Rating: 
Summary: A new author for me.
Review: This is the first book I have ever read by Leonard and probaly not the last. Some of the reviews on this book were not the best but I think you have to be in the right mind-set for this one. It is a zany read with alot of blending of unusual characters. It will make you laugh out loud and shake your head. I think this plot works with these characters as I live in a big city full of mixed up characters that sometimes find themselves in the same plot of life in a mixed up situation. So this is possibly a credible story with a fresh approach. And for those of you who didn't know, it had to be a book that was out there, so to speak, as it had to capture "Leonards" new publisher's eye, William Morrow." I loved this book, but than again I was ready for a fun and thrilling read and this book delivered it all. I think a good writer is one who can turn the heads of people with a cast of characters that spill onto a page like ink in a spirograph and come out with some terrific plot.
Rating: 
Summary: Where does he get the plots?
Review: Elmore Leonard has to be the king of weird plots and characters among authors currently writing. Who else could combine a high diver, a Native American ex-professional baseball player, Civil War reenactors, members of the Dixie Mafia, and other assorted oddballs into a coherent narrative, and make it work? It's almost impossible to relate the plot of this book, for sometime I wonder if he just wasn't making it up as he went along, and didn't know where it was going himself until it got there, but I was laughing out loud a lot of the way through this work. I found it so well written that I read it almost in one sitting, just to see where Mr. Leonard was going with some of his outrageousness! I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Good start, then fizzle.
Review: I agree with Rob Stone below. After an investment of about 170 pages, I totally lost interest in these characters. All the hip, dead-on dialogue began running together, as did the bad guys. I realized I just no longer cared what happened to anyone.Leonard was at his best in the early to mid-80s with Glitz, Killshot, and La Brava. Those books worked because they were genuine thrillers -- you really cared about the protagonists, and the climaxes were as thrilling as good crime fiction gets. But starting with, I'd say, Get Shorty, Leonard has been coasting on cool, writing colorful and borderline-humorous thrillers instead of realistic and unbearably suspenseful ones. I suppose if that's the sort of thriller you want, then the current Leonard is for you. But I miss books with the intensity and thrills of Glitz, his very best by far.
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Summary: Welcome back Elmore Leonard!
Review: It is truly a marvellous literary experience reading vintage Elmore Leonard again .It's been a while! Tishomingo Blues is absolutely first rate. Where does he get these incredible characters from? Where does he get these amazing air-tight stories?
Rating:
Summary: Time to pass the gavel to others.
Review: This was not the normal Elmore Leonard offering compared to previous efforts. Normally one waits with earnest hopes for the latest Leonard offering and is thrilled once it arrives. Once you start one of his offerings it is usually difficult to put it down. However, in this latest offering - Tishomingo Blues, much is missing from what you might have come to expect. The book moves slowly, there is something missing in the characters and the con is different as well. While Robert is an interesting character, we do not get a good look as to why. Nor do we get the normal insight about any of the other characters. The action or inaction moves around too much with holes in between. I don't know if it is the setting of a casino or the issue of Civil War reenactment that throws it off, but I was disappointed with this latest installment. Maybe Elmore has passed his prime in the genre as others like Hiaasen are picking it up much better. It is still a book that Leonard fans should read, but they should not expect too much.
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Summary: What's the Scoop?
Review: Both this and the new John Grisham book "The Summons" are set largely in Mississippi, involve casinos in Tunica, Miss., and have as a plot element Nathan Bedford Forrest! What's the scoop? Are these very different authors interacting on a different plane ala' Rupert Sheldrake's "morphic resonance?"
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Summary: A reader's blues over Tishomingo's laziness
Review: Plot synopses aside, you will find most of the things here you want in a Leonard novel: an understanding that evil goes way past banal, and far into kitsch; a lively mix of characters who don't fall neatly onto anyone's side but their own; and an ear for dialogue that is unmatched in the genre. So far, so good. Unfortunately, what begins at breakneak speed and lures you in with a compelling situation (can Robert Taylor's brillian confidence man lure Dennis Lenahan to "sell his soul" to a particular Tishomingo devil?), turns lazy about two-thirds of the way into the novel. Leonard's portrayal of Robert Taylor is so dazzling that the nominal protagonist, Lenahan, becomes boring by comparison. Leonard throws a number of southern hotties in Lenahan's path, but the one that he chooses by the end is not so much surprising as simply unmotivated--an amor ex machina. The interesting relationship is Taylor's clever seduction of Lenahan throughout the bulk of the book. The speed and ease with which Lenahan meets the girl of his dreams and solves his moral crisis at the end deflates all the tension Leonard so skillfully builds beforehand. And, as one character points out in the last pages, the ease with which all the nasty characters take care of each other is almost too convenient. No, it is too convenient. Leonard should have been less in a hurry to see this on bookstands and sell the film rights; a little more care in the last 50 pages could have made this a sparkling read from beginning 'til end.
Rating:
Summary: #37 and Getting Better????
Review: Number 37 is the best yet. At a time in many author's career when they start running dry of ideas, Leonard seems to be picking up speed. Tishomingo Blues is a snappy story. The characters, both Dennis Lenahan the high diver and Robert Taylor, the wise cracking, street smart guy from Detroit make the novel believable.
Dennis sees a murder as he prepares his rig for a show. Convinced that he may have been seen....well that gets too close to the good stuff.
Civil War reenactments with maybe live amo just adds to the fun, but I give too much away. Read this book, you won't regret it.
One point. I am a James Lee Burke fan. This book feels like one of his.
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Summary: Not Mr. Leonard's Best But . . .
Review: I won't give a description, as I see that's already here. But I am a fan of Mr. Leonard's and have been for a good while. In my view, no one can pull you into a story faster, give you characters more quirkier, and a read that's more entertaining. I don't consider this his best work, but it's still good! Now let's see how the movie turns out!
Rating:
Summary: very entertaining
Review: I've seen Get Shorty, Out of Sight, and Jackie Brown but this was my first time reading one of Elmore Leonard's novels. It's obvious why his books are so popular in Hollywood; the story never drags, and his characterizations are dead-on perfect. The plot includes a murder witnessed from an 80-foot high dive, a Mississippi casino, the Dixie Mafia, and various sexual liasons, all leading up to the climax at a Civil War reenactment. The main character is Dennis, a high diver who's another of Leonard's likable guys with a few flaws. The "good-guys", good being a relative thing with Leonard, are Robert, a Jag-driving streetwise gansta' from Detroit; Charlie, a Native American who may have pitched for the Tigers in the World Series; and John Rau, a straight-as-an-arrow lawman. Bad guys include an ex-deputy who runs the Dixie Mafia and his henchmen. A variety of other folks swirl in and out of the story. What's best about this book is how even though you're never really sure what will happen next, the characters never do anything you wouldn't expect them to do. The people in Elmore Leonard's stories are smart, funny, sexy, and completely true to their motives. This will certainly not be the last of his books which I read.
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