I picked up Unknown Man No. 89 by Elmore Leonard sometime in the eighties. I was a young reporter, covering the police beat on occasion and intrigued by his take on cops and criminals.
I zipped through Unknown Man about a process server who gets embroiled in crime and moved on pretty quickly to 52 Pick Up and Split Images. Great reads in that easy-going prose that took you into the minds of good guys and bad guys alike.
Gold Coast, The Switch, Swag aka Ryan's Rules, Stick. I can remember cracking them open late at night after my 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. news gig ended and reading into the wee hours.
I can vividly remember opening The Switch as the night air grew a little cooler that autumn, the window cracked just a little to let in the breeze.
On the radio, Toney Carey's "A Fine, Fine Day" about an old gangster getting out of prison after a long stretch, seemed like a perfect sound track for Leonard.
I've read many of Leonard's novels since, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Rum Punch and some of the Westerns, but there's a special chunk of my reading life that I'll always remember as Leonard time.
It seemed like he'd go on forever, churning out great stories.
RIP, Mr. Leonard.
I zipped through Unknown Man about a process server who gets embroiled in crime and moved on pretty quickly to 52 Pick Up and Split Images. Great reads in that easy-going prose that took you into the minds of good guys and bad guys alike.
Gold Coast, The Switch, Swag aka Ryan's Rules, Stick. I can remember cracking them open late at night after my 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. news gig ended and reading into the wee hours.
I can vividly remember opening The Switch as the night air grew a little cooler that autumn, the window cracked just a little to let in the breeze.
On the radio, Toney Carey's "A Fine, Fine Day" about an old gangster getting out of prison after a long stretch, seemed like a perfect sound track for Leonard.
I've read many of Leonard's novels since, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Rum Punch and some of the Westerns, but there's a special chunk of my reading life that I'll always remember as Leonard time.
It seemed like he'd go on forever, churning out great stories.
RIP, Mr. Leonard.
Yes!
ReplyDeleteRIP, Elmore Leonard, indeed.
Cheers ~~