City Primeval by Elmore Leonard

Detroit has a crooked judge. Alvin B. Guy, Judge of Recorder’s Court. He’s abusive to everyone who enters his courtroom. Abuses the power of contempt. Uses his position to favor friends. Openly brags about his sexual prowess. Repeatedly found guilty of judicial misconduct. He doesn’t give a shit because he has a manuscript that will name names. And everyone in the judicial building knows he’ll publish if he gets impeached.

He’s been to the racetrack with a very young blond. A street punk who is hot for the blond thinks she is with this Albanian dude. He sees her get into a car and he wants to teach the Albanian a lesson. He tries to cut off the car in the parking lot, but the judge doesn’t budge. Happens again. Again. Again. When they get on the city streets, the jerk tailgates and the judge can’t shake him. Punk still thinks the Albanian is driving. When the inevitable crash ensues, the punk gets out of the car, pulls a Walther P38 and fires into the windshield. As he approaches the wreck, the judge tried to intimidate like he does in his courtroom. Pisses the punk off who then puts 5 slugs in the judge. The girl takes off. He follows. Kills her too.

Fine example of humanity this Clement Mansell.

Nicknamed the “Oklahoma Wildman,” Clement has done pretty well so far. Counting these two most recent kills, Clement claims to have killed nine people. He’s been in jail, even did a year in prison, an experience he has no interest in repeating. Was all set for a long sentence, but his lawyer, the tough-as-nails Carolyn Wilder, caught a legal break when Clement was held too long awaiting formal sentencing.

The Guy case falls to recently promoted Lt. Raymond Cruz. He and his homicide unit start with the wreck. Problem is that none of the cops (or most anyone for that matter) could care less that Judge Guy was now off the bench. But they still need to find out who pulled the trigger; maybe put him behind bars along with the thanks of the city for saving them the hassle of removing Judge Idiot.

The investigation bounces around between Mansell, a girl he’s living with, the detectives in the unit, and Carolyn Wilder. And the Albanians. Can’t forget them.

Problem is that Clement is not just a stone killer. He’s also smart. Knows how to work the system when it comes to statements, victim and criminal rights, chain of possession, client-attorney confidentiality. He can also spin a clever yarn with whomever he’s trying to manipulate.

But Lt. Cruz is pretty smart, too. He sets up Clement, with a little help from friends in both high and low places.

You do know Elmore Leonard, right? Prolific author of crime, thrillers, westerns, and some downright funny stories. 45 novels to be exact, per Wikipedia. For example, 3:10 To Yuma, Valdez in Coming, Mr. Majestyk, LaBrava (Edgar Award winner), Rum Punch (which became the movie Jackie Brown), Get Shorty, Out of Sight (the movie teamed George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez), the source material for the TV series Karen Sisco. 

And for me, the short story ‘Fire in the Hole’ that spawned six years of Justified, the award-winning show on FX about US Marshall Raylan Givens (expertly portrayed by Timothy Oliphant. Stream all six seasons on Hulu). Leonard is best known for his street-sharp dialogue that fills the pages of his inventive, direct, and creative plots that show us all just how writers should develop characters and plots. He’s easily one of those icons - a writer’s writer who helped plenty of others perfect their craft. He was still working as part of the production team for Justified when he died in 2013 at 88.

City Primeval was published in 1980. Why am I reading it now? Because my son texted me last week that FX has started production on a new Justified limited series based on City Primeval. By coincidence, I was in the library when I received the text. I detoured to the 'L' shelf in the fiction section where I found the story combined with three other Leonard novels in a single volume Four Novels of the 1980s. Search this blog. We’ve reviewed a number of Leonard’s books.

No clue when to expect the adaptation will show up on TV. I just know that life just isn’t the same without Raylan Givens. 

 

P.S. It's now mid May 2022. Heard that the TV version of this book should be ready to watch in January 2023.

 

LaBrava by Elmore Leonard

On a cold Saturday at the Raleigh flea market, I scored this 1983 book for all of a buck. Leonard is a very reliable author who has penned some very notable books that have ended up on the big screen (e.g. Get Shorty, 3:10 to Yuma, Out of Sight) and TV (my personal current favorite: Justified about the life and times of one Raylan Givens, US Deputy Marshall, and Boyd Crowder, Raylan’s local antagonist).  If you like the kind of books reviewed here at MRB and aren’t watching Justified on the FX network, well, then shame on you, but I digress.

Joe LaBrava is a former IRS auditor and secret service agent who left the service to become a photographer in Miami, and is doing quite nicely, thank you very much. His friend is Maurice Zola, a retired horse bookie who did quite well for himself. He now owns a small residential hotel and Joe likes to take pic of the residents. Maurice wants Joe to go with him down to the county agency that takes in drunks, addicts, and other deranged folks that don’t necessarily need to get inserted in the Miami criminal court system.  

The lady is one a recent widow who looks like she’s been dragged through the wringer and once she sleeps it off, Joe realizes it’s a retired actress he used to lust after when he was about 12 years old. He wants to get to know her, take her picture, and talk about movies all day long.

Richard Nobles and his running bud Cundo Rey (a Cuba boat person) are a couple of grifters who work out a scheme to extort money from ‘that rich actress’. Joe leans on his old secret service surveillance skills and tracks down the source of the extortion. But the arrival of an uncle of Nobles from back in the swamps upsets the (sort of) carefully laid plans and extortion turns to murder putting Joe in the crosshairs of Nobles/Rey while he keeps them in his telephoto lens.

For about half the book, Leonard delicately develops the Joe, Maurice, and Jean (the actress) relationship. One particular entertaining conversation has Joe and Jean talking movies while Maurice is carrying on his own conversation with no one about cooking - very clever and engrossing. We watch Joe realize just whom this femme fatale is and struggle with his developing attraction to Jean while he wonders when she is being herself and when she is acting. Leonard is solid, light-hearted, and can always be counted on to deliver an entertaining diversion  --- and this is no exception. If you are looking for a sure fired diversion and can't decide who to read, most anything from Leonard's long list of titles is a terrific place to start.

East Coast Don

Raylan by Elmore Leonard

This latest effort by one of those very few authors who is close to the mountaintop would be hard to find inadequate. It has a number of things going for it - Elmore Leonard, Deputy US Marshall Raylan Givens, Boyd Crowder, and other colorful folks from back in the hills of Harlan County, Kentucky.

I am an unapologetic fan of Justified, the TV show on FX based on the Raylan Givens character. Being so familiar with the character(s), it's neat to read a book and see in come to life on my mind's eye as I read. This is very typical Leonard with is razor sharp dialogue and that little wink to let you know something else might be lurking.

I actually thought this looked a bit like 3 plot lines for the TV show that he lengthened and revised a bit so they'd be somewhat connected.

Plot line 1: Dewey and Coover (who else) help their dad in the family business - growing and distributing marijuana. A potential windfall of money crosses their path and they join up with a transplant nurse at the University of Kentucky Medical Center to harvest kidneys, then extort the former owner to buy them back at an exorbitant price. Good money in body parts, until Raylan gets on the trail of the nurse who promptly tries steal Raylan's. Bad idea.

Plot line 2: The main coal mining company has shifted from deep to surface mining and the waste has poisoned everything around it. When one old coot confronts the lady lawyer/company spokesperson about the death of his pond, she tries to get Boyd Crowder (on her payroll now) to shoot him. He balks, so she takes care of business herself and now she and Raylan are dancing around each other as he tries to make a case against her.

Plot line 3: Jackie Nevada is a 3.something student at Butler up in Indianapolis. She also is a vicious and successful poker player, but one night she drops $20K. Next thing you know, banks in Indiana are getting robbed by 3 women. Local law thinks she's desparate and crossed the line. She's decided to head on to Las Vegas for some poker tournament, but gets sidetracked in Kentucky by a high stakes game. So while Raylan is on this case, the bank robbing team is falling apart. What's a Marshall to do? You can bet one of the things is Ms. Nevada.

While I'd never be so presumptuous to say what others are saying, that Leonard cashed in on this book because of the success of the TV show. Count me out of that. Sure, it's maybe 3 novellas, but Givens is one helluva a character and his one line replies are both direct and funny. Great stuff.

I'd love to get a t-shirt from FX: "I've shot people I like more for less". But no one would want to be seen with me.

East Coast Don

Pronto by Elmore Leonard

With the 3rd season of Justified to begin Jan 12 on FX, I decided to tune up by reading another Elmore Leonard book based on Justified's main character, Deputy US Marshall Raylan Givens. While Justified is set in Raylan's home of Harlan County, Kentucky, this takes us back a few years to the time when Raylan, and his ever present Stetson, was a bit of a fish out of water based in Miami.

Harry Arno is a Miami bookie working for Jimmy Cap, a regional mob boss. Harry has his own way of keeping track of his bettors and has run a decent sports book for some time sending a steady stream of money Jimmy Cap's way. But Harry has also had an eye on his future seeing as he is nearing retirement. Having served in Italy during WWII, he's settled on a quiet retirement in a nice little villa in Rapello on the NW Italian coast. Plans to purchase it with the cash he's been skimming from Jimmy Cap. Maybe even take his sometime girlfriend/model Joyce.

The local FBI is having one of its periodic hard ons for the Miami mob and one particularly nasty agent corners Harry and says he's gonna let out the word that Harry has been skimming unless Harry agrees to help the fibbies get evidence on Jimmy Cap.

Harry isn't too keen on that, thinking Jimmy just might believe the feds and put Harry out of a job, permanently. Enter Raylan Givens. Raylan's been teaching weapons at the Glynco, Georgia federal academy. About the time Raylan is due to get reassigned to the field in Miami, his wife tells Raylan she's staying in Glynco with their 2 sons (the sons are a detail left out of the TV show). In Miami, Raylan gets the call to bring Harry in, because that's what the Marshall's service does. About 8 years earlier, Raylan was escorting Harry to Chicago to testify when Harry just walked away when they were changing planes in Atlanta. Same thing happens again in Miami this time.

Harry decides the time is right and bolts Miami for Italy. The scene now shifts to Rapello. Jimmy Cap has sent Nicky, a bit of a dimwitted excuse for muscle eager for his first kill, and the Zip, a Sicilian by birth and unrepentant gun thug by occupation. Raylan knows where Harry is headed, but doesn't know where he'll be living. Jimmy's crew and Raylan arrive about the same time only to engage in an unfriendly tango while trying to find Harry. In the meantime, Joyce answered Harry's call to come to Italy.

The Italian venture turns out not to be to Harry's liking. He, Joyce, and Raylan, after some shenanigans, go back to Miami followed by Nicky and the Zip. Raylan tells Jimmy Cap to lay off Harry that he didn't do anything wrong (but he really had, Raylan's always had a bit of a liking for Harry) and that while in Italy Raylan learned that the Zip was setting himself up to off Jimmy Cap and take over the Miami bookmaking business.

It's hard to go wrong with Elmore Leonard. He has written some of the most colorful mysteries and I've yet to pick up a dud. Leonard carefully gets you to like the good guys and think poorly of the bad guys. There is enough humor to bring a smile to the hard boiled reader and enough blood letting for we male fans. In some ways, Raylan and Pronto reminded me a bit of one of my favorite Leonard characters, Chili Palmer from Get Shorty. Cool, calm, violent only when provoked, but endearing in spite of his history.

When my search for new authors hits a bit of a lull, I know I can always pick up most any Elmore Leonard book (or Ken Bruen, Michael Connelly, et al.) at random and know it'll be an enjoyable read.

East Coast Don

Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard

I promise the next post will NOT be a book by Elmore Leonard.

I was reading Road Dogs when I was traveling to Philadelphia. At the RDU airport, I stopped in (as I always do) at the used book store for titles or authors I can't find in the library or stores. The main character in Road Dogs is Jack Foley who the jacket blurb said was last seen in Out of Sight, which I found at the used book store and started reading it in Philly once I finished Road Dogs.

Smart guy that I am, it took me maybe 10 pages to realize that this is the basis of the George Clooney-Jennifer Lopez movie of the same name. Having seen the movie, I still plugged away.

A group of hispanic inmates are breaking out of the Florida prison where Jack now finds himself. He is invited to go, but declines, then hatches his own plan with the help of a friend, through his ex-wife, to meet him outside the prison fence. Problem is US Marshall Karen Sisco is serving some legal papers to the prison at just the wrong (or right, depending on your viewpoint) time and ends up being stuffed in the car trunk with Foley during the escape. When they get to some rendezvous point they are separated, but not before having 'a moment' in the trunk.

So Jack and Karen go their ways, but both continue to think about that 'moment' in the trunk. The tale wanders around a bit as Karen and Jack sort of circle each other like a couple jr. high kids at a dance until both end up in Detroit. Jack and cohorts get connected with another ex-con now a low life fight promotor and robber. When Jack finds out Karen is also in Detroit, he conspires to meet up with her in her swank hotel bar and one thing leads to another...you get the picture.

Now, this group of low lifes plan to rob a stock broker ex-con of his running around money stored in his mansion. The plan goes bad and Jack takes out a couple of the idiots only to have Karen shoot him in the leg. He ends up back in prison and she back on the job in Florida, bujt both wonder about what might have been.

Now I saw the movie and pictured Clooney and Lopez delivering all the lines in the book. But I really can't say I remember the 1998 movie all that well. I remember the scene in the trunk, at the hotel bar, and faintly remember the ending where she shoots him, but I will need to watch it again for a fuller appreciation of the film version of this terrific, and a bit lighthearted, tale. It's supposed to be the movie that set the course for a number of Clooney's characters since.

While not wanting to sound redundant, this book has all the trapping of Leonard's work...terrific dialogue, a sparse, bare-bones narrative mostly devoid of long 'scene setting' descriptions. We know the characters, not necessarily the scene. Honestly thought I'd be sort of bored reading the book after having seen the movie, but had I believed that, I'd have missed out on one of my favorite Leonard stories so far.

East Coast Don

Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard

I seem to be on an Elmore Leonard kick, this being my third post after Up in Honey's Room and Mr. Paradise. As usual, it is filled with spot on dialogue and colorful characters wrapped up in a fun tale.

Jake Foley is a career bank robber who gets p.o'ed when he is compared to Willie Sutton cuz Jake robbed way more banks. Cundo Rey is a Cuban ex-pat and general all-around criminal. Both are in prison in Florida and watch each other's back - Road Dogs being the phrase for such guys. Cundo pays a lawyer who successfully gets Jack's sentence reduced to essentially time served. Upon release, Jack takes Cundo on his offer and goes to live in Venice Beach where Cundo owns 2 homes (actually the homes are in the name of Cundo's front man). Jack figures, sure, but is worried that he might be beholden to Cundo when he gets released in a couple weeks. But he goes anyway.

In one of the Venice Beach homes, Cundo's girlfriend Dawn has been virtuously waiting 8yrs for Cundo's release (we are led to believe). But she's been planning...planning to kill Cundo, sell the homes, and take off with the profit of the sales-in the $6mill ballpark. She thinks she deserves it because she has waited for Cundo. She needs Jack to spring her plot. But Dawn really shouldn't be trusted. She has a backup plan and enlists a local gangbanger to knock off Jack while enticing this young Costa Rican to think she really cares for him.

Now Cundo isn't the nicest of characters. When he gets out, his first action in Venice Beach is to bed dawn (of course), then on mulitiple occasions punches her lights out and bitches about Dawn not preparing dinner. So, one evening, Dawn fixes dinner, shoots Cundo dead and puts his remains in a freezer. Meanwhile, our Costa Rican gang banger lures Jack on the roof of Dawns house in order to push Jack over the edge, but Jack is smarter than most ordinary gang bangers, tossing his amigo off the roof to his death and interment in said freezer.

As Dawn sees her plan unwinding, she decides to kill Jack her own self, but can't do it when the opportunity presents itself. Jack has figured out Cundo is dead and what Dawn is up to eventually talking her out of murder and most likely into the big house.

Another first rate, talky, crime novel by Leonard. I stumbled across the book that precedes this one at a used bookstore at the airport, but it will probable sit on my nightstand while i catch up on some others. In Road Dogs, are a couple other smaller parts (Jack as a sort of ghostbuster working as Dawn's #2 in her fortune teller swindle and an FBI agent shadowing Jack to catch him in another bank robbery) that added a humorous side plots to the story, but I thought little else. In Leonard's previous book, another Leonard character is introduced that Jack beds-Karen Cisco...remember that TV show? I find Leonard to be enormously entertaining. I'll never get through is entire catalogue, but I can see reading a few more.

East Coast Don

Mr. Paradise by Elmore Leonard

Back to another Leonard book having posted thoughts on Up in Honey's Room a short while ago. Tony Paradiso is a 80something retired Detroit lawyer with a peculiar taste - he likes sports, University of Michigan football in particular and he has the tapes of old games (wins only) to prove it. He also likes UMichigan cheerleaders so he has Chloe, a hooker, on a $5000/week retainer, dress up to help keep his weeny wagging. One day, Mr. Paradiso, aka Mr. Paradise, wants 2 cheerleaders so Chloe brings her Victoria Secret model roommate and almost look-alike, Kelly along. So much for the setup.

Mr. Paradise has 2 guys working for him. Lloyd is his butler/cook/etc and Montez, his driver/get-things-done guy. Both are ex-cons Paradise had dealings with. Mr. Paradise either has not long to live or just doesn't want to go on, I could never quite tell. He can't put Chloe, the hooker, in his will cuz his son would have a fit so he puts her name on some stock certificates supposedly worth $1.6mil. Montez was to get the house, but his daughter wants it (to sell and help finance her hubby's dream of owning a winery) meaning Montez is locked out and damn unhappy about getting nothing for 15 years of being a nothing for Mr. Paradise.

Montez knows of a sleezy lawyer with a side business - he's an agent for 2 hitmen (who we find out are good at what they do, but not really all that bright). Montez contracts for a hit on Mr. Paradise, but both Chloe and Kelly are cheering there that night. The guys come in, blow away Mr. Paradise and Chloe. Montez pressures Kelly to become Chloe so he can get his hands on the stocks.

Homicide detective Frank Delsa draws the case and likes Montez right from the start. But Delsa not only wants Montez and the shooters, he wants the shooter's agent. Kelly admits the identity switch to Delsa right early and becomes a willing witness in trying to track the dimwit shooters and Montez who, by some strange logic, have kidnapped Kelly and hidden out in Mr. Paradise's mansion.

A most interesting character is Lloyd - a servant who says he hears nothing, but is a reliable character in the final confrontation, if you call it that. All he wants to do is move to Puerto Rico to get out of the Detroit winters. This Leonard book has all the features he is known for, dispensing with long scenic buildup and tedious set-ups for crackling dialogue with a minimum of fluff. Easy to read and hard to put down. That's Leonard.

And the stocks ain't worth squat now and Delsa gets the Victoria Secret model . . . poetic justice.

East Coast Don

Up In Honey's Room by Elmore Leonard

Honey's Room is another recommendation by the chief Knuckmeister, Charlie Stella. His last suggestions have been winners so I had no doubt this would be fun, too.

Our tale takes place in the waning days of WWII in Detroit. Honey has married the most boring man on earth, Walter Schoen-a German ex-pat, but she walks out after a year. Dull, dull, dull. The most fun they have is when he needs to pass gas, he tells Honey "Pull my finger" and then she falls down like she's been shot. Hell, he doesn't even know she's not a natural blond cuz he only bumps uglis in the dark.

Honey goes to work in a downtown department store selling better dresses and Walter continues on as a butcher. Problem is he is a dead ringer from Himmler and thinks he is a long lost twin, so he harbors some sentiment to the German cause. So does Vera and her cross-dressing Ukrainian lover Bo. We also meet Jurgen (SS tank commander from the Afrika Korps) and Otto who are POWs recently escaped from a camp in Oklahoma who have found their way to Detroit, closely followed by Carl, a US Marshall of some notoriety.

Vera is a low rent German spy and Bo has a violent past, slicing his way through a POW camp earlier in the war and with Walter has a little spy ring set up. An ObGyn and a Klansman also figure in this little circle of spies who really seem to learn very little of substance to send back to the Fatherland. This motley group circles each other as Honey weighs taking off her clothes (something she does rather frequently) for Jurgen or Carl. Meanwhile, Carl is going through Honey to find Jurgen who wants to be a professional bull rider.

But Walter has bigger ideas. He wants to assassinate FDR as a gift for der Furher's birthday. Problem is, FDR has his stroke the day before the intended strike, so Walter tries to let everybody assume he somehow did it by shrugging "you believe what you want to believe."

Anyway, Vera and Bo are worried that the FBI are closing in and hatch a plan to kill them all. First Bo takes out the bigot and the doc (the doc's wife is collateral damage). Then the rest are all "Up in Honey's Room" when Bo enters in his finest dress carrying a submachine gun in an umbrella. He taunts them a bit, makes them all strip and sit on the couch. In an earlier scene, Honey and Jurgen fiddled with a Luger that she stuffed in between the couch cushions. She moves Carl's hand to the pistol and . . .

What happened next actually surprised me a bit. It may surprise you too, or you may see it coming. It doesn't matter cuz it's all fun getting to this potential massacre scene. Needless to say, Vera is a survivor, Jurgen is suspected to be in Cleveland or with Otto (who married a nice Jewish girl-go figure), Carl goes back to Oklahoma and his Marine machine gun instructor wife . . . and Honey? When Carl tells this tale to his wife, will he leave in the part about Honey traipsing around naked in high heels?

This was too cool. Stella says that Higgins and Leonard are masters of dialogue and the 1940s rat-a-tat-tat dialogue shows us just who these characters are. The Germans are trying to learn and use American slang, sometimes not too successfully, Honey is working out who to spend her future with, Carl is trying like hell to stay faithful and Jugen just wants to be a cowboy. I was unaware of Leonard's body of work and was surprised to see he had written the books that became the movies Get Shorty (IMHO, Travolta's Chili Palmer is one of the coolest dudes on film), Hombre (Newman), Mr. Majestyk (Bronson), Valdez is Coming (Bert Lancaster), 52 Pickup (Roy Scheider), 3:10 to Yuma, etc. etc. etc. So, for a good time, I've got the feeling you can't go wrong with most any Leonard story.

East Coast Don