Tishomingo Blues

Starred review from December 10, 2001
A tinted review in adult Forecasts indicates a book that's of exceptional importance to our readers, but that hasn't received a starred or boxed review. TISHOMINGO BLUES Elmore Leonard. Morrow, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 0-06-000872-5 On the advance reading copy of this novel sent to PW, the title appears in blue letters half an inch high. Leonard's name floats above the title in red letters a full inch high. A Leonard novel is an event, and for good reason. Over the past 40 years, this writer has evolved into the undisputed champ of the American crime novel, and he hasn't lost a step. His new (and 37th) novel is one of his smoothest, a return to the South of Out of Sight
(1996) and numerous earlier Leonards—though this is the author's first foray into deep country Mississippi, birthplace of the blues. Men and women who scrape at the margins of the American dream are Leonard's forte, and here he presents several such folk, all memorable, beginning with his hero, Dennis Lenahan, a high diver who contracts for a gig to perform at the Tishomingo Lodge & Casino. While setting up his rig, Dennis witnesses a murder by local members of the Dixie Mafia. So, perhaps, does a mysterious, very slick black guy, Robert Johnson, down from the North in his Jag to run a con on a local powerbroker—or so it seems. But Robert, who befriends Dennis, and the Detroit mobster and moll who join him at the Lodge & Casino, have other, more complicated, more ambitious plans, for Tishomingo, for the Dixie Mafia and for Dennis, plans that come to a head during the Civil War battle re-enactment that provides the unusual and fascinating backdrop for the book's second half. As usual, Leonard's characters walk onto the page as real as sunlight and shadow; the dialogue is dead-on, the loopy story line strewn with the unexpected, including sudden flourishes of romance and death. Prime Leonard, prime reading. (Feb. 1)Forecast:Backed by a $250,000 marketing campaign and Leonard's ever-soaring rep, this title, his first with Morrow, could be his biggest seller yet, buoyed by a seven-city author tour and simultaneous HarperAudio (abridged and unabridged cassette) and HarperLarge Print editions.

February 3, 2003
The high quality of this polished, entertaining production comes as no surprise, as Leonard (Out of Sight; Get Shorty; etc.) is one of the most highly esteemed crime writers working today and Muller one of the most seasoned audiobook performers. The story centers on Dennis Lenahan, a high diver who lands a job performing at the Tishomingo Lodge & Casino in Tunica, Miss., but finds himself in hot water in the midst of an organized crime power struggle. As befits a Leonard novel, the proceedings are peppered by an interesting cast of characters making do on the fringes of conventional society. Muller ably portrays their many eccentricities and has the rare knack for performing the parts of the opposite sex in a way that sounds completely natural. He also captures the discerning, jazzman cool of Detroit gangster Robert Taylor; the thick, adenoidal twang of various members of the Dixie Mafia; and the comically ostentatious boastings of the hotel's resident celebrity, a former pitcher named Charlie who claims to have played in the 1984 World Series. The tension between them all builds toward a climactic Civil War reenactment, and listeners will find themselves alternately amused and intrigued by the many turns Leonard is able to muster. Based on the Morrow hardcover.