Road Dogs: A Novel - Hardcover

Leonard, Elmore

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061733148 ISBN 13: 9780061733147

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2009

Synopsis

“Road Dogs is terrific, and Elmore Leonard is in a class of one.”
—Dennis Lehane, author of Shutter Island and Mystic River

 

“You know from the first sentence that you’re in the hands of the original Daddy Cool....This one’ll kill you.”
—Stephen King

 

Elmore Leonard is eternal. In Road Dogs, the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award winner and “America’s greatest crime master” (Newsweek) brings back three of his favorite characters—Jack Foley from Out of Sight, Cundo Rey from La Brava, and Dawn Navarro from Riding the Rap—for a twisting, explosive, always surprising masterwork of crime fiction the San Francisco Chronicle calls, “a sly, violent, funny and superbly written story of friendship, greed, and betrayal.”

About this title

About the Author

Elmore Leonard wrote more than forty books during his long career, including the bestsellers Raylan, Tishomingo Blues, Be Cool, Get Shorty, and Rum Punch, as well as the acclaimed collection When the Women Come Out to Dance, which was a New York Times Notable Book. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. The short story “Fire in the Hole,” and three books, including Raylan, were the basis for the FX hit show Justified. Leonard received the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He died in 2013.

From the Back Cover

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.

Jack Foley, the charming bank robber from Out of Sight, is serving a thirty-year sentence in a Miami penitentiary, but he's made an unlikely friend on the inside who just might be able to do something about that. Fellow inmate Cundo Rey, an extremely wealthy Cuban criminal, arranges for Foley's sentence to be reduced from thirty years to three months, and when Jack is released just two weeks ahead of Cundo, he agrees to wait for him in Venice Beach, California.

Also waiting for Cundo is his common-law wife, Dawn Navarro, a professional psychic with a slightly ulterior motive for staying with Cundo: namely, she wants his money. And with the arrival of Jack, she sees the perfect partner in a plan to relieve Cundo of his fortune. Cundo may be Jack's friend, but does that mean he can trust him? And can either of them trust Dawn?

Road Dogs is Elmore Leonard at his best—with his trademark tight plotting and pitch-perfect dialogue—and readers will love seeing Cundo, Jack, and Dawn back in action and working together . . . or are they?

Reviews

The critics, thrilled with Leonard's latest novel, unanimously praised it as another success in a long line of groundbreaking successes. Leonard's revolutionary, minimalist style -- including his disdain for long descriptions and tedious scene setting -- sends the plot racing along on deliciously deadpan dialogue between vivid, engaging characters, a few of whom readers already know and love. Amid the murder and mayhem, Leonard also poses larger questions about the varying degrees of loyalty and treachery in relationships. Readers new to Leonard don't need to return to the earlier novels to appreciate Road Dogs, but they probably will once they're hooked. Leonard's fans will definitely share the critics' hopes that Jack will return for a third performance.

Leonard launches three characters from previous novels on a collision course in this seemingly effortless performance. After prison buddy Cundo Rey (last seen in LaBrava) drops a bundle on a shark attorney, celebrity bank robber Jack Foley (from Out of Sight) gets his 30-year prison sentence reduced to 30 months. Jack's quickly back in the world, living large in one of Cundo's two multimillion-dollar houses in Venice, Calif., juggling a fast seduction with fortune-teller (from Riding the Rap) Dawn Navarro (who is now Cundo's lady) and the untoward attention of rogue FBI agent Lou Adams, who's waiting for Foley to rob another bank. While Dawn tries to enlist Foley in a scheme to steal Cundo's off-the-books fortune, Cundo surprises them with an early release. Betrayal simmers while Foley considers going semi-straight—with the help of a widowed starlet—Dawn hatches a plan that could get her rich and rid her of all her problems, and Cundo's associates and neighborhood toughs get sucked into the fray. The plot isn't as tight as it could be, but Leonard's singular way with words is reason enough to read it. (May)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0061733148
• ISBN 13: 9780061733147
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 262