Haven’t mused my grey matter lately. Things come up and I was traveling. The latter consisted of four airplane flights and time on a cruise ship sipping wine on a sunlit balcony (it was tough, but somebody had to do it). Needless to say, I had lots of time for reading. In this case, my good pal Elmore Leonard.
I first read Rylan, the last of this series and one of the last books Dutch ever wrote. The book was a bit unusual in that there was no standard plot line. Rather, there were three successive plots, loosely connected to make a novel. None of the three novellas had the standard structure of a thriller or heist book. But the characters lived and breathed, and I loved it.
Next up was Out of Sight. Pardon my lack of originality, but it was out of sight! The villains were most interesting and in some cases (eg, Jack Foley) quite likable. The protagonist (Karen Sisco) was fun and much more textured than your typical pulp heroine. I liked the book so much, that I ordered the movie off Amazon as soon as I got home.
But here’s the rub. My two books were completed by the time the boat docked, and I hadn’t brought my kindle. So I was stuck getting an airplane read at a jet-way snack counter that had a total of 10-15 paperback novels lined up next to the trail mix. So I purchased a David Baldacci (The Last Mile) because I had read one of his books previously, and it had been an ok thriller. The problem this time was that I had just read Elmore Leonard. I know that Baldacci is a very popular writer, but compared to Dutch, his characters were wooden and his pacing turgid. And what’s with the exposition? Describing everything in excruciating detail, from a breakfast order to the pattern on some guy’s tie. Does that advance the plot? Do I need to know? Can’t I let my imagination fill it in? Do I care?
Long story short, I stopped Last Mile on page 80, and switched to Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham. More on that in another blog. And of course, I’ve ordered more Elmore paper backs. Twill be a sad day when I run through his bill of fare.