Cat Chaser - Hardcover

Leonard, Elmore

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0877953988 ISBN 13: 9780877953982

Publisher: Arbor House, 1982

Synopsis

NY 1982 first edition. Arbor. Hardcover. Octavo, 283pp., cloth. Fine in Fine DJ, price not clipped.

About this title

Review

In the world of Elmore Leonard novels, two ex-soldiers can sit around a hotel swimming pool in Florida and, as if it were perfectly natural, chat about a friendly fire incident during an "interventionist action" in Santo Domingo. His characters have learned the futility of complaining about a life where deadly violence and moral obligations are all too frequently intertwined. In Cat Chaser George Moran is the hotel manager who got shot at back then; now, he's rekindling his intimate acquaintance with the wife of Andres de Boya, a former Dominican military enforcer who currently invests in real estate with a healthy sideline in drugs.

A dizzying series of plot twists involving various grifters and strongmen (both hired and freelance) leads to the grimly comic suspense action that Elmore Leonard fans have come to know and love. But as always, it's Leonard's impressive ear for dialogue that raises Cat Chaser above the herd of crime novels. An example:

"That's correct," Scully said, "I'm a consultant... I advise people on business matters, act as a go-between, bring people together that want to make deals... things like that. You want to know any more, come by my office, we'll have a coffee sometime. Okay? Right now I'm going to see Mr. Pradi. Where you come in--I'm gonna knock on his door, he don't open it then I might have to kick it in. I mean the business I got with him is that pressing. So you can give me a key and maybe save yourself a door. What do you think?"

Well, what do you think? --Ron Hogan

From the Back Cover

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 DeBoya—only when he discovers his lover is the wife of a former death squad general in exile with solid mob connections. Now George is bringing big trouble back with him to the Sunshine State—as his nostalgic trip down memory lane has tangled him up in a cat's cradle of drug deals, swindles, vengeance, and murder . . . and a love that's not only blind but lethal.

About this edition

• Publisher: Arbor House
• Publication date: 1982
• ISBN 10: 0877953988
• ISBN 13: 9780877953982
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 283