Rating: 
Summary: World's Finest
Review: Reading this book is a little like being in the Marvel Universe. Here we find characters from other Leonard novels. Karen Sisco from Out of Sight and the TV show is here. We find a preamble to Tishomingo Blues. Carl Webster, whom Leonard fans may recognize, is here as well.I go back to Leonard whenever I wish to be reminded how to craft a good story. For anyone unfamiliar with Leonard's work, this is a good introduction. We get a good display of his range here. There is a western story, a story set in a retirement home, and oh yes, stories about criminals. Nobody writes stupid characters better than Elmore Leonard. These stories are funny, brutal, and quite enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Solid Leonard Sampler
Review: This generally digestible and entertaining Leonard sampler collects two novellas and a seven short stories written over the last decade. For those who've never read any of his many many many books, it's a pretty representative introduction to his range and style. For those who are intimately familiar with his work, there are new sides of a few familiar faces. For those like me, who've read seven or eight of his novels, and found them diverting, this is more of the same, page-turning, if not particularly memorable, genre fiction. The stories can all be readily grouped into pairs.
Both the title story and the opening story are a shade under 20 pages and feature attractive rich women who are running some kind of scam. In "When the Women Come Out to Dance", we meet an exotic dancer who married a wealthy Pakistani doctor. A year later, sitting in the lap of luxury, she professes to be worried that she will meet the gruesome fate of other wives no longer desired by their traditional Pakistani husbands-being burned to death. Her new Colomian maid might be the solution to her problem... In "Sparks", the widow of a famous record producer is grilled by an insurance company adjuster following the suspicious destruction of her house during a California brush fire. The two stories chug along through small intrigues and banter, arriving at satisfying, yet predictable conclusions.
Two of the stories are twenty-page vignettes in the lives of characters who are features in full novels. "Chickasaw Charlie Hoke" is a humorous and colorful story about how the title character lands a job as celebrity greeter for a Vegas casino. What happens after this is detailed in Leonard's 2002 book, Tishomingo Blues, whose main protagonist Dennis Lenahan is also introduced off-stage in this story. "Karen Makes Out" is throwaway story about U.S. Marshall Karen Sisco, and a brief fling she has with a man who may or may not be a bank robber. Her character is featured in Leonard's 1996 novel Out of Sight, and the 1998 film of the same name, where Jennifer Lopez played her.
Two more stories weighing in at slightly less than twenty pages showcase Leonard's abilities in the Western genre (in which he excelled before moving on to crime). "The Tonto Woman" is about a woman who had been kidnapped by Indians and tattooed on her face. Many years later, she makes it back home only to be shunned by her husband-until a crafty and honorable Mexican cattle rustler comes along. "Hurrah for Captain Early" shows the side of Leonard that believes in using his stories to tell a little history. It's about a black U.S. Army veteran of the Spanish-American war, and in it, Leonard pokes holes in the myth of the Rough Riders.
The two novellas are around sixty pages and benefit from the extra space. Set in hardscrabble turf of Harlan County, Kentucky, "Fire in the Hole" is about a group of white supremacists, led by an ex-coal miner turned preacher, turned tax protestor, plotting a little domestic terrorism. Hot on their trail is U.S. Marshall Raylen Givens (the star of Leonard's 1993 book Pronto and its 1995 sequel Riding the Rap), who grew up with the leader of the gang. In "Tenkiller", a rodeo star turned Hollywood stuntman is returning to his tiny hometown in Oklahoma following the death of his wife. When he finds a family of nasty white trash thugs have conned their way onto his land and into his house, he doesn't waste any time running them off. The novellas proceed in fairly familiar fashion, with the expected violence and conventional ending. Reading them in close succesion, however, reveals a high level of similarity. The protagonists are cut of the same cloth, in the their late 30s, early 40s, with rugged, well-worn good looks. Each is returning home, where they must rid the place of an evil white-trash man of their own age, with younger and dumber sidekicks. Each will encounter a woman from high school who has been pining for him for twenty years. This is not to say the stories aren't entertaining, but it does reveal how Leonard is able to use the same template over and over.
The one story that doesn't really fit in anywhere is "Hanging Out at the Buena Vista", a throwaway fifteen pages about a pair of cancer patients in a hospice. In the final anlysis, if you're a Leonard fan, you'll like the stories, if you've never read him, this is a good way to dip into him to see if you do.
Rating: 
Summary: A must for Elmore Leonard fans
Review: Though tired plot thread weave through most of the nine stories (e.g. avenging abusive men, dumb redneck badguys and showdowns complete with deadlines to get out of town), the combination of familiar old characters cast in new settings and a few brand new heroes cut from similar cloth makes a great package. A hilarious prequel to 'Tishomingo Blues' shows how Chickasaw Charlie Hoke got Billy Darwin to hire him as a greeter and side show for his new casino. Raylan Givens the cowboy marshal from 'Pronto' is back now going after a bunch of neo Nazi skinheads including Boyd, an old high school buddy who worked in the Harlan County coal mines with him years before. Raylan is as tough as Wyatt Earp's legend and as cool as Chili Palmer. With a sexy lady named Ava in the middle Boyd tells Raylan he'll do to him what Raylan did to the Italian mob guy at the end of 'Pronto'. Of course, Raylan's still standing at the end. Karen Sisco's back and better than ever. An arrogant FBI guy tells her the new boyfriend Carl she just got it on with has been robbing banks. She doesn't want to believe it, but when Karen finds out what's going on Carl doesn't stand a chance. George Clooney can play Carl in the movie, but this Karen is way too cool for J Lo.
A black Spanish American War veteran named Bo Catlett is getting guff from a bigoted redneck whose brother was killed in the war. I missed the connection to the character of the same name in 'Get Shorty', though there has to be one. After a few historical corrections as to how good the RoughRiders really were, it builds to a showdown where Bo points his saber at the redneck inviting him to go for his gun. On top of all this Leonard saves the best for last with the story of Ben Webster, fourth generation of family that owns an Oklahoma ranch. Ben is an ex rodeo cowboy now Hollywood stuntman back in Oklahoma to check on things. His senile caretaker leased part of the property to a life long criminal white trash father and his two sons. It sets up one final showdown with the Leonard hero, his new love interest and the dumber than dirt badguys. Ther's nothing new about a Leonard bad guy going off a balcony or a stuntman diving off a roof into the hotel pool, but it still adds life to the story and evokes memories of prior Dutch classics. I hope there's more of Ben Webster in Leonard's future. One word of caution about the audiobook: Taye Diggs is absolutely the worst in a long line who have read Elmore Leonard books. He actually makes Chickasaw Charlie and Karen Sisco sound like black street dudes.
Rating:
Summary: Less Is More
Review: Will somebody please let me know when a better writer than Elmore comes along? The short story is a difficult vehicle to create and resolve a mystery, yet the form proves no impediment for Mr. Leonard. In fact, next to some of his novels, I'd say less is more. The snappy dialogue, the characters'charisma, the heightened situations are all notable stylistic trademarks of Mr. Leonard. He does not let the reader down. I only wish there were another dozen stories to calm my greed for more.
Rating:
Summary: Less Is More
Review: Will somebody please let me know when a better writer than Elmore comes along? The short story is a difficult vehicle to create and resolve a mystery, yet the form proves no impediment for Mr. Leonard. In fact, next to some of his novels, I'd say less is more. The snappy dialogue, the characters'charisma, the heightened situations are all notable stylistic trademarks of Mr. Leonard. He does not let the reader down. I only wish there were another dozen stories to calm my greed for more.
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