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A review by simsian
Raylan by Elmore Leonard
2.0
I'm a big fan of Justified so I liked the idea of Leonard revisiting the character after the show took off. I should say now, I've never read Leonard before, so what comes next may be a denunciation of this work or of his style in general. I'm not sure.
There is no point to this book. It had the feel of watching the first three episodes of a season of Justified. The initial investigation/arch of the novel is summed up before the halfway point and it just meanders on through a couple more subplots, never finding any where to lay its hat. Sadly, it also rehashes events from the first couple of seasons of the show, so if you're a fan, you already pretty much know every scene.
The writing is way too sparse for me and I wouldn't hold that against it except that I really feel like the book was just spending time with a fun idea of a character that never made it out of the writer's head. By Leonard's own admission, the character was born out of a meeting with a man named Raylan. That's it. I'm afraid Timothy Olyphant has done far more for the character than Leonard did.
Maybe the genre and style just aren't my thing, but I know plot well enough to say this novel doesn't have one.
At least the show is back on tonight. Season 5!
Edit: the man does write great dialogue though...
There is no point to this book. It had the feel of watching the first three episodes of a season of Justified. The initial investigation/arch of the novel is summed up before the halfway point and it just meanders on through a couple more subplots, never finding any where to lay its hat. Sadly, it also rehashes events from the first couple of seasons of the show, so if you're a fan, you already pretty much know every scene.
The writing is way too sparse for me and I wouldn't hold that against it except that I really feel like the book was just spending time with a fun idea of a character that never made it out of the writer's head. By Leonard's own admission, the character was born out of a meeting with a man named Raylan. That's it. I'm afraid Timothy Olyphant has done far more for the character than Leonard did.
Maybe the genre and style just aren't my thing, but I know plot well enough to say this novel doesn't have one.
At least the show is back on tonight. Season 5!
Edit: the man does write great dialogue though...