The Hot Kid

by Elmore Leonard
387 pgs

When Carl Webster was 15 years old he bought an ice cream cone at the local drug store in Oklahoma and ended up coming face to face with a notorious outlaw who came in to rob the store and who also decided to steal Carl's ice cream cone while doing it. A few years later Carl becomes a U.S. Marshall and quickly gains some notoriety for taking down some well known criminals and doing so with some flair.

Jack Belmont is the son of a wealthy pecan farmer who made millions of dollars from oil that was discovered on his property. Jack refuses his father's efforts to get him to work for him and eventually take over the family farm and instead turns to a life of crime, becoming a famous bank robber in Oklahoma and Kansas.

The two men's paths are destined to cross.

Leonard sets his story in the heartland of America during the 1920's and '30s and in true Leonard style uses his characters' dialogue almost exclusively to tell it. There's not a very intricate plot in this one--you know where the story is headed almost as soon as the two main characters are introduced, but the true enjoyment for me in reading one of Leonard's books is almost always in the way he lets his characters tell the story for him.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Raylan

Raylan by Elmore Leonard

I usually like to wait a few months in between reading books by the same author. But I was looking forward to reading Raylan too much to hold to that rule this time. I've mentioned it before, but I'm a big fan of the FX series Justified which is based on a short story by Leonard which introduced the character of Raylan Givens, the Stetson-wearing U.S. Marshall who means what he says. If he tells you he's going to shoot you on the count of ten, your best bet is to try to shoot him at nine.

To be honest, having read the previous books featuring Givens, I kind of preferred Timothy Olyphant's version of the character over Leonard's. But it seems like Leonard took some inspiration from Olyphant's portrayal when writing Raylan and I enjoyed it more than its predecessors.

There's an urban legend used to deter people from using illegal drugs about a person who wakes up one day from drug-induced unconsciousness only to discover that they're missing a kidney. Well, someone in Harlan County Kentucky has found inspiration from that legend and has quickly been able to make tens of thousands of dollars. Raylan's pretty sure he knows who's behind it and quickly finds himself in over his head.

I read an interview with Leonard where he discussed his feelings and involvement with Justified. He said he loved what the creators of the show had done with his characters and that he regularly provides ideas for the show. That involvement is apparent with Raylan. The kidney-stealing plot line and others in the book have also been plot lines in the series, which ultimately increased my enjoyment in the book. In fact last night when I was watching the show, the dialogue for a brief moment matched verbatim what I had read in the book that day.

This has turned out to be more a review of the series than the book. So I'll end by saying, if you like Justified, you'll enjoy Raylan. If you don't watch Justified, start . . . and then read Raylan.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Get Shorty

Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard

My favorite thing about discovering an author that's been writing for awhile is the fact that there are a backlog of books already written that I can look forward to reading. Discovering Elmore Leonard a couple of years ago is the epitome of that experience. The man is in his mid-eighties and just released his 45th book - Raylan, which is near the top of my TBR stack.

Get Shorty is only the fourth book of his that I've read, and to be frank, it was a let down. With is other books, I came to appreciate his no-nonsense, right-to-the-point writing style, but with this one, I found myself getting restless, wondering when he was going to get to a point. The premise of the book was interesting, but the characters were atypically one dimensional and I didn't form any type of emotional attachment to any of them.

Chili Palmer is a loan shark whose collection activities take him from Miami to Hollywood. He's chasing a man who committed insurance fraud against the airline industry, collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from them, loses it gambling, and then tries to skip town before paying up. Once Chili arrives in Hollywood, he becomes enamored with the seedy underbelly of the movie-making industry and decides he wants to be a part of it. He decides that the story of the man he's actively chasing would make for a great movie, so he starts meeting with movie makers in an attempt to pitch the idea.

Both plot lines play out simultaneously throughout the book, but unfortunately, neither one of them was very entertaining. I'm still looking forward to reading many more books by Leonard, but will probably be a little more selective in choosing them going forward.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Djibouti

Djibouti by Elmore Leonard

I don't usually let myself read back-to-back books by the same author. In fact, I usually try not to read books in the same genre consecutively. This time I wasn't thinking about my self-imposed limitations but only about reading a good story. I think subconsciously I'm still recovering from this.

Joe Hill, one of my favorite authors, and the son of my favorite author, gave a great review of Djibouti along with a resounding endorsement of Leonard himself on his website. I don't think there's anything more I could add, so I'll just concur.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Pronto

Pronto by Elmore Leonard

The second season of Justified just began, so I thought it'd be a good time to read Elmore Leonard's other book featuring Raylan Givens. Apparently Leonard is so pleased with the television series based on his characters that it's inspired him to revisit them. So there will be a third book in the not-too-distant future.

In Pronto, Raylan takes his Beretta and his Stetson to Italy chasing after Harry Arlo. The unscrupulous bookie has been skimming from his boss for years while working his gambling operations. Harry believed that he was simply doing what every bookie does, and that his boss should consider it a cost of doing business. But apparently his boss doesn't share those same feelings and has put a price on his head. Harry decides to accelerate his plans to retire to a villa in Italy by a couple of years and disappears.

Raylan, who has managed to allow Harry to slip through his fingers twice now while he was responsible for watching him, decides to take things personally this time around and travels to Italy to protect Harry from his boss's hired muscle as well as bring him back to the States.

I enjoyed Pronto. Leonard's style takes some getting used to. He uses a lot of dialogue to tell his stories and to provide his characters' backstories. He doesn't spend much time setting his plots up, he's kind of the antithesis of Tom Clancy in that regard. Reading his books is kind of like watching a movie - you sit down, relax for a couple of hours, and enjoy the story. I find it a little ironic that so far, Hollywood has failed miserably in every attempt it's had to take one of Leonard's books and make a successful movie out of it. It makes Justified all the more satisfying to watch.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Riding the Rap

Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard

This is the first book by Elmore Leonard that I've ever read. But I was pretty confident before ever starting it that I was going to really enjoy it, and I did. He's one of those authors that has been around for decades and is considered one of the best in the the business, but who had managed to stay under my radar till now. I decided I needed to read his books after watching the first season of  Justified on television which is based on a character that appears in a couple of Leonard's books and one of his short stories. Riding the Rap is one of those books.

Raylan Givins is a U.S. Marshall working in Florida who has the soul of a 19th century Texas Ranger. He wears the cowboy hat and boots and has a no-nonsense approach to dealing with criminals. One of his associates, Harry Arno, a retiring bookie goes missing while trying to collect on some outstanding gambling debts. Raylan quickly gets on the trail of his abductors, a group of second-rate criminals who got the idea for their kidnapping scheme while stoned and watching a movie.

The story was fine, but a little cliche at times. Since this wasn't the first story with these main characters I would have appreciated it if a little more backstory would have been provided throughout the book. As it is, it reads more like an extended short story where you begin in the middle of the characters' lives right as a major event is taking place and then you go forward. I enjoyed the black humor thrown in. It was fun to see the ineptitude of the criminals on display at most of the stages of their scheme. But I feel like this book was pretty average. I was relieved to read other reviews on this book and find that most Leonard fans don't consider this one up to his normal standard. That means I'll be reading more. 

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆