Best Selling Books by Elmore Leonard

“Elmore Leonard is an awfully good writer of the sneaky sort; he is so good you don’t even notice what he’s up to.” —New York Times Book Review Before there was Raylan, there was Sisco... U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco is on the hunt for world-class gentleman felon Jack Foley in Out of Sight, New York Times bestselling author Elmore Leonard’s sexy thriller that moves from Miami to the Motor City. Based on Miami, Florida''s Gold Coast, U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco isn’t about to let an expert criminal like Jack Foley successfully bust out of Florida''s Glades Prison. But there’s a major score waiting for him in Detroit, and a shotgun-wielding marshal isn’t going to stop Foley from getting it. Neither counted on sharing a cramped car trunk—or on a sizzling chemistry that’s working overtime. As soon as Sisco escapes, Foley is already missing her. Sisco can’t forget Foley either—and she isn’t about to let him go. Too bad the next time their paths cross, it’s going to be about business, not pleasure.

The New York Times-bestselling Grand Master of suspense deftly displays the other side of his genius, with seven classic western tales of destiny and fatal decision . . . and trust as essential to survival as it is hard-earned. Trust was rare and precious in the wide-open towns that sprung up like weeds on America''s frontier—with hustlers and hucksters arriving in droves by horse, coach, wagon, and rail, and gunmen working both sides of the law, all too eager to end a man''s life with a well-placed bullet. In these classic tales that span more than five decades—including the first story he ever published, “The Trail of the Apache”—Elmore Leonard once again demonstrates the superb talent for language and gripping narrative that have made him one of the most acclaimed and influential writers of our time.

“A Hollywood hit….Taut, inimitable prose and characters who could have only sprung from the mind of Elmore Leonard.” —Detroit News The Chicago Tribune has dubbed Elmore Leonard, “the coolest, hottest writer in America.” In the same league as the legendary great ones—John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain—the “King Daddy of crime writers” (Seattle Times) demonstrates his remarkable mastery with Get Shorty, one of the most adored of his forty-plus novels. The basis of the hit movie starring John Travolta and Danny DeVito, Get Shorty chronicles the over-the-top, sometimes violent Hollywood misadventures of a Florida mob loan shark who chases a deadbeat client all the way to Tinseltown and decides to stick around and make movies. Get Shorty’s shylock protagonist, Chili Palmer, is a truly inspired creation—as memorable as another unforgettable Leonard hero, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens of the hit TV series Justified—and readers will relish his moves and countermoves in this electrifying, funny, bullet train-paced winner from “the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever!” (New York Times Book Review)

“Speedy, exhilarating, and smooth. Nobody does it better.” —Washington Post “The man knows how to grab you—and Pronto is one of the best grabbers in years.” —Entertainment Weekly Fans of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens of the hit TV series Justified are in for a major treat. The unstoppable manhunter with the very itchy trigger finger stars in Pronto, a crime fiction gem from the one and only Elmore Leonard, “the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever” (New York Times Book Review). The Grand Master justifies the overwhelming acclaim he has received over the course of his remarkable career with an electrifying thriller that sends the indomitable Raylan racing to Italy on the trail of a fugitive bookie who’s hiding from the vengeful Miami mob. The legendary Leonard, whom the Seattle Times lauds as the “King Daddy of crime writers,” proves that all comparisons to American noir icons John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain are well deserved with this tale of very dirty doings and extremely dangerous men coming together in the birthplace of Puccini, Garibaldi, and La Cosa Nostra.

The undisputed master of the crime novel strikes again with this powerfully entertaining story, set in 1920s Oklahoma, that introduces one of the toughest lawmen ever to come out of the west. . . . Carlos Webster was 15 the day he witnessed his first murder—but it wouldn’t be his last. It was also his first introduction to the notorious gunman, Emmet Long. By the time Carlos is 20, he’s being sworn in as a deputy United States marshal and now goes by the name Carl. As for Emmet, he’s robbing banks with his new partner, the no-good son of an oil millionaire. Carl Webster and Emmet Long may be on opposite sides of the law but their long-time game of cat and mouse will turn them both into two of the most famous names in crime and punishment.

Get Shorty’s Chili Palmer is back in Be Cool, a classic novel of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Elmore Leonard. But this time it’s no more Mr. Nice Guy. After a smash hit and a flop, B-movie-producer Chili Palmer is looking for another score. Lunching with a record company executive, Chili''s exploring a hot new idea—until the exec, a former "associate" from Chili''s Brooklyn days, gets whacked. Segue from real life to reel life. Chili''s found his plot. It''s a slam-bang opener: the rubout of a record company mogul. Cut to an ambitious wannabe singer named Linda Moon. She has attitude and a band. She''s perfect. Zoom in to reality. Linda''s manager thinks Chili''s poaching and he''s out to get even, with the help of his switch-hitting Samoan bodyguard. But somebody else beat them to the punch, as Chili discovers when he gets home and finds a corpse at his desk. Somebody made a mistake...

For a limited time, and at a special price, read Fire in the Hole, the basis for the pilot episode of the hit FX series Justified, in which U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens meets up with an old friend in Harlan County—though they’re now on different sides of the law. Also included is a special sneak peek at Elmore Leonard’s new novel, Raylan, available wherever books are sold January 17th.

“A wild ride through Cuba during the Spanish-American War.” —Miami Herald “Not only his finest novel but one that transcends the limits of its genre and is worthy of being evaluated as literary fiction.” —Houston Chronicle Before Grand Master Elmore Leonard earned his well-deserved reputation as “the best writer of crime fiction alive” (Newsweek), he penned some of the finest western fiction to ever appear in print. (The classics Hombre, Valdez is Coming, and 3:10 to Yuma were just a few of his notable works.) With his extraordinary Cuba Libre, Leonard ingeniously combines all of his many talents and delivers a historical adventure/caper/western/noir like none other. The creator of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, star of Raylan, Pronto, Riding the Rap, and TV’s Justified, spins a gloriously exciting yarn about an American horse wrangler who escapes a date with a Cuban firing squad to join forces with a powerful sugar baron’s lady looking to make waves and score big in and around Spanish-American War-torn Havana in 1898. Everything you love about Leonard’s fiction—and more—is evident in Cuba Libre. No wonder the New York Times Book Review enthusiastically declared him “a literary genius.”

THE INSPIRATION FOR JUSTIFIED: CITY PRIMEVAL ON FX “As gritty and hard-driving a thriller as you’ll find….The action never stops, the language sings and stings.” —Washington Post The City Primeval in Elmore Leonard’s relentlessly gripping classic noir is Detroit, the author’s much-maligned hometown and the setting for many of the Grand Master’s acclaimed crime novels. The “Alexander the Great of crime fiction” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) shines in these urban mean streets, setting up a downtown showdown between the psychopathic, thrill-killing “Oklahoma Wildman” and the dedicated city copy who’s determined to take him down. The creator of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens of TV’s Justified fame, Elmore Leonard is the equal of any writer who has ever captivated readers with dark tales of heists, hijacks, double-crosses, and murder—John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Robert Parker included—and nobody then or now is better.

“Constant action and top-notch writing.” —New York Times A Palm Beach playboy who amuses himself with murder finds himself on a collision course with a vacationing Motown cop in Elmore Leonard’s Split Images—a gripping and electrifying example of noir gold from “the coolest, hottest writer in America” (Chicago Tribune). Split Images is Grand Master Leonard at the top of his game, a bravura example of how exemplary crime fiction is done by a writer who stands tall among the all-time mystery greats: John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, et al. The brilliant creator of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (of TV’s Justified) now brings us a cast of vivid and unforgettable characters on both sides of the law, in a twisting masterwork of unrelenting suspense that the Washington Post calls, “Brilliant...impressive...superb.”

New York Times bestselling author Elmore Leonard delivers his trademark blend of action, sex, violence, humor, and hard-boiled suspense in this thrilling crime classic, LaBrava. Joe La Brava is an ex–Secret Service agent who gets mixed up in a South Miami Beach scam involving a redneck former cop, a Cuban hit man who moonlights as a go-go dancer, and a one-time movie queen whose world is part make-believe, part deadly dangerous. Fast-moving, pitch-perfect, and utterly irresistible, LaBrava is, “vintage Leonard: a blend of the true-to-life and the totally make-believe, the cinematic and the suspenseful, the world we know and a whole lot of worlds we’re glad we don’t. Only Leonard can concoct such a potent cocktail.” (USA Today).

“Wicked and irresistible….Elmore Leonard is a literary genius.” —New York Times Book Review Before U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens began electrifying TV viewers across America (in the hit series Justified), he “starred” in Elmore Leonard’s Riding the Rap—an explosive, twisty tale of a brazen Florida kidnap caper gone outrageously wrong. Chock full of wildly eccentric and deliciously criminal characters—including a psycho enforcer with a green thumb, a Bahamian bad man, and the beautiful, unabashedly greedy psychic Reverend Dawn—Riding the Rap dazzles with Leonard’s trademark ingenious plot turns and razor-keen dialogue. Gripping, surprising, and unforgettable, it is a crime fiction gem that any thriller writer—from past masters John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain to the bestselling mystery auteurs of today—would be thrilled to call his own.

"These are the rules I''ve picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I''m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what''s taking place in the story."—Elmore Leonard For aspiring writers and lovers of the written word, this concise guide breaks down the writing process with simplicity and clarity. From adjectives and exclamation points to dialect and hoopetedoodle, Elmore Leonard explains what to avoid, what to aspire to, and what to do when it sounds like "writing" (rewrite). Beautifully designed, filled with free-flowing, elegant illustrations and specially priced, Elmore Leonard''s 10 Rules of Writing is the perfect writer''s—and reader''s—gift.

The old Apache renegade Soldado Viejo is hiding out in Mexico, and the Arizona Department Adjutant has selected two men to hunt him down. One -- Dave Flynn -- knows war, the land, and the nature of his prey. The other is a kid lieutenant named Bowers. But there''s a different kind of war happening in Soyopa. And if Flynn and his young associate choose the wrong allies -- and the wrong enemy -- they won''t be getting out alive.

Brendan Early and Dana Moon have tracked renegade Apaches together and gunned down scalp hunters to become Arizona legends. But now they face each other from opposite sides of what newspapers are calling The Rincon Mountain War. Brendan and a gang of mining company gun thugs are dead set on running Dana and "the People of the Mountain" from their land. The characters are unforgettable, the plot packed with action and gunfights from beginning to end.

Touch is sensational suspense from the master of crime fiction, New York Times bestselling author Elmore Leonard. A Michigan woman was blind and now she can see, after being touched by a young man who calls himself Juvenal. Maybe it was just coincidence, but Bill Hill—who used to run the spectacular Uni-Faith Ministry in Dalton, Georgia, and now sells RVs—can see dollar signs when he looks at this kid with the magic “touch.” The trouble is that others see them also, including a wacko fundamentalist fascist with his own private army of the faithful and an assortment of media leeches. But everyone who’s looking to put the touch on the healer is in for a big surprise—because Juvenal’s got a trick or two up his sleeve that nobody sees coming.

The odd thing about Walter Schoen, German born but now running a butcher shop in Detroit, he''s a dead ringer for Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and the Gestapo. They even share the same birthday. Honey Deal, Walter''s American wife, doesn''t know that Walter is a member of a spy ring that sends U.S. war production data to Germany and gives shelter to escaped German prisoners of war. But she''s tired of telling him jokes he doesn''t understand—it''s time to get a divorce. Along comes Carl Webster, the hot kid of the Marshals Service. He''s looking for Jurgen Schrenk, a former Afrika Korps officer who escaped from a POW camp in Oklahoma. Carl''s pretty sure Walter''s involved with keeping Schrenk hidden, so Carl gets to know Honey, hoping she''ll take him to Walter. Carl then meets Vera Mezwa, the nifty Ukrainian head of the spy ring who''s better looking than Mata Hari, and her tricky lover Bohdan with the Buster Brown haircut and a sly way of killing. Honey''s a free spirit; she likes the hot kid marshal and doesn''t much care that he''s married. But all Carl wants is to get Jurgen Schrenk without getting shot. And then there''s Otto—the Waffen-SS major who runs away with a nice Jewish girl. It''s Elmore Leonard''s world—gritty, funny, and full of surprises.

“Powerful…clever…astonishing…a delicious read.” —Detroit Free Press Rum Punch is classic Elmore Leonard—the electrifying thriller that served as the basis for the acclaimed film Jackie Brown by director Quentin Tarantino, starring Pam Grier, Robert DeNiro, and Samuel L. Jackson. Leonard’s story of a not-altogether-blameless flight attendant on the run from her vicious gun-running sometime employer who sees her as a troublesome loose end, Rum Punch is “the King Daddy of crime writers” (Seattle Times) at his sharpest and most ingeniously entertaining. In fact, People magazine calls it, “Leonard’s best work. He brilliantly reaffirms his right to the title of America’s finest crime fiction writer.” Enjoy this sensational noir winner from the creator of the character of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, lately of TV’s hit series Justified, and see why the great Elmore Leonard stands tall in the company of America’s most legendary crime fiction masters: John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, et al.

“A slam-bang, no-bull action thriller…and nobody but nobody writes better dialogue.” —New York Daily News It’s an established fact: Elmore Leonard is “the uncontested master of the crime thriller” (Washington Post ) who “does crime fiction better than anyone” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), and nowhere is this more obvious than in the pages of Stick. After serving time for armed robbery, Ernest "Stick" Stickley is back on the outside and trying to stay legit. But it''s tough staying straight in a crooked town -- and Miami is a pirate''s paradise, where investment fat cats and lowlife drug dealers hold hands and dance. And when a crazed player chooses Stick at random to die for another man''s sins, the struggling ex-con is left with no choice but to dive right back into the game. Besides, Stick knows a good thing when he sees it -- and a golden opportunity to run a very profitable sweet revenge scam seems much too tasty to pass up.

“The greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever!” —New York Times Book Review When the all-time greats of mystery/noir/crime fiction are mentioned (John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Robert Parker, etc.), Elmore Leonard’s name invariably tops the list. A true Leonard classic, The Big Bounce showcases all of the Grand Master’s acclaimed skills—twisty plotting, unforgettable characters, dialogue so razor sharp it could draw blood—as he chronicles the misadventures of a larcenous young man in a Michigan resort town who’s irresistibly drawn to a dangerous femme fatale, a rich man’s plaything, and the nasty little caper they plan to pull off together—if they can somehow manage to survive each other. The acclaimed creator of Raylan (aka U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, lately of TV’s smash hit Justified), Leonard has never lost the mojo that makes him “the King Daddy of crime writers” (Seattle Times).

Phil Sundeen thinks Deputy Sheriff Kirby Frye is just a green local kid with a tin badge. And when the wealthy cattle baron''s men drag two prisoners from Frye''s jail and hang them from a high tree, there''s nothing the untried young lawman can do about it. But Kirby''s got more grit than Sundeen and his hired muscles bargained for. They can beat the boy and humilate him, but they can''t make him forget the jog he has sworn to do. The cattleman has money, fear, and guns on his side, but Kirby Frye''s the law in this godforsaken corner of the Arizona Territories. And he''ll drag Sundeen and his killers straight to hell himself to prove it.

“[Leonard has] written so many first-rate crime stories that it would be fatuous to say Killshot is his best, but it probably is anyway.” —Newsweek The New York Times bestselling author the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette once called, “the Alexander the Great of crime fiction,” Elmore Leonard is responsible for creating some of the sharpest dialogue, most compelling characters (including U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens of TV’s Justified fame), and, quite simply, some of the very best suspense novels written over the past century. Killshot is prime Leonard—a riveting story of a husband and wife caught in the crossfire when they foil a criminal act and are forced to defend themselves when the legal system fails them from the murderous wrath of a pair of vengeful killers. When it comes to cops and criminals stories, Killshot and Leonard are as good as it gets—further proof why “the King Daddy of crime writers” (Seattle Times) deserves his current place among John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and the other legendary greats of the noir fiction genre.

“My favorite Leonard book….He writes the way Hammett and Chandler might write today, if they sharpened their senses of ironic humor and grew better ears for dialogue.” —Dallas Morning News “The best writer of crime fiction alive.” —Newsweek Dangerously eccentric characters, razor-sharp black humor, brilliant dialog, and suspense all rolled into one tight package—that’s The Switch, Elmore Leonard’s classic tale of a kidnapping gone wrong…or terribly right, depending on how you look at it. The Grand Master whom the New York Times Book Review calls, “the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever,” has written a wry and twisting tale that any of the other all-time greats—Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, John D. MacDonald, James M. Cain, Robert Parker…every noir author who ever walked a detective, cop, or criminal into a shadowy alley—would be thrilled to call their own. Leonard, the man who has given us U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (currently starring in TV’s Justified) is at his storytelling best, as a spurned wife decides to take a rightful—and profitable—revenge on her deceiving hubby by teaming up with the two thugs he hired to abduct her.

“Elmore Leonard can write circles around almost anybody active in the crime novel today.” —New York Times Book Review The revered New York Times bestselling author, recognized as “America’s greatest crime writer” (Newsweek), brings back U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, the mesmerizing hero of Pronto, Riding the Rap, and the hit FX series Justified. With the closing of the Harlan County, Kentucky, coal mines, marijuana has become the biggest cash crop in the state. A hundred pounds of it can gross $300,000, but that’s chump change compared to the quarter million a human body can get you—especially when it’s sold off piece by piece. So when Dickie and Coover Crowe, dope-dealing brothers known for sampling their own supply, decide to branch out into the body business, it’s up to U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens to stop them. But Raylan isn’t your average marshal; he’s the laconic, Stetson-wearing, fast-drawing lawman who juggles dozens of cases at a time and always shoots to kill. But by the time Raylan finds out who’s making the cuts, he’s lying naked in a bathtub, with Layla, the cool transplant nurse, about to go for his kidneys. The bad guys are mostly gals this time around: Layla, the nurse who collects kidneys and sells them for ten grand a piece; Carol Conlan, a hard-charging coal-mine executive not above ordering a cohort to shoot point-blank a man who’s standing in her way; and Jackie Nevada, a beautiful sometime college student who can outplay anyone at the poker table and who suddenly finds herself being tracked by a handsome U.S. marshal. Dark and droll, Raylan is pure Elmore Leonard—a page-turner filled with the sparkling dialogue and sly suspense that are the hallmarks of this modern master.

A quiet, haunted man, Paul Cable walked away from a lost cause hoping to pick up where he left off. But things have changed in Arizona since he first rode out to go fight for the Confederacy. Two brothers—Union men—have claimed his spread and they''re not about to give it back, leaving Cable and his family no place to settle in peace. It seems this war is not yet over for Paul Cable. But no one''s going to take away his land and his future—not with their laws, their lies, or their guns.

“Intense….A higher caliber of entertainment.” —New York Times Elmore Leonard’s Glitz is a killer…in the best possible way. “The King Daddy of crime writers” (Seattle Times) electrifies with this unputdownable noir tale of a mama’s boy psycho killer with a vendetta against a Miami cop. A cat-and-mouse tale with claws, Glitz is thrilling, frightening, explosive, surprising, everything a great thriller is supposed to be—superior crime fiction the genre’s late greats, John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, et al, would have been proud to call their own. Elmore Leonard, the creator of magnificent mayhem and truly unforgettable characters—like U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens of the hit TV series Justified—is at his nail-biting, page-turning best with Glitz which Stephen King in the New York Times Book Review calls, “Smashing and satisfying.”

New York Times Bestselling Author It was supposed to be impossible. No man could break out of the brutal convict labor camp at Five Shadows. Until they locked up Bowen. He was like dynamite--charged to go off, to explode out of that desert hell so he could clear his name. Already the deadly trackers have caught him, dragged him back through the mesquite and rocks, beat him and left him to rot in the punishment cell. But they can’t stop Bowen. He’s a different breed, a man who will go to any extreme to escape. Any extreme.

“Sharp as an ice pick….You will love this excellent book.” —New York Times Book Review Elmore Leonard is the undisputed master, the “King Daddy of crime writers” (Seattle Times), in the august company of the all-time greats of mystery/noir/crime fiction genre: John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, et al. The creator of such unforgettable classics as Stick, Out of Sight, and Get Shorty—not to mention the character of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, lately of TV’s hit series Justified—Leonard is in fine form with Mr. Paradise. A riveting Detroit-based thriller enlivened by Leonard’s trademark razor-sharp dialogue, Mr. Paradise follows a smart Victoria’s Secret model’s attempt to score big after surviving a double murder in a millionaire’s mansion…with a lonely cop acting as spoiler.

52 Pickup is a rip-roaring thriller from master of crime fiction Elmore Leonard, the New York Times bestselling author of Raylan, Get Shorty, Killshot, and other novels of suspense. Detroit businessman Harry Mitchell has had only one affair in his twenty-two years of happy matrimony. Unfortunately, someone caught his indiscretion on film and now wants Harry to fork over one hundred grand to keep his infidelity a secret. And if Harry doesn’t pay up, the blackmailer and his associates plan to press a lot harder—up to and including homicide, if necessary. But the psychos picked the wrong pigeon for their murderous scam. Because Harry Mitchell doesn’t get mad...he gets even.

“Lean, mean, darkly funny.” —Boston Globe “A zingy thriller by the master of hard-boiled suspense.” —Dallas Morning News “Elmore Leonard may be the greatest crime novelist in the world,” declares the Seattle Times, and truer words have never been written. Just follow the Grand Master of mystery and suspense to Florida’s Gold Coast and you’ll quickly discover that it’s so. In this classic Elmore Leonard thriller, a beautiful mafia widow stands to lose everything her late mob boss husband left her if she succumbs to her desire for an attractive Detroit ex-con—so the two conspire to outwit the thugs the dead capo assigned to make sure she stays chaste. Superior crime fiction in the vein of John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Robert Parker—chock full of the eccentric characters, black humor, and razor-sharp dialogue for which the acclaimed creator of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (of TV’s Justified) is justifiably famous—Gold Coast is gold standard Leonard.

They laughed at Roberto Valdez and then ignored him. But when a dark-skinned man was holed up in a shack with a gun, they sent the part-time town constable to deal with the problem -- and made sure he had no choice but to gun the fugitive down. Trouble was, Valdez killed an innocent man. And when he asked for justice -- and some money for the dead man''s woman -- they beat Valdez and tied him to a cross. They were still laughing when Valdez came back. And then they began to die...

Legendary New York Times bestselling author Elmore Leonard returns with three of his favorite characters: Jack Foley from Out of Sight, Cundo Rey from LaBrava, and Dawn Navarro from Riding the Rap. Fresh out of prison, Foley hooks up with Dawn Navarro, the common-law wife of Foley''s extremely wealthy friend, Cundo Rey, in a plan to relieve Cundo of his fortune. What''s "trust" among friends when money is involved?

Three guys with illegal expertise, a plan to snag a tax-free hundred grand, and a taste for summertime Detroit''s sweet life. But it means committing armed robbery. And being smart enough to get away with it.