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The Hot Kidby Elmore Leonard
Powells.com Staff PickI've only read two Elmore Leonard books, so I can't say for certain if The
Hot Kid is his best novel — but I almost can't imagine a better one.
Leonard is at the top of his game here, packing his period
cops-and-robbers tale with vivid characters and breezily sketching scenes
with a master's shorthand. Where other authors labor over pages of
description, Leonard draws the entire scene in your mind with a short,
clever paragraph. And as usual in a Leonard novel, the dialogue sparkles.
The Hot Kid brings the era of Prohibition, tommy guns, flappers, and
bootleggers alive and makes it exhilarating. Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)"Leonard is such an original storyteller that one can find his world distasteful and still be drawn into it. Strange as it may seem, the challenge of finding a character not too unpleasant to care about, and of predicting what will bring everyone together, is a large part of what makes his opening chapters so irresistible. We seem to be watching real events develop of which the novelist himself knew nothing in advance. And just as in a B movie full of unknowns, there's no telling who will make it to the end." B. R. Myers, the Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic Monthly review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Carl Webster, the hot kid of the marshals service, is polite, respects his elders, and can shoot a man driving away in an Essex at four hundred yards. Carl works out of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, federal courthouse during the 1930s, the period of America's most notorious bank robbers: Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson — those guys.
Carl wants to be America's most famous lawman. He shot his first felon when he was fifteen years old. With a Winchester. Louly Brown loves Carl but wants the world to think she is Pretty Boy Floyd's girlfriend. Tony Antonelli of True Detective magazine wants to write like Richard Harding Davis and wishes cute little Elodie wasn't a whore. She and Heidi and the girls work at Teddy's in Kansas City, where anything goes and the girls wear — what else — teddies. Jack Belmont wants to rob banks, become public enemy number one, and show his dad, an oil millionaire, he can make it on his own. With tommy guns, hot cars, speakeasies, cops and robbers, and a former lawman who believes in vigilante justice, all played out against the flapper period of gun molls and Prohibition, The Hot Kid is Elmore Leonard — a true master — at his best. Review:"[G]enial and laid-back. The whole sepia-toned caravan...is so relaxed that even the most violent felonies may leave you smiling. Leonard's gentle epic is as restorative as a month in the country." Kirkus Reviews
Review:"As always, Leonard's prose seems effortless, his dialogue is perfect, and his humor is as dry as a moonshine martini....[A] terrific pleasure." Booklist
Review:"[W]hen Elmore Leonard's new novel The Hot Kid hits the stores...you will see once again that after all the books and all the years, Leonard remains one of the great American writers." New York Daily News
Review:"You certainly wouldn't expect [Leonard] to have produced his best novel at the age of 79, but he seems to have done it....The Hot Kid is full of textured characters....Leonard's prose is as lean and clean as ever....And the old guy's still got plenty of bite." Stephen King, The Boston Globe
Review:"Far from being an exercise in nostalgia, this book reinvigorates what Mr. Leonard might have experienced at his most impressionable: the mythmaking process that turned commonplace crooks into figures of folklore..." New York Times
Synopsis:Carlos Webster was fifteen in the fall of 1921 the first time he came face-to-face with a nationally known criminal. A few weeks later, he killed his first man—a cattle thief who was rustling his dad's stock. Now Carlos, called Carl, is the hot kid of the U.S. Marshals Service, one of the elite manhunters currently chasing the likes of Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd across America's Depression-ravaged heartland. Carl wants to be the country's most famous lawman. Jack Belmont, the bent son of an oil millionaire, wants to be public enemy number one. Tony Antonelli of True Detective magazine wants to write about this world of cops and robbers, molls and speakeasies from perilously close up. Then there are the hot dames—Louly and Elodie—hooking their schemes and dreams onto dangerous men. And before the gunsmoke clears, everybody just might end up getting exactly what he or she wished for. About the AuthorElmore Leonard has written forty novels during his highly successful career, including the bestsellers The Hot Kid, Mr. Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, Be Cool, Get Shortyand Rum Punchand the critically acclaimed collection of short stories When the Women Come Out to Dance, which was named a New York TimesNotable Book of 2003. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shortyand Out of Sight. He was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife, Christine, in Bloomfield Village, Michigan. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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