The jacket of my copy of Elmore Leonard's The Hot Kid quotes The Philadelphia Enquirer as follows: "The next time the members of the Swedish Academy think about giving the Nobel Prize for literature to an American, they should take a look at Elmore Leonard."
Well, that's a bit much, but this is still a really great read for you Elmore Leonard fans out there. I love the way Leonard shoots a story from the hip, letting his heroes and villains fall where they may. You don't have to be too good a guy to star in an Elmore Leonard novel; you just have to be good at it.
And Deputy U.S Marshal Carl Webster is definitely good at it. Whether it's shooting, playing politics with the department and the press, chasing gun molls, or outwitting the bad guys, Carl is undeniably the hot kid.
You get the feeling that Carl likes to kill bad guys. He is famous for saying to perps just before he shoots them, "If I have to pull my weapon, I'll shoot to kill." And he kind of develops the reputation over the course of this novel for shooting to kill just about as often as he can. He makes up his mind that someone is a bad guy, sets up a showdown with them, and kills them.
Well, that's a bit much, but this is still a really great read for you Elmore Leonard fans out there. I love the way Leonard shoots a story from the hip, letting his heroes and villains fall where they may. You don't have to be too good a guy to star in an Elmore Leonard novel; you just have to be good at it.
And Deputy U.S Marshal Carl Webster is definitely good at it. Whether it's shooting, playing politics with the department and the press, chasing gun molls, or outwitting the bad guys, Carl is undeniably the hot kid.
You get the feeling that Carl likes to kill bad guys. He is famous for saying to perps just before he shoots them, "If I have to pull my weapon, I'll shoot to kill." And he kind of develops the reputation over the course of this novel for shooting to kill just about as often as he can. He makes up his mind that someone is a bad guy, sets up a showdown with them, and kills them.
Of course, it's a little more complicated than that, but if you like to read about dirtball bank robbers coming to bad ends at the hands of a clever and courageous Deputy Marshal with questionable methods, then you are going to love this book.
To Leonard's good guys the end often justifies the means, and a warrant is not a prerequisite for justice to be served. They're the kind of lawmen that you love to read about or see on the big screen, but would hate to run afoul of on a dirt road one night in the middle of nowhere on the wrong side of a broken tail light. The kind of fellas who'll get'er done, as we say down here in the deep South.
The women in this one are mostly whores or thereabouts, but you get the impression that they can take care of themselves all the same. They are smart and know where their bread is buttered, and if they lived in 2005 instead of the 1930s they would probably be successful businesswomen.
To Leonard's good guys the end often justifies the means, and a warrant is not a prerequisite for justice to be served. They're the kind of lawmen that you love to read about or see on the big screen, but would hate to run afoul of on a dirt road one night in the middle of nowhere on the wrong side of a broken tail light. The kind of fellas who'll get'er done, as we say down here in the deep South.
The women in this one are mostly whores or thereabouts, but you get the impression that they can take care of themselves all the same. They are smart and know where their bread is buttered, and if they lived in 2005 instead of the 1930s they would probably be successful businesswomen.
Or whores. Who cares? This book isn't going to win any awards from N.O.W., but I don't really think that was the goal here. This is a great crime novel written mainly for men who like to see someone else living their dreams of what it is like to be a stud in law enforcement. And as far as the Elmore Leonard tradition goes, this one is a lot more like Cuba Libre than Mr. Paradise. True to form the dialog is great and the narrative flies by, never getting bogged down or distracted. The only negative thing I can say here is that it was a little confusing at times keeping all the characters straight. Overall, although it's not my favorite Elmore Leonard title, it is still worth reading if you like the genre.
