straddles these lines.
The Library of America performs an irreplaceable service in preserving and presenting the best of American writing in the areas of novels, poetry, history, philosophy, journalism, and more. The series presents many books that include elements of both edification and entertainment, including outstanding works of genre fiction. Among these books are the works of Elmore Leonard (1925 -- 2013) who enjoyed a long career as a writer of Westerns and of crime and suspense fiction. The LOA has presented a great deal of Leonard. The most recent LOA Leonard book is a volume of four Western novels from early in his career. Before that, the LOA had published a set of three books each consisting of four novels from Leonard's career as a writer of crime novels. Before his death, Leonard had collaborated with the LOA in choosing the contents of the three volumes.
The book I am reviewing "Four Later Novels" is the last in the three-volume set and consists of works written between 1990 and 2002. It is impressive how Leonard continued to write and develop his work into old age. While these works are all in Leonard's distinctive style, it is valuable to see how different they are from each other in settings and characters. The books have settings in Florida, Mississippi, Detroit, and Hollywood and place is important to each work. Each book displays Leonard's gift for snappy, punchy colloquial dialogue which captures the nature of the speakers. Although the books involve crime and suspense, they have a lightness and a humor which is among their most appealing qualities. While the books are written to entertain, they will be some thinking about the meanings that lie just below the surface. Of the four books in this collection, the first three became successful Hollywood movies.
The earliest novel in this volume "Get Shorty" (1992) is probably Leonard's best-known work. It features a small-time Miami loan shark, Chili Palmer, who arrives in Hollywood via Las Vegas where he manages to indulge his lifelong passion for movies by writing a script. The book is also a satire of Leonard's own experiences in Hollywood and combines a story of loan sharking and drug dealings with the story of Hollywood characters. Chili himself is the main attraction of this book as he says "look at me" to his deadbeat debtors and they manage to pay what they owe. The book explores life mirroring films mirroring novels.
"Rum Punch" (1992) is set in Florida and tells a tangled tale of double-crossing in a large drug deal. The book has two primary characters, Jackie Brown, a flight attendant who is complicit in the drug enterprise and who wants to avoid prosecution while walking off with the heist and Max Cherry, an aging bail bondsman who befriends her. The fast-paced story takes many twists and turns while also suggesting the needs of its characters to find meaning and love in their otherwise materialistic lives.
On the whole, I found "Out of Sight" (1996) my favorite of these four books. Set in Florida and in Leonard's Detroit, the book combines crime with a surprisingly tender love story. It explores the relationship between Jack Foley, 47, a lifelong bank robber who escapes from a Florida prison as the book begins in Karen Sisco, 27. a Deputy U.S. Marshall stationed in Miami. Early in the story, the two meet and are briefly bedded together where an undeniable chemistry and attraction develops. The attraction continues as Foley travels to Detroit to join a gang of no-nonsense, fierce crooks and Sisco is sent in pursuit. The relationship between the two is poignantly described, and Sisco develops into one of Leonard's best-drawn characters.
The final novel in this volume "Tishomingo Blues" (2002) is a large-scale sprawling work set in Mississippi, It was Leonard's own favorite among his books. The novel features many eccentric and sharply-drawn characters hailing from Mississippi and Detroit. The plot centers around a civil war reenactment of the Battle of Brice's Cross Roads fought June 10, 1864, during Sherman's march to Atlanta. The characters in the story include Dennis Lenahan, a high diver down on his luck, and a former professional baseball player, Charlie Hoke. The book features some tawdry scenes of casinos, brothels, and bars. Civil war reenacting, the blues, drug violence, and American lives, both North and South, figure prominently in this book which displays the difficulty of moral choice in exploring the activities of its many characters.
In reading these four Leonard novels, I found the whole greater than the sum of the individual parts. The novels are sharply written and fun while still having their stories to tell. The novels in this LOA volume help show the range of American writing, including the genre of crime and suspense. They are a worthy addition to the LOA and and good way for readers to think about and appreciate the scope of American culture.
Robin Friedman
American literature shows a great deal of breadth, depth, and diversity. In a time of polarization, Americans should learn from and share the accomplishments of their culture in literature and in other endeavors. One of the unique features of American literature, and culture, is the blurring of boundaries between "serious" edifying writing and "popular" writing for entertainment. The United States has produced literature, music, and art that straddles these lines.
The Library of America performs an irreplaceable service in preserving and presenting the best of American writing in the areas of novels, poetry, history, philosophy, journalism, and more. The series presents many books that include elements of both edification and entertainment, including outstanding works of genre fiction. Among these books are the works of Elmore Leonard (1925 -- 2013) who enjoyed a long career as a writer of Westerns and of crime and suspense fiction. The LOA has presented a great deal of Leonard. The most recent LOA Leonard book is a volume of four Western novels from early in his career. Before that, the LOA had published a set of three books each consisting of four novels from Leonard's career as a writer of crime novels. Before his death, Leonard had collaborated with the LOA in choosing the contents of the three volumes.
The book I am reviewing "Four Later Novels" is the last in the three-volume set and consists of works written between 1990 and 2002. It is impressive how Leonard continued to write and develop his work into old age. While these works are all in Leonard's distinctive style, it is valuable to see how different they are from each other in settings and characters. The books have settings in Florida, Mississippi, Detroit, and Hollywood and place is important to each work. Each book displays Leonard's gift for snappy, punchy colloquial dialogue which captures the nature of the speakers. Although the books involve crime and suspense, they have a lightness and a humor which is among their most appealing qualities. While the books are written to entertain, they will be some thinking about the meanings that lie just below the surface. Of the four books in this collection, the first three became successful Hollywood movies.
The earliest novel in this volume "Get Shorty" (1992) is probably Leonard's best-known work. It features a small-time Miami loan shark, Chili Palmer, who arrives in Hollywood via Las Vegas where he manages to indulge his lifelong passion for movies by writing a script. The book is also a satire of Leonard's own experiences in Hollywood and combines a story of loan sharking and drug dealings with the story of Hollywood characters. Chili himself is the main attraction of this book as he says "look at me" to his deadbeat debtors and they manage to pay what they owe. The book explores life mirroring films mirroring novels.
"Rum Punch" (1992) is set in Florida and tells a tangled tale of double-crossing in a large drug deal. The book has two primary characters, Jackie Brown, a flight attendant who is complicit in the drug enterprise and who wants to avoid prosecution while walking off with the heist and Max Cherry, an aging bail bondsman who befriends her. The fast-paced story takes many twists and turns while also suggesting the needs of its characters to find meaning and love in their otherwise materialistic lives.
On the whole, I found "Out of Sight" (1996) my favorite of these four books. Set in Florida and in Leonard's Detroit, the book combines crime with a surprisingly tender love story. It explores the relationship between Jack Foley, 47, a lifelong bank robber who escapes from a Florida prison as the book begins in Karen Sisco, 27. a Deputy U.S. Marshall stationed in Miami. Early in the story, the two meet and are briefly bedded together where an undeniable chemistry and attraction develops. The attraction continues as Foley travels to Detroit to join a gang of no-nonsense, fierce crooks and Sisco is sent in pursuit. The relationship between the two is poignantly described, and Sisco develops into one of Leonard's best-drawn characters.
The final novel in this volume "Tishomingo Blues" (2002) is a large-scale sprawling work set in Mississippi, It was Leonard's own favorite among his books. The novel features many eccentric and sharply-drawn characters hailing from Mississippi and Detroit. The plot centers around a civil war reenactment of the Battle of Brice's Cross Roads fought June 10, 1864, during Sherman's march to Atlanta. The characters in the story include Dennis Lenahan, a high diver down on his luck, and a former professional baseball player, Charlie Hoke. The book features some tawdry scenes of casinos, brothels, and bars. Civil war reenacting, the blues, drug violence, and American lives, both North and South, figure prominently in this book which displays the difficulty of moral choice in exploring the activities of its many characters.
In reading these four Leonard novels, I found the whole greater than the sum of the individual parts. The novels are sharply written and fun while still having their stories to tell. The novels in this LOA volume help show the range of American writing, including the genre of crime and suspense. They are a worthy addition to the LOA and and good way for readers to think about and appreciate the scope of American culture.
Robin Friedman
September 1, 2016
Elmore Leonard: Four Later Novels: Get Shorty/Rum Punch/ Out of Sight/ Tishomingo Blues is a 2016 Library of America publication.
However, all in all, this is a fine representation of EL’s later novels, which gives the reader a sampling of this prolific author’s wide ranging talent for plots, characters, and his trademark dialogue.
Once more, I would like to applaud the quality of this hardcover box set which is very sturdy, printed on high quality paper, making it a book any fan will want to display or would make an excellent gift.
As always, it is a pleasure to revisit these novels, refreshing my memory on these awesome stories, humbly reminding me of how incredibly versatile Elmore Leonard was.
The box set collectively gets a 4.5 star rating.
This review is the copyrighted property of Night Owl Reviews
To read this review in full, click on this link:
https://www.nightowlreviews.com/v5/Re...
However, all in all, this is a fine representation of EL’s later novels, which gives the reader a sampling of this prolific author’s wide ranging talent for plots, characters, and his trademark dialogue.
Once more, I would like to applaud the quality of this hardcover box set which is very sturdy, printed on high quality paper, making it a book any fan will want to display or would make an excellent gift.
As always, it is a pleasure to revisit these novels, refreshing my memory on these awesome stories, humbly reminding me of how incredibly versatile Elmore Leonard was.
The box set collectively gets a 4.5 star rating.
This review is the copyrighted property of Night Owl Reviews
To read this review in full, click on this link:
https://www.nightowlreviews.com/v5/Re...
March 4, 2021
A fantastic collection and a gorgeous collectible book
May 1, 2017
Rum Punch *** – This is a breezy but violent novel full of moderately interesting characters. It’s easy to see why Leonard is so popular and why so many of his books are made into movies. His stories are plot driven, action packed and move along at a brisk pace.
But the characters are rather flat. The suspense of this book is, I believe, supposed to be built around a multitude of potential betrayals. Yet I never really felt that Max and Jackie were in any danger. It all worked out as I suspected it would. The vague ending didn’t pay off because the characters didn’t have enough depth to make me care one way or the other.
But the characters are rather flat. The suspense of this book is, I believe, supposed to be built around a multitude of potential betrayals. Yet I never really felt that Max and Jackie were in any danger. It all worked out as I suspected it would. The vague ending didn’t pay off because the characters didn’t have enough depth to make me care one way or the other.
Read
December 2, 2016Fiction L5812g 2016
January 15, 2025
Part of the three-book "Elmore Leonard: The Classic Crime Novels" set, this third entry has four crime capers written 1990-2002.
Get Shorty:
I haven't seen the movie so I am going into this one fresh. 1990's "Get Shorty" is about a Miami loan shark with an idea for a movie who breaks into Hollywood kind of by accident before he kind of likes it. There's a great assortment of oddball LA, Vegas, and Miami characters, some funny side-hustles and backstabbing, and movie-within-movie plots that flush out the main plot while it moves along.
Verdict: Wonderful characters, plot and dialogue as usual from Elmore Leonard. The ending cracked me up.
Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Rum Punch:
Ordell said, "You know why I come here, not someplace else? Friend of mine I understand does some work for you."
"You mean Winston?"
"Another fella, Louis Gara. He's my white friend," Ordell said, and smiled.
Max Cherry didn't. He said, "I haven't seen him today."
"Yeah, well, I'll catch him sometime." Ordell picked up his bag and started for the door. He stopped and looked back. "I got one other question. What if, I was just thinking, what if before the court date gets here Baumont gets hit by a car or something and dies? I get the money back, don't I?"
Elmore Leonard is in top form here with the dialogue, characters, interwoven criminal and cop side-dealings, blackmailing and hustling, nineties Miami street culture, an elaborate but street-savvy gun money heist, and it is a fun read. The airline stewardess, the gun dealer, his girlfriends, his messed up criminal buddies, the bail bondsman, his wife, his partner, the jackboys, the artist, the cops, all great characters and fun dialogue.
Rum Punch was made into the movie "Jackie Brown" so I'm breaking my rule about steering clear of books made into movies that I've seen, but for only the second time (Dune). A lot of the plot was spoiled for me as a result.
Verdict: Classic Leonard.
Jeff's Rating: 5 / 5 (Excellent)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Out of Sight:
Deputy U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco is hunting down escaped bank robber Matt Foley in Leonard's "Out of Sight" which was made into that Clooney/Lopez flick back in 1998. The book and movie are pretty much exactly the same. Compared to other Leonard novels (I've read 13 so far), "Out of Sight" has better than average characters but below average heist hijinks and dialogue, but again, that might just be because movies ruin books for me.
Verdict: A good crime novel. The movie is basically a word-for-word picture of the book, with a few slight differences at the end.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Tishomingo Blues:
"Robert went down to the Confederate encampment in the orchard, his sword hanging at his side, his hand on the hilt to keep it from hitting his leg and tripping him up, swords not being as cool as they looked. Man, all the serious Southron types down here getting ready, Robert estimating their number at a hundred and a half easy, living in dirt and eating bad food and loving it."
A wacky, colorful, at-times suspenseful and odd crime caper, "Tishomingo Blues" finds an out-of-work platform diver performing at a casino-hotel in Mississippi. He witnesses a shooting and then gets mixed up in a conflict between drug gangs who are involved in, get this, Civil War reenactments.
There are morality plays in here as our protagonist has to decide whether to essentially sell his soul to the devil like Robert Johnson did, but any internal conflicts take a clear back seat to Leonard's great dialogue, criminal plottings, uncertain distrust, and witty circumstances.
These Dixie Mafia and Detroit gang characters are all great and stupid; their conflict comes off like a ridiculous but realistic Monty Python sketch combined with a Scorcese gang heist.
Verdict: With the blues context, Civil War surroundings, and complicated criminal plot dynamics, I think Leonard wrote this one just for me and it cracked me up. It isn't perfect; most of the racist and hook-up asides are cheap and unnecessary but I loved this one.
Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
movie rating if made into a move: R
Averaging those four ratings puts this collection at a 4.
Get Shorty:
I haven't seen the movie so I am going into this one fresh. 1990's "Get Shorty" is about a Miami loan shark with an idea for a movie who breaks into Hollywood kind of by accident before he kind of likes it. There's a great assortment of oddball LA, Vegas, and Miami characters, some funny side-hustles and backstabbing, and movie-within-movie plots that flush out the main plot while it moves along.
Verdict: Wonderful characters, plot and dialogue as usual from Elmore Leonard. The ending cracked me up.
Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Rum Punch:
Ordell said, "You know why I come here, not someplace else? Friend of mine I understand does some work for you."
"You mean Winston?"
"Another fella, Louis Gara. He's my white friend," Ordell said, and smiled.
Max Cherry didn't. He said, "I haven't seen him today."
"Yeah, well, I'll catch him sometime." Ordell picked up his bag and started for the door. He stopped and looked back. "I got one other question. What if, I was just thinking, what if before the court date gets here Baumont gets hit by a car or something and dies? I get the money back, don't I?"
Elmore Leonard is in top form here with the dialogue, characters, interwoven criminal and cop side-dealings, blackmailing and hustling, nineties Miami street culture, an elaborate but street-savvy gun money heist, and it is a fun read. The airline stewardess, the gun dealer, his girlfriends, his messed up criminal buddies, the bail bondsman, his wife, his partner, the jackboys, the artist, the cops, all great characters and fun dialogue.
Rum Punch was made into the movie "Jackie Brown" so I'm breaking my rule about steering clear of books made into movies that I've seen, but for only the second time (Dune). A lot of the plot was spoiled for me as a result.
Verdict: Classic Leonard.
Jeff's Rating: 5 / 5 (Excellent)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Out of Sight:
Deputy U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco is hunting down escaped bank robber Matt Foley in Leonard's "Out of Sight" which was made into that Clooney/Lopez flick back in 1998. The book and movie are pretty much exactly the same. Compared to other Leonard novels (I've read 13 so far), "Out of Sight" has better than average characters but below average heist hijinks and dialogue, but again, that might just be because movies ruin books for me.
Verdict: A good crime novel. The movie is basically a word-for-word picture of the book, with a few slight differences at the end.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Tishomingo Blues:
"Robert went down to the Confederate encampment in the orchard, his sword hanging at his side, his hand on the hilt to keep it from hitting his leg and tripping him up, swords not being as cool as they looked. Man, all the serious Southron types down here getting ready, Robert estimating their number at a hundred and a half easy, living in dirt and eating bad food and loving it."
A wacky, colorful, at-times suspenseful and odd crime caper, "Tishomingo Blues" finds an out-of-work platform diver performing at a casino-hotel in Mississippi. He witnesses a shooting and then gets mixed up in a conflict between drug gangs who are involved in, get this, Civil War reenactments.
There are morality plays in here as our protagonist has to decide whether to essentially sell his soul to the devil like Robert Johnson did, but any internal conflicts take a clear back seat to Leonard's great dialogue, criminal plottings, uncertain distrust, and witty circumstances.
These Dixie Mafia and Detroit gang characters are all great and stupid; their conflict comes off like a ridiculous but realistic Monty Python sketch combined with a Scorcese gang heist.
Verdict: With the blues context, Civil War surroundings, and complicated criminal plot dynamics, I think Leonard wrote this one just for me and it cracked me up. It isn't perfect; most of the racist and hook-up asides are cheap and unnecessary but I loved this one.
Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
movie rating if made into a move: R
Averaging those four ratings puts this collection at a 4.
November 26, 2019
These are excellent. I saw the movies of "Get Shorty" (which I actually prefer to the novel), "Jackie Brown" (Rum Punch), and "Out of Sight" (Clooney and J-Lo). Each story seems better than the one before (and they are listed in this collection in the order above). Each story creates interesting characters that stay with you after you've finished reading. Tishomingo Blues, the last story in the collection, is the best in my opinion. The main character, Dennis the diver, has more character than Max Cherry, and rivals Chili Palmer tho he has less to do and is more of a foil for others. Robert Taylor is yet another smooth-talking, intelligent and fascinating character that Leonard is so good at creating.
The collection includes a short story that introduces Karen Sisco and tells of her short-lived romance with Carl Tillman who thus precedes Jack Foley in her list of lovers, and also an interesting piece by Gregg Sutter who worked as Leonard's researcher for so many of his novels. If you want to know the real Chili Palmer, read this.
The collection includes a short story that introduces Karen Sisco and tells of her short-lived romance with Carl Tillman who thus precedes Jack Foley in her list of lovers, and also an interesting piece by Gregg Sutter who worked as Leonard's researcher for so many of his novels. If you want to know the real Chili Palmer, read this.
June 4, 2017
High level hard-boiled fiction!
Read
September 21, 2022Happy 25th birthday, Jackie Brown. Have you met Jackie Burke?
Read
May 18, 2023Read Rum Punch, Tishomingo Blues, and Out of Sight.
March 14, 2024
Rum Punch has an intricate plot and plenty of really evil bad guys. The main characters are a bit shady, but good and just at heart…excellent writing and great suspense!!
February 11, 2017
I thought it was amusing in 2014 when the Library of America – originally devoted to publishing authoritative editions of great American writers like Emerson and the James brothers – started on scholarly volumes of Elmore Leonard’s novels. I had enjoyed Leonard’s pulpy crime fiction when I was a teenager, but I didn’t think he warranted such respectful treatment. Turns out I was wrong. Reading Leonard now, I can see he’s a genius; a master of both plot and free indirect speech. The Library of America team know what they are doing.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews