Killshot

April 1, 1989
Crime fiction doesn't get any better than Leonard's new thriller, which, while it breaks no new ground, is a welcome retreat to his more direct style of classics such as 52 Pickup and Unknown Man #89 . When Carmen Colson and her ironworker husband Wayne stumble onto an extortion scheme run by Armand Degas, half Ojibway Indian, half French Canadian hit man, and his temporary partner Richie Nix, a talkative sociopath, the two killers set out to eliminate them, hiding out with Nix's girlfriend Donna, a former prison guard who collects stuffed animals and believes that Elvis is alive. In detailing the killers' relentless pursuit of the terrified couple, Leonard builds suspense with a deft, master hand, inducing an instant--and sustained--response of sweating hands and a racing heart. Even the most jaded reader will be swept along on the roller coaster of impending violence punctuated by heart-stopping crises. As always, Leonard writes with a natural ear for offbeat speech and a terrific sense of locale, moving the action from Toronto to Detroit and into Michigan and Ohio, telling the story almost totally through the thoughts and dialogue of the characters. In the Colsons, Leonard presents a more mature and realistic portrayal of a relationship than he has in the past, and he stirs up an uncomfortable fondness for the cruel but mellowing hit man Degas, all the while drawing the reader deeply into these ordinary lives. A bravura performance. Literary Guild dual main selection.

If Elmore Leonard is a high-performance car, Ron McLarty is the skilled driver who can handle it. He understands the determined independence of Leonard's classic heroes, as well as their earnestness, humor, and essential decency. He also seems to delight in the singularity of Leonard's villains. They may be bad, but they're human, not monsters, and as such, they're thoroughly recognizable. Here, real estate agent Carmen Colson and her ironworker husband, Wayne, unwittingly get caught in the middle of an extortion scheme and end up the targets of a couple of low-end killers. In McLarty's reading, each of these characters, and several others, is fully realized, fully alive. M.O. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine