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steffiraquel's review against another edition
Hmmmmm, the jury is out on this one...
booksuperpower's review against another edition
4.0
I picked this book up at a library sale I attended about a month ago. I had never heard of this book by Leonard. It was published in 1980 and only has 221 pages. This is a gritty crime novel set in Detroit. This is classic Elmore Leoanard. Tough, hardboiled crime drama with lots of quirky off beat characters and dialogue.
I think this may have been one of Leonard's first forays into writing crime and his later novels are really a lot better, but this was a fascinating read.
A crafty criminal,Clement, escapes justice and shoots an unpopular judge and a woman that was with him. Homicide detective Raymond Cruz is determined to see that Clement doesn't get away with murder again. So begins a clever cat and mouse game between Clement, his girlfriend, Sandy, Raymond and Clement's lady lawyer. Raymond will do whatever it takes to take Clement down. The two outwit one another up until the final showdown.
Keep in mind the time frame the book was written in if you happen to come across this book somewhere. It is a little dated. The decriptions of the clothing and music of the era are sort of funny and can either add to the enjoyment of the book or take away from it, depending on your frame of mind. Another thing to keep in mind is that the language used and the attitudes in that era can be offensive.
Overall a B
I think this may have been one of Leonard's first forays into writing crime and his later novels are really a lot better, but this was a fascinating read.
A crafty criminal,Clement, escapes justice and shoots an unpopular judge and a woman that was with him. Homicide detective Raymond Cruz is determined to see that Clement doesn't get away with murder again. So begins a clever cat and mouse game between Clement, his girlfriend, Sandy, Raymond and Clement's lady lawyer. Raymond will do whatever it takes to take Clement down. The two outwit one another up until the final showdown.
Keep in mind the time frame the book was written in if you happen to come across this book somewhere. It is a little dated. The decriptions of the clothing and music of the era are sort of funny and can either add to the enjoyment of the book or take away from it, depending on your frame of mind. Another thing to keep in mind is that the language used and the attitudes in that era can be offensive.
Overall a B
chadrushing's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars Its written well, with a good initial setup that pulls you in. After that things kind of go downhill. I know this book was written in 1978 so I shouldn’t be surprised but, everything in this story feels dated. I know some will take issue with the non-pc language but, I actually like that part of the writing. I felt it was honest within the scope of the characters speaking it. I think the real problem with the story is not much happens. It’s a low key police procedural with a not very interesting bad guy and the story just kind of ends without really doing much. The best part is Elmore Leonard’s writing.
mw2k's review against another edition
4.0
About the best Leonard book I've read to date. Grabs you from the first page and takes you on a straight journey, never wandering or losing itself in musing. All the ingredients are here: the sharp, sassy dialogue, the cons, the broads, the cops and lots of real Detroit locations for them all to dance in.
Loses a star for (in my opinion) a slapdash conclusion.
Loses a star for (in my opinion) a slapdash conclusion.
darwin8u's review against another edition
5.0
"Fight, bleep, or hold the flashlight"
- Elmore Leonard, "Impressions of a Murder"
This novel was tight as a futtock shroud, smooth as Mai Noi silk, sharp as the turns on Col de Braus, and hard as a boiled egg. I finish reading Elmore Leonard and I want to be him, just for a second. Now look: Chandler, Cain and Hammett are absolutely the Holy Trinity of crime; the Father, Son and Holy Ghosts of Noir. Leonard, however, is both the Word and death's echo. He is the ultimate end, the great inevitable, the voice in the void. His dialogue alone would be scary in its perfection, but you drape that shit on his plot and it is magical.
He sets this novel up from the title. City Primeval' was inspired by both 'High Noon' and Leonard's early Western fixation and Leonard's own work with The Detroit News and writing a piece called "Impressions of a murder" that he wrote for The Detroit News Sunday Magazine. Anyway, there really wasn't anything I didn't love here.
- Elmore Leonard, "Impressions of a Murder"
This novel was tight as a futtock shroud, smooth as Mai Noi silk, sharp as the turns on Col de Braus, and hard as a boiled egg. I finish reading Elmore Leonard and I want to be him, just for a second. Now look: Chandler, Cain and Hammett are absolutely the Holy Trinity of crime; the Father, Son and Holy Ghosts of Noir. Leonard, however, is both the Word and death's echo. He is the ultimate end, the great inevitable, the voice in the void. His dialogue alone would be scary in its perfection, but you drape that shit on his plot and it is magical.
He sets this novel up from the title. City Primeval' was inspired by both 'High Noon' and Leonard's early Western fixation and Leonard's own work with The Detroit News and writing a piece called "Impressions of a murder" that he wrote for The Detroit News Sunday Magazine. Anyway, there really wasn't anything I didn't love here.
rosseroo's review against another edition
3.0
Having run a ton of Leonard's books, I feel pretty comfortable saying that, while having its charms, this is "lesser" Leonard. Although he's primarily known as a crime novelist, Leonard's first five books were Westerns, and then he moved back and forth between crime and westerns for about ten years before settling purely into crime. This 1980 book came at the tail end of that decade, and has the loose feel of an idea or project that he was trying but couldn't quite polish up.
As the subtitle ("High Noon in Detroit") makes explicit, the story takes the black and white stakes of a frontier lawman going mano-a-mano with a killer, and updates it to Detroit at the tail end of the disco-era. The characters are big and colorful as in most of Leonard's books, starting with an obnoxious local judge (based on the real life James Del Rio) and the killer, a "wild man" from Oklahoma who lives by his own code and definitely doesn't like disco. The supporting cast includes the killer's aimless girlfriend, a hangdog ex-con dope dealer, a clever lady lawyer, and an extended family of gun-toting Albanians.
The story zigs and zags, and there's plenty of his trademark sizzling dialogue, but it just lacks the spark and depth of his later crime books. It's certainly not bad, but there are ten other Leonard books that I'd suggest ahead of this one.
As the subtitle ("High Noon in Detroit") makes explicit, the story takes the black and white stakes of a frontier lawman going mano-a-mano with a killer, and updates it to Detroit at the tail end of the disco-era. The characters are big and colorful as in most of Leonard's books, starting with an obnoxious local judge (based on the real life James Del Rio) and the killer, a "wild man" from Oklahoma who lives by his own code and definitely doesn't like disco. The supporting cast includes the killer's aimless girlfriend, a hangdog ex-con dope dealer, a clever lady lawyer, and an extended family of gun-toting Albanians.
The story zigs and zags, and there's plenty of his trademark sizzling dialogue, but it just lacks the spark and depth of his later crime books. It's certainly not bad, but there are ten other Leonard books that I'd suggest ahead of this one.
jamiereadthis's review against another edition
4.0
Thumbs up. From that late 70’s-early 80’s era of Elmore’s I love so much. Raymond Cruz in a lot of ways seems like a proto-Bryan Hurd yet this story takes very different turns. Love the ending. Plus the bit with the Armenians. It gets where you think it’s going but not how you think it’s going to get there. Will probably move even higher up the list on re-read.