Showing results by author "Elmore Leonard" in All Categories

In this exclusive interview, best-selling author Elmore Leonard talks with Audible's Beth Anderson about his long and prolific career, his writing process, and what it's like to have an inside track on Hollywood. Leonard has sold most of his books to Hollywood, several of which have been made into movies, including Out of Sight, Jackie Brown, Get Shorty, and its sequel, Be Cool, starring John Travolta and Uma Thurman. Be Cool hits theaters March 4.

Set in Oklahoma during the 1930s, The Hot Kid is a powerfully entertaining story and introduces Carl Webster, one of the coolest lawmen ever to draw on a fugitive felon. At 21, Carl Webster's on his way to becoming the most famous Deputy US Marshal in America. He has shot and killed notorious bank robber Emmet Long and is now tracking Jack Belmont, the no-good son of an oil millionaire with dreams of becoming Public Enemy Number One.

Daredevil Dennis Lenahan has brought his act to the Tishomingo Lodge & Casino in Tunica, Mississippi - diving off an 80-foot ladder into nine feet of water for the amusement of gamblers, gangsters, and luscious belles. His riskiest feat, however, was witnessing a Dixie-style mob execution while atop his diving platform. Robert Taylor saw the hit also. A blues-loving Detroit hustler touring the Southland, Taylor's got his own secret agenda and he wants Dennis in on the game. And high-diver Dennis could be about to take a long, fatal fall.

There aren't any textbooks on armed robbery. The only way to learn is through experience, and small-time crooks Frank and Stick are determined to do as much learning on the job as possible. In 1970s' Detroit they embark on a crime spree, holding up liquor stores and supermarkets. They invent their 'Ten Golden Rules for Successful Armed Robbery' and for a short time the cash is rolling in. But then they bend their own rules, and it looks like trouble is heading their way.

Ironworker Wayne Colson and his spirited wife Carmen are witnesses to a shakedown scam — witnesses who must be eliminated. Enter Armand Degas (a.k.a. Blackbird), the brains of the operation, and his partner Richie Nix, an ex-con whose highest goal is to rob a bank in every state. After the Colsons enter the Federal Witness Security Program, a lively chase ensues — with two bumbling but determined killers on Wayne and Carmen's trail.

Reformed jewel thief Jack Delaney was going straight - until he met sexy ex nun Lucy Nichols. Jack's in the funeral business and when he's sent to collect a body from a leper hospital, he finds it in Sister Lucy's care - and very much alive. Lucy's on a goodwill mission, hoping to smuggle the 'deceased' away from her dangerous ex, a Nicaraguan colonel with guns and goons aplenty. And it just so happens the colonel's also got several million dollars that could aid Lucy's quest to help mankind.

US Marshal Raylan Givens is back in action, with a federal warrant to serve on a dope dealer named Angel Arenas. The state troopers are impressed when the marshal struts into the convict's hotel room without drawing his gun, but Raylan soon finds that Angel's already been the victim of another crime; one that's way bigger than a bit of pot, and clearly the work of a professional...

The odd thing about Walter Schoen is he's a dead ringer for Heinrich Himmler. Walter is a member of a spy ring that sends US war production data to Germany and gives shelter to escaped German prisoners of war. Honey Deal, Walter's American wife, has given up trying to make him over as a regular guy. She decides it's time to stop telling him jokes he doesn't understand and get a divorce. Along comes Carl Webster, the Hot Kid of the Marshals Service, looking for an escaped POW. Carl uses Honey to meet Walter, who Carl believes is hiding the POW.

Collecting money for the Mob isn't too different from any other job, reckons Miami loan shark Chili Palmer. He soon finds himself ordered to collect on a bad debt from Leo Devoe, a guy who died in a plane crash. But it turns out Leo isn't dead - he's living it up in Las Vegas on the compensation money. So Chili follows him to Vegas and then on to Hollywood, where he gets drawn into the world of movies....

The last time Florida motel owner George Moran was in the Dominican Republic he was in a uniform and people were shooting at him. Years later he's back looking for a girl he lost - and finding one he'd be better off without. But that doesn't matter to George while he's sleeping with beautiful Mary de Boya - only when he discovers his lover is the wife of a former death squad general in exile with mob connections.

A classic Leonard thriller featuring Raylan Givens - the inspiration behind the hit show Justified. Palm Beach playboy Chip Ganz needs money - fast. He has spiralling debts, and his mother's gravy-train has just derailed. So he has a plan: He's going to find somebody rich, and take them hostage. With the help of an ex-con, a psycho gardener and the beautiful psychic Reverend Dawn, he chooses bookmaker Harry Arno as the lucky victim.

Harry Arno runs a South Miami Beach gambling operation. To protect his position, he was forced to cut a deal with the local muscle, Jimmy Capotorto (Jumbo Jimmy Cap), an even fifty-fifty split. For years Harry had been padding his own stake by skimming off the top. Now a couple of local detectives - wise to sticky fingers - try to bag Jimmy by putting the squeeze on Harry. U.S. Marshalls deliver Harry to court to testify at Jimmy's trial. Even though he's a step slower than he used to be, Harry's no fool - he slips out of the country pronto.

From America's top writer of hardboiled crime, the novel that became Tarantino's hit film Jackie Brown. Ordell Robbie makes a fine living selling illegal high-powered weaponry to the wrong people. Jackie Burke couriers Ordell's profits from Freeport to Miami. But the feds are on to Jackie - and now the aging, but still hot, flight attendant will have to do prison time or play ball, which makes her a prime 'loose end' that Ordell needs to tie up...permanently.

Tony Paradiso - aka Mr Paradise - gets his kicks from watching old football games on TV accompanied by live entertainment: sexy cheerleaders shaking their pom-poms and doing rah-rah routines for his viewing pleasure. But for Chloe Robinette, playing dress-up doesn't end so well when she's caught in the crossfire of a contract hit. There are witnesses to the murders - Paradiso's right-hand man, Montez Taylor, and Chloe's roommate Kelly - but neither is giving too much away.

An air hostess doing the Caribbean-Florida run, Jackie also uses her job to shift large amounts of hot money. The Feds are closing in on her and the highly dysfunctional arms-dealers she works for are not getting any more functional. It would involve huge risks, but could she perhaps walk away from the whole wreckage, happy and rich?

‘The Ten Golden Rules for Successful Armed Robbery’ if rigidly adhered to will catapult two trainee robbers—Frank and Stick—into Detroit’s criminal elite. But for how long can they maintain the Rules’ austere discipline as the lurid, fun temptations pile up?

Clement Mansell knows how easy it is to get away with murder. The crazed killer is back on the Detroit streets—thanks to some nifty courtroom moves by his lawyer—and this time he's feeling invincible enough to execute a crooked Motown judge. Homicide Detective Raymond Cruz thinks the 'Oklahoma Wildman' crossed the line long before this latest outrage, and he's determined to see that the psycho does not slip through the legal system's loopholes a second time. But that means a good cop is going to have to play somewhat fast and loose with the rules.

When Elmore Leonard died in 2013, he left behind a 60-year legacy of crime novels that, through their trademark wit and grit, transcended genre fiction. He also left behind a treasure trove of unpublished early stories. Their razor-sharp dialogue and headlong pacing reveal a master who honed his craft from a young age.

Mickey is bored and angry with her life as a housewife in suburban Detroit, trapped with her dreary, golf-obsessed husband. Then she is kidnapped by a deeply unimpressive criminal gang who want to trade her for a huge ransom from her—as it turns out—crooked husband. But what if she doesn’t really mind being kidnapped?

Every prison inmate needs a Road Dog - someone to watch their back, someone they can trust on the inside and out. For wealthy Cuban criminal Cundo Rey, that person is Jack Foley: charmer, ladies' man, and infamous bank robber. With the services of a shark attorney and a whole heap of cash, Cundo engineers his buddy's early release, and Jack is soon living large in Cundo's house in Venice Beach, enjoying the attentions of his sexy wife, Dawn. But Dawn has ulterior motives and a plan: to relieve her husband of his considerable fortune...and she needs Jack's help.