One thing I’ve always enjoyed about Elmore Leonard, besides the fact that he is a Detroit boy like me, is the lack of formula in his writing. Strong voice, yes, formula, no. His Westerns are very different from the formulaic Zane Greys and Louis L’Amours. The Hot Kid was a very different novel than Get Shorty, and both stretched well beyond the standard thriller formula. Now I am reading Touch, his oddest story yet, and loving it.
I read that Leonard had difficulty selling Touch, even though he was an established best seller. His first publisher reluctantly picked it up, then sat on it for two years. So, Dutch retrieved it, as he was contractually allowed to do, and sold it elsewhere. Despite all this, he’s stated that it was some of his best writing, and I would agree. Yet, it is still one of his least read works.
Stephen King is another one that stretches the genre mold, sometimes breaking it, sometimes just changing its shape to scare us in an unexpected way. With both him and Leonard, you come away with the feeling of having experienced something new, rather than another rehash with changes in only the location, macguffin, and a few characters. Vive la difference!