Raylan [by] Elmore Leonard
[New York]; William Morrow; [2012]
978-0-06-211946-9; $26.99
Raylan Givens made himself known to the larger world in a TV show called “Justified” two years ago. Raylan was excellently played by Timothy Olyphant, whose picture appears on the front of this book. [If that’s not him, it’s an amazing facsimile [and I’ll eat my cowboy hat!]
You can hear Olyphant’s voice saying these words, because Mr. Leonard, his creator, as writer and Executive Producer, is an integral part of the show [still running, in its 4th season, on the FX Channel.], as well as the author of 2 other Raylan books, Riding the Rap and Pronto.
Raylan has returned to Harlan County, Kentucky, where he was once a coal miner, before he fought to get out of the state. He’s come back as a U.S. Marshall. He wears a great hat, knows all the players, and really does understand the people of his roots.This book is about several intertwined cases of Raylan’s, which have kept him on the go in Kentucky and surrounding states.
The first involves a couple of sons of a store owner who owns some valuable land. The sons are known for selling marijuana, but they end up being the muscle for a transplant nurse and a Black chauffeur who are stealing body parts and reselling them. The boys end up dead and Raylan almost loses some parts he’d rather not.
Carol Conlan, a hard-charging mining executive, comes to mining country to make a deal with the boys’ daddy, who owns the tallest mountain in Kentucky, which is filled with coal. She is quick to point out that she grew up in mining camps in West Virginia, but she rings untrue to the miners and their wives. The property owner outwits her and she doesn’t get the property she wants. In a separate incident, she shoots a man who stands in her way, and reports that another man did it, to save her, making that man virtually her slave. She ultimately gets he comeuppance in a rather unusual way.
The marshalls get wind that the daughter of a poker club owner is robbing banks with 2 other women, but that this is not true. One of the robbers is caught and she tells all. By this time the other 2 girls have been spirited away and shot.
The daughter is actually cleaning up at poker in various venues, including on TV, where she is bankrolled by a wealthy man who used to get money from his friends in different ways. She wins $1,000,000 in one game.
The guy who killed the bankrobbers gets dolled up as a drag queen to kill Raylan, but he loses to Raylan in a rather public shootout. Raylan wins the girl poker player too.
This is not much of a mystery, but it’s full of great writing: crackling dialogue, sly suspense, great characters – not just Raylan, but many of the others as well, and interesting narrative – dark and droll. The writing is sheer pleasure. Recommended. ~ lss-r
_________
Library book.
No comments:
Post a Comment