Road Dogs

What if three memorable Elmore Leonard crooks--Jack Foley (OUT OF SIGHT), sexy psychic Dawn Navarro (RIDING THE RAP), and former go-go dancer and current mobster Cundo Rey (LABRAVA)--were neighbors in Venice Beach? Foley and Rey are ex-prison buds ("road dogs" in prison vernacular), and Dawn the psychic is Rey's common-law wife and the resident temptress. Add a Hollywood starlet and an overzealous FBI agent, and you've one of Leonard's best. Peter Francis James pulls off an interesting trick--his narrative voice (and the voice of Foley) is reminiscent of actor George Clooney, who is indelibly linked with the Foley character from the movie version of OUT OF SIGHT. And James's voicing of the FBI agent sounds just like actor Dennis Farina, who played a retired agent in the movie. R.W.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

February 2, 2009
Father and son writers Elmore and Peter Leonard have new novels publishing this spring.
Road Dogs
Elmore Leonard
. Morrow
, $26.99 (272p) ISBN 978-0-06-173314-7

Leonard launches three characters from previous novels on a collision course in this seemingly effortless performance. After prison buddy Cundo Rey (last seen in LaBrava
) drops a bundle on a shark attorney, celebrity bank robber Jack Foley (from Out of Sight
) gets his 30-year prison sentence reduced to 30 months. Jack's quickly back in the world, living large in one of Cundo's two multimillion-dollar houses in Venice, Calif., juggling a fast seduction with fortune-teller (from Riding the Rap
) Dawn Navarro (who is now Cundo's lady) and the untoward attention of rogue FBI agent Lou Adams, who's waiting for Foley to rob another bank. While Dawn tries to enlist Foley in a scheme to steal Cundo's off-the-books fortune, Cundo surprises them with an early release. Betrayal simmers while Foley considers going semi-straight—with the help of a widowed starlet—Dawn hatches a plan that could get her rich and rid her of all her problems, and Cundo's associates and neighborhood toughs get sucked into the fray. The plot isn't as tight as it could be, but Leonard's singular way with words is reason enough to read it.

July 27, 2009
A smooth and stylish performance by Peter James goes a long way in resurrecting three of Leonard's most famous characters for this latest novel. Jack Foley, bank robber extraordinaire partners up with Cundo Rey while serving time in a Miami prison. With some help from Cundo's lawyer, Foley is soon out of his cell and hanging out at Venice Beach with Cundo's girlfriend, Dawn Navarro. As with all of Leonard's books, each of these characters will do whatever to whomever to get whatever they're after. James slides easily between the book's eclectic roster of characters, giving each of them clear and distinctive voices. Whether it's Cundo's Cuban-accented gangsta riff, Dawn's cold sensuality or Jack's unflappable cool, he handles it with aplomb. Leonard continues to write the hippest crime fiction in town, and James's reading fits well with the author's cooler than cool prose. A Morrow hardcover
(Reviews, Feb. 2
).