Swag

A rollicking tale of the 1970s Detroit criminal underworld from legendary crime writer Elmore Leonard 
 
To get ahead in armed robbery, you just need to find the perfect business partner... 
 
When auto thief Stick steals a maroon ’73 Camaro from Frank’s used car lot, Frank spies an unexpected opportunity. He ‘suggests’ they combine forces, and soon they’re embarking on a crime spree across Detroit, holding up liquor stores and supermarkets and causing mayhem wherever they go. As long as they keep sticking to their Ten Golden Rules for Successful Armed Robbery, the cash keeps rolling in. But what happens when you start bending your own rules?

The crime writer’s crime writer, King of all he surveys

Cool talk, hot action … it’s impossible not to love Elmore Leonard

The greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever

Elmore Leonard can write circles around almost anybody active in the crime novel today

Leonard provides the fizziest and cleverest dialogue in crime fiction. A total delight

He’s set the standard against which all other crime novels are measured

The man other crime writers call the Boss

Not just a good storyteller, but also an important novelist

Elmore Leonard (1925—2013) began his long and extraordinary career as a writer of Westerns, most famously a story which was made into the film 3:10 To Yuma. He then became known for his remarkable sequence of crime novels, generally set in Michigan or Florida. A master of funny and threatening dialogue, his influence has been incalculable. Leonard received the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN US and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

‘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?

The Switch

A rip-roaring caper novel by bestselling crime author Elmore Leonard 
 
Ordell and Louis have picked the wrong woman to kidnap… 
 
They thought it would be easy money. Snatch the wife of a rich Detroit businessman and demand a nice big ransom. What they didn’t reckon on was the fact that her husband has a secret mistress and doesn’t want his wife back at all. Or that their victim, Margaret ‘Mickey’ Dawson, is more than a little tired of playing the perfect housewife. So tired, in fact, that she’s out for revenge, and willing to turn the tables on everyone to get it.

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?

Mr Paradise

The exciting new thriller from Elmore Leonard.

Elmore Leonard was born in New Orleans in 1925. He has written thirty-eight novels, most recently Tishomingo Blues. Many of his books have been filmed, including notably Get Shorty, Rum Punch (as Jackie Brown) and Out of Sight. He lives with his wife Christine in Detroit, Michigan.

Mr Paradise pays Chloe and Kelly to play cheerleaders. To dance while he watches reruns of Michigan's finest football games. 
 
At least that's the story that hired-help Montez Taylor tells cop Frank Delsa. Delsa's called in to investigate a double homicide: old man Paradise and a girl dressed as a cheerleader. He's got a witness - a second cheerleader - but she can't decide whether her name's Chloe or Kelly. Nobody it seems is playing it straight - least of all the two trigger-happy hit men cruising Detroit's mean streets. But with a beautiful witness who might or might not want his protection, Delsa's ready to play for time ... 
 
Elmore Leonard is in top form with Mr Paradise which is set right back in his home town of Detroit, Motor City, scene of many of his greatest books.

Picket Line and Other Stories

These three stories--'Picket Line', 'Chick Killer' and 'Ice Man'--show Elmore Leonard at his most terse and harsh, able to conjure up a sense of profound unease and injustice in just a few words. 
 
The main story 'Picket Line' describes a tense stand-off between migrant workers in Texas, police and labour organisers in a brilliantly orchestrated series of arguments and negotiations, with the potential for terrible violence lurking in every exchange. 'Chick Killer' and 'Ice Man', set in Florida and California are two riffs on the thing that made Leonard great: his extraordinary ear for creating dialogues of negotiation, where the stakes could not be higher for the loser.

Cat Chaser

A lean and mean thriller about one man and the Mob from 'the crime laureate' INDEPENDENT 
 
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. Mary de Boya may be beautiful, but she's also the wife of a former death squad general in exile with mob connections. So much for the trip down memory lane - now Moran finds himself in a cat's cradle of drug deals, swindles, vengeance and murder.

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. Mary de Boya may be beautiful, but she's also the wife of a former death squad general in exile with mob connections. So much for the trip down memory lane - now Moran finds himself in a cat's cradle of drug deals, swindles, vengeance and murder.

52 Pickup

From the bestselling author of GET SHORTY and JACKIE BROWN a thriller spiced with blackmail and revenge 
 
 Detroit businessman Harry Mitchell is a self-made man, happily married for over twenty-two years and a pillar of the community. But then he slips - he meets a young 'model' and begins an affair. One night he arrives at his girlfriend's apartment and finds more than he bargained for. Two masked men have caught his misdemeanours on camera and now they want a cool hundred grand. But they've picked the wrong man, because Harry Mitchell doesn't get mad - he gets even.

Detroit businessman Harry Mitchell is a self-made man, happily married for over twenty-two years and a pillar of the community. But then he slips - he meets a young 'model' and begins an affair. One night he arrives at his girlfriend's apartment and finds more than he bargained for. Two masked men have caught his misdemeanours on camera and now they want a cool hundred grand. But they've picked the wrong man, because Harry Mitchell doesn't get mad - he gets even.

Elmore Leonard

Cool talk, hot action… it’s impossible not to love Elmore Leonard

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?

Elmore Leonard

Praise for Rum Punch

PRAISE FOR ELMORE LEONARD

The crime writer’s crime writer, King of all he surveys

Cool talk, hot action… it’s impossible not to love Elmore Leonard

PRAISE FOR ELMORE LEONARD

The crime writer’s crime writer, King of all he surveys

Cool talk, hot action… it’s impossible not to love Elmore Leonard

PRAISE FOR ELMORE LEONARD

The crime writer’s crime writer, King of all he surveys

Cool talk, hot action… it’s impossible not to love Elmore Leonard

Books by Elmore Leonard

Series by Elmore Leonard

Penguin Modern Classics - Westerns

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