TEN FAVORITE ELMORE LEONARD BOOKS FROM ME AND THREE FROM PEOPLE WHO MATTER

This Saturday, October 11th, will be the hundredth year of Elmore Leonard, a writer who had influence on both western and crime writers as well as other artists. To celebrate and pay respects, I asked some authors to give us three favorite books of theirs, but first is a list of my ten.

SCOTT MONTGOMERY'S 10 PICKS

1. Freaky Deaky- Elmore at the height of his powers being Elmore Leonard, giving subtle social commentary with a Vietnam vet cop caught in a scheme with some ex-radicals out to extort the the two yuppie brothers ratted them out over a a decade ago. Funny, tense, with a killer opening, Leonard looks at Eighties life for children of The Sixties.

2. Unknown Man #89- The best out of Leonard's gritty early period with a process server hird to find a missing holder to a lucrative stock that several others are gunning for. Dangerous and hard seventies crime novel where you feel his George V, Higgins influence.

3. Forty Lashes Less One- Technically one of his last westerns, but just as much as a crime-prison story with an ex-slave and Apache inmates forming an odd bond when caught up in an escape plan of the boss inmate when they transfer prisoners when Yuma closes down. Odd and funny with one of the first times Leonard using an ensemble of characters and this group is a hoot.

4. The Complete Western Stories- Some of the best western short fiction ever. It's amazing how well they hold up and modern they feel. Fantastic depictions of Apache's, army scouts, and Mexican-American characters.

5. Out of Sight- This romance between a bankrobber and the marshal hunting him down is practically the epitome of an Elmore Leonard novel with it's humor, quirky characters, wonderful dialogue, explosions of sudden violence, and it uses his two main fictional stomping grounds of both Florida and Detroit. Somehow finds a way to be breezy and hard boiled.

6. Swag- A used car dealer and car thief go into business as stick up men. Both tough crime novel and humorous take on the American dream. raet last line.

7. Get Shorty- Leonard's great Tinseltown satire with a loan shark proving he has the skills to reinvent himself as a film producer. Skewers the film business while showing love for films themselves.

8. 52 Pick Up- A business man takes on blackmailers who then frame him for his mistresses murder. The best of Leonard's books dealing with middle class people being invaded by the criminal underworld.

9. Bandits- A fun caper novel with an ex-con turned mortiaryorker teaming up with an ex-nun to rip off a Conta conel's war chest in New Orleans. Even at his most political, Leonard is fun as hell.

10. Gunsights= Leonard's last pure western novel plays like his version as n elegy to the genre with two legendary gunfighter friends stirring up a media circus when they find themselves squaring against each other in a minging war.

ACE ATKINS shares Leonard's use of humor and ear for dialogue. He also got to know the author with him blurbing his book. He can hear nore about his amiration and relationship with the author on his appearnce on The Elmore Leonard Podcast- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ace-atkins/id1800301714?i=1000722141758

1. LaBrava

2. Killshot

3. The Hot Kid

WILLIAM BOYLE seems to utilize Leonard's rich characterization and sharp deftly used sense of detail when writing hi gritty Brooklyn set crime novels.

1. LaBrava- Just a knockout of a novel. Perhaps the Leonard book I've gone back to the most. So tight, fast-paced, and gritty. Leonard was always in master mode, it seems, but you really feel it most of all here.   

2. Killshot- A book that shaped me. Been a while since I reread it, but I'll never forget being a kid, seventh grade, having it open under my textbook in History, Religion, and English, just totally immersed in it. 

3. Jackie Brown and Out of Sight are, no doubt, the best Leonard adaptations, and I love both books, but Rum Punch is one I've returned to frequently.

   I could just as easily say Get Shorty or Maximum Bob or Out of Sight but I just find myself thinking about this one more these days for some reason. Jackie Burke is one of my favorite Leonard characters. 

When I asked JOHNNY D. BOGGS (Longhorns East, Bloody Newton) if he was a fan he answered, "How do you write westerns and not be an Elmore Leonard fan?!"

1. Hombre- This is undoubtedly the Western he's best known for and perhaps his most popular -- and I can't argue. The prose is spot-on. The characters all too human. And the ending punches you in the gut.

2, Valdez Is Coming- Not many Westerns in 1970, or before, or even after, featured an Hispanic hero. And what a great ending -- or should I say, a non-ending.

3. Forty Lashes Less One:- But this is likely my favorite (depending on the day of the week, weather, and my mood), with two unlikely heroes, and maybe the most brilliant, unforgettable ending to any Western I've read.

LAURA OLES has that perfect pitch that the like of Leonard and Robert B. Parker had. Her books about Texas Gulf Coast P.I. Jamie Rush often reveal the author's influence on her.

1. Out of Sight- In addition to one showcasing of my favorite characters, Federal marshal Karen Sisco, this novel also introduces one of my favorite opening lines. “Foley had never seen a prison where you could walk right up to the fence without getting shot.” With dialogue sharper than razor wire and original characters colliding with one another as they each race towards their own ends, this one stays me for so many reasons.

2. When the Women Come Out to Dance- I have a special place in my heart for both short fiction and Elmore Leonard, so the opportunity to enjoy both in this collection was a joy for me. And having Federal marshal Karen Sisco on the scene to pursue romance and a case? No notes.

3. Rum Punch- This one feels like classic Elmore Leonard, both in how he created flight attendant Jackie Burke, and how she plots her way out of a no-win situation between her crime bosses and the federal government. Many people discover this novel after watching Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, and as good as the movie is, the book remains better. Loved both, and Pam Grier shines in the role.

JOE LANSDALE

1. Hombre. I love a fish out of water story, where the protagonist is more than expected, but human. Dutch nails it here. Also, it's a 2,Western. I love Westerns.

2. VALDEZ IS COMING In some ways a fish in his water but others don't realize it until they wrong him. More than he seems. The bad guys realize that the good guy can be even badder than they are.

3. CITY PRIMEVAL I just love the back and forth between Cruz and the villain, who is creepy in his simplicity. The subtitle for this one, High Noon In Detroit City alludes to the fact that it has a Western set up in many ways, and a final showdown.

STEVE HOCKENSMITH ( both The Holmes on the Range and Guns For Hire series) utilizes humor, the wisdom of characters people often mistake for being unwise, and using a genre from a different angle for a cockeyed look at The American Dream.

1. Hombre- Like both its spare title and its hero, Hombre is lean but full of quiet power. The novel wasn’t Leonard’s first, but it was the one that made readers take notice — proof that he could take tropes, give them a shake, and make a genre feel fresh and real.

2. Valdez Is Coming- With this 1970 revenge Western, the Elmore Leonard style came sharply into focus. The book's tight pacing and sharp dialogue set the stage for the crime novels that would make him a literary superstar.

3. Maximum Bob- Would there be a Carl Hiaasen without Elmore Leonard? Perhaps not. Would there be a Maximum Bob without Hiaasen's Tourist Season and Double Whammy? Perhaps not. Either way, with its sunbaked Florida setting, offbeat characters and wacky wit, Maximum Bob showed that Leonard could play in Hiaasen’s sandbox if he wanted to — and still be the coolest writer on the beach.

SCOTT VON DOVIAK (Charlesgate Confidential and Lowdown Road) has the humor, use of pop culture, and cinematic pace of Leonard's work, Often I've seen a paperback copy of one of the man's books in his hand.

1. Swag – Not Elmore Leonard’s first novel by a long shot, but maybe the first “Elmore Leonard” novel as we think of them. The low-level criminals, never quite as smart as they think they are; the hangout scenes that outnumber the ones that actually advance the plot at least three to one; the crackling dialogue; the sudden bursts of violence. All the elements Leonard fans treasure, here fully-formed.

2. Glitz – This one is on the list for sentimental value, in that I barely remember it, but I know it’s the first Leonard book I read. That’s because Stephen King wrote a rave review in The New York Times, famously saying that the book cost him money because he “went out to the bookstore at my local mall and bought everything by Elmore Leonard I could find.” How could I resist after reading that

3. Get Shorty – Sure, the movie is enjoyable, but it’s a bit sanitized and soft around the edges. This twisty Hollywood satire might be Leonard’s funniest, which is saying something. Maybe that’s because I read it shortly after moving to Hollywood, while working on the fringes of the film business with characters who made the ones in this book seem frighteningly real.

CRAIG JOHNSON (The Walt Longmire Series) lets his characters breathe much like Elmore Leaonrd perfectly plants them in their setting.

1. Hombre- My favorite Elmore Leonard novel, simply because it deals so well with the underpinnings of racism, cruelty and injustice that say a piece like Stagecoach did not. Peeling back the onion of society, the novel reveals how the best of us are doomed to die for the worst of us. 

Movie Note: Leonard heard that Richard Boone had been cast in the film, his hope was that he would play the lead, John Russell, and not Paul Newman. Was one of Sean Connery’s favorite films, but then again, he was married to the female lead, Diane Cilento.

2, Mr. Majestyk- Or as the New York Times called it, “The best novel concerning a melon picker ever written.” There’s a Hemingway-esque (Ernest being one of Leonard’s stated influences) sparsity to the language and an easy toughness that shines despite it being a 138-page adaption of his own screenplay. 

Movie Note: Although Leonard wanted Clint Eastwood for the role (having worked with him on Joe Kidd), Charles Bronson does an admirable job only to be outshined by the 1969 F-100 pickup in stunts that the carmaker used in its subsequent television commercials.  

3. The Moonshine Wars- Third on the list and also something of an oddity which led to the settings of the Raylan Givens books decades later, The Moonshine War does one of the things that Elmore Leonard did well, characters somewhat out of place, but trapped by circumstance or fate. One of the few Leonard period pieces that’s not a western. 

Movie Note: It’s said that while on set for the filming of movie version, watching a scene being shot, Patrick McGoohan came up to Leonard and said, "What's it like to stand there and hear your dialogue all fucked up?"

Instead of giving his list REED FARREL COLEMAN asked to share this anecdote-

At the inaugural Tucson Festival of Books, I was one of hundreds of authors on hand. I was about two decades into my career by then,  so I had been to many such events. One of the highlights was listening to the interview with Elmore Leonard, the Guest of Honor. When I went to the airport to catch my flight home, I was fortunate enough to share a few minutes chatting with Mr. Leonard. While he didn’t insist on me calling him Dutch, he couldn’t have been more gracious or encouraging. He was pretty old by then, traveling with his son, and the event had clearly taken its toll on him. So, it was especially kind of him to give me a few quiet moments hanging at the airport gate. His writing is unforgettable, but that’s second to what I remember about him