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Fiction. Literature. HTML: "Speedy, exhilarating, and smooth. Nobody does it better." �Washington Post "The man knows how to grab you�and Pronto is one of the best grabbers in years." �Entertainment Weekly Fans of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens of the hit TV series Justified are in for a major treat. The unstoppable manhunter with the very itchy trigger finger stars in Pronto, a crime fiction gem from the one and only Elmore Leonard, "the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever" (New York Times Book Review). The Grand Master justifies the overwhelming acclaim he has received over the course of his remarkable career with an electrifying thriller that sends the indomitable Raylan racing to Italy on the trail of a fugitive bookie who's hiding from the vengeful Miami mob. The legendary Leonard, whom the Seattle Times lauds as the "King Daddy of crime writers," proves that all comparisons to American noir icons John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain are well deserved with this tale of very dirty doings and extremely dangerous men coming together in the birthplace of Puccini, Garibaldi, and La Cosa Nostra..… (more)
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Harry is a bookie in Miami when his shady mafia boss decides to have him whacked. He heads to Italy to escape and is pursued by his girlfriend, the hit man and a US Marshal. Interestingly Harry quickly becomes a supporting character in his own story. He’s a self-centered jerk and as a reader you don’t really care if he makes it or not.
Raylan Givens, on the other hand, is the US Marshal searching for Harry and he steals the show. He’s a cowboy with perfect manners and he seems to be a bit slow at first. Soon his determination and resourcefulness surprise everyone and you realize there’s more to him than meets the eye.
If you like Sue Grafton’s alphabet mysteries I think you’d like Pronto. It has the same kind of rapid pace, funny quips and quirky characters. I’ll be listening to more from Mr. Leonard.
Side Note: I didn’t find out that the FX series Justified is based on the character of Raylan until I’d already finished the book. I would think a show about him would make a great TV series.
Pronto, however, is not exclusively Raylan's story, though he figures as a prominent character once he does arrive on the scene. This is actually the story of Harry Arno, a
Harry's plan seems simple and obtainable, but, in true Leonard fashion, things go caddiwompas. The police want to bring down Harry's boss, Jimmy Cap, a 350 lbs. mob boss with a penchant for butterflies and sun tanning. So what do they do? They indirectly inform Jimmy that Harry's been skimming from him. The problem is that Harry has been skimming--for years, in fact. Jimmy Cap puts out a hit on Harry and, ciao, baby, Harry decides to move up his retirement date and leave the country. Raylan Givens is the U.S. Marshal who decides to go to Italy and try to save Harry from himself and from the hitman he knows has followed Harry.
I will readily admit to knowing nothing about the character of Raylan until watching Justified on FX. On the series, Raylan is a BAMF in a Stetson. That's played down a bit in the book, but I enjoyed it just the same. In the novel Raylan comes off as being a few bricks shy of a load, a good ol' boy in over his head, until you begin to realize that's the persona he's trying to project. It catches people off-guard and gives him an edge. No one knows exactly how to take him, but, make no mistake, Raylan is smarter than your average bear and is capable of extreme violence if necessary. If Raylan has a flaw it's that his sense of justice is so old school black and white that it creates a type of naiveté. In a world where words mean little, Raylan still expects a promise to mean something (after all, it's his willingness to take Harry Arno's word that allows Harry to elude Raylan's grasp twice and thwart his hopes of a promotion with the Marshals service). With his Old West code of ethics and hardscrabble Kentucky coal mining background, Raylan is a complex and entertaining character who makes for an intriguing juxtaposition with the world of Miami's crime syndicate. I'll definitely be reading Riding the Rap and tracking down the Raylan Givens' short stories to sustain me until the next season of Justified.
Published in paperback by Dell.
This is the first appearance of the US Marshal with a cowboy hat and a fondness for ice cream that has now become more famous for the TV show Justified starring Timothy Olyphant. It's pretty much a typical [[Elmore Leonard]] book with a few twists and turns in the story that keep you guessing and reading until the last page. He does throw in a few clunkers every now and then but I'm glad to say this isn't one of them. I've yet to watch the TV show but after reading this I definitely want to and I will also be reading the next book in the series at some point too.
Actually, I'm not entirely sure he works
Nevertheless, aside from this one quibble, I enjoyed the book. Leonard seems to have a talent for seamlessly blending genres, as Pronto jumps between comedy, drama, suspense, and action as easily as its characters seem to jump between Miami and Italy. It's a slight read, but enjoyable.
I started reading the Raylan Givens series after reading an interview with Elmore Leonard who remarked
But Raylan in Italy, the quasi-hick from Kentucky, just didn't make it. Italy was irrelevant (and Italy should *never* be irrelevant. Had it been set in Montana, it would have worked better.
It was certainly interesting to see how they pulled isolated incidents from the books and melded them into a coherent set of episodes on the TV show. The early scene in the pilot for example where Givens gives the bad guy 24 hours to leave town, is from Pronto, and Boyd's use of the rocket to wipe out the drug-dealing church, just after yelling "fire in the hole," is from the eponymous short story.
Givens is an interesting invention, although I kept looking around for the horses.
This was fun.
It's still an enjoyable read and Leonard's snappy dialogue has a very