Subscribe
Peter Leonard, son of famed novelist Elmore Leonard, has written a fast paced book filled with dubious characters that may, or may not, be completely trustworthy. All the people in this book seem real, with their own plans, dreams, and stumbling blocks. It was easy to “see” exactly what each of them looked like, and “hear” their voices. Leonard takes you inside the mind of many of his characters, and yet, I still was completely unable to anticipate the twists the story would take. This is one intense read, that I would love to see as a movie someday. It would be interesting to see who the cast would be.
Karen Delaney just wants her money back. She trusted her boyfriend, Samir, to hold on to $300,000 for her, and keep it safe. Today, Samir has become Karen’s ex-boyfriend, and Karen has become the increasingly bored fiancee of Lou Starr. Lou, a man who owns a restaurant, a man who has changed his name years ago, a man who isn’t known for being the most observant person in the world, is, of course, unaware of Karen’s boredom, as well as her past with Samir.
Samir, unfortunately, is not someone Karen can simply walk up to and request her money from. He just so happens to be the head of an illegal bookmaking operation. Samir is continually surrounded by armed bodyguards, and is a dangerous man all by himself. Karen and Samir didn’t exactly end their relationship on good terms, either. Karen wants her money back, but she has no idea how to go about getting it. All she knows is that it probably is still located in a particular safe of Samir’s.
One night, two men break into Karen and Lou’s home, tie them up, and start stealing things. Karen, who knows a great opportunity when she sees one, enlists the help of these intrusive strangers to get her $300,000 back from Samir. It’s one of those plans that is so crazy it just might work. Along the way, more people become involved in this scheme, each with his or her own motivations. A tangled web weaves around all the people involved, drawing in more people, and trapping everyone in it’s sticky strings.
Eventually, Karen, (and company), get perused by a man named O’Clair, a determined man who is both an ex-cop and an ex-con. O’Clair is currently working for Samir, attempting to track down the money that went missing. He is relentless in his pursuit, and not afraid to go around the law to get his answers. In addition to watching and following Karen, and the people she brought into this whole mess, O’Clair is watching several of Samir’s men, and Samir himself, as he tries to discover who took the $300,000.
This is one of those books where I cannot decide who I think the real “bad guys” are. I’m not certain anyone could be entirely classified as the “good guys”. It seems that Leonard’s characters are not “black and white”, but rather several different shades of gray. “Trust me”, they implore each other. Should they, or should they not be trusted? Read the book, and decide for yourself.
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>