Elmore Leonard Books

As of right now I'm juggling two books, Rum Punch and Road Dogs, both by Elmore Leonard. My favorite author of all time responsible for many great books including Out of Sight and Get Shorty, he's famous for his blend of comedy and crime that go so well together. He's a great pulp fiction writer who's actually a well merited writer and also has written some better-than-average western novels. Rum Punch is a book i've already read before, but when I first read it alot went over my head. Reading it with a little more knowledge makes the book all the more enjoyable. I'm still peeved by the fact it was never made into a sequel, because it would work perfectly. The plot consists of a flight attendant Jackie Burke (renamed Jackie Brown for the Quentin Tarantino movie of the same name as it's main character) who gets involved with many characters from many different facets of life: an aging bail bondsman, a weapons dealer, and a bevy of cops and cons who populate what could be either Miami or Los Angeles. Road Dogs, Leonard's most recent offering is a three character book about Jack Foley (a composite of all bank robber stereotypes), Dawn Navarro (a sexy mystic), and Cundo Rey a funny spanish crime boss who are all playing each other for a big score. Each character is from another Leonard novel, Foley being the most famous being that he's from Out of Sight. I'm enjoying both novel's very much.

Shutter Island: Reflection

I have just finished Shutter Island, and I'm happy to say It's already in the pantheon of my favorite books. It's masterful craft of horror and thriller was wonderful, but it's the human emotion that makes the book great. It's author Dennis Lehane, is proven in the True Crime genre, and it makes sense he would have success writing a Psychological Mystery. Like his other books it takes place in Boston, this time on a little island brimming with convicts. Teddy Daniels travels there to track down an escaped murderess, who killed all her kids. His real motivation is to kill the man, Andrew Laeddis, that murdered his wife. All the while escaping the eyes of the psycholigists and the rascist warden who rules the island. All the while the book asks you to take a leap of faith and trust Teddy, a clearly traumatized veteran who liberated the death camps in Dachau, and who now may be the key to exposing the island where it appears that experimental surgeries, mass druggings, and manipulation occur. Of course nothing is what it seems, but to tell you would give away the hidden treasures that come from reading this book.

Shutter Island

So far i'm really enjoying my new book, Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. This taut original thriller concerns U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels who is stationed at the Ashecliffe Hospital looking for an escaped murderess. This murderess, Rachel Solando, drowned her kids and then sat down for a meal. "It's as if she's evaporated into thin air" states the Island chief psycholigist ominously. The book makes you feel as if you're trapped on the island with no way out, just like Daniels and his good-cop partner Chuck Aule. The book is meticulously crafted and very scary. You never know what is going to be thrown at you. I can't wait to read this book some more, as it is the very esscence of the classic page turner. There is an obvious reason why this book's about to become a Martin Scorcese picture.