a joy to read, or in this case listen to,
sitelinkElmore Leonard at his quirky, off beat, black humoured best,
Three tough guys decide to blackmail Harry Mitchell, a Detroit Businessman, big mistake,
Harry is not the man you would choose to stand over, These three goons set Harry up with a young attractive hooker and Harry falls for it, Unknown to Harry the goons are filming Harry and the girl in some tell tale scenes, The goons take the film to Harry and tell him "it's,, or the wife gets the film"
Harry confesses to Barbara, his wife, who tells him he's a bum and to get out,
When the goons find that the wife knows about the film they try something else, like killing the hooker,
Time for Harry to step up to he plate,
How Harry solves this problem is totally unexpected but really great,
I just love all of the out of date words like, tough guys, goons,bum and hooker, it's so evocative of the period in time.
Recommended for's crime buffs, Astar read. Pickup is an early crime novel from Elmore Leonard, published inwhen Leonard was still in the process of shifting from writing westerns to writing crime novels, and it shows all the hallmarks that would make Leonard one of the greatest crime writers of his generation.
The characters are interesting and all a bit offnorm the dialog is crisp and smart, and the plot moves along swiftly,
The protagonist is a Detroit businessman named Harry Mitchell, Mitchell is a World War II vet who pulled himself up by the bootstraps and created a prosperous manufacturing company, He's got a beautiful wife, two kids, a nice home, and suddenly, a midlife crisis, Harry falls for a woman half his age that he meets in a strip club and who he admits is not even as good in bed as the wife he has at home.
This relationship makes no sense, but then these kinds of relationships rarely do,
A group of three scumbags discovers Harry's affair and attempt to blackmail him with the evidence, If he doesn't fork over a hundred and five thousand dollars an odd amount for a blackmail demand but one that makes sense in the context of the plot, they will expose Mitchell at great cost to his marriage and his standing in the community.
When Harry tells the gang to go roll a hoop or words to that effect the blackmailers up the ante considerably, putting Harry in a very difficult predicament.
They assume that Mitchell will have no choice now but to pay, but Harry doesn't play by the Marquis of Queensbury Rules and the blackmailers may discover that they've bitten off more than they can chew.
Mitchell is a typical
Elmore Leonard protagonista bit flawed but also a clever man who's resolved to do things his own way.
Watching the dance between Harry and the blackmailers is great fun and, as is the case with virtually any Elmore Leonard novel, this is a very good read.
One of Elmore's best in my opinion, and deadon Mr, Leonard's frequent formula: Joe Average gets mixed up with dumb criminals, almost loses everything, but straightens out the bad guys in a superexciting big finish.
warning I LOVE ELMORE LEONARD!
A successful businessman has an affair and the girl sets him up with her criminal associates for blackmail and extortion.
But Mr. Businessman is a former combat pilot and like all great Leonard heroes refuses to take shit from anybody, Look out bad guys.
Read this novel is two seatings and couldn't wait for the ending, which we knew would involve a previously mentioned box of dynamite.
star :
Pickup Elmore Leonard
DISCLAIMER: My first mystery read in a long long time warrants a biased review at that.
Set in the crime scene of Detroit, this mystery/noir novel chronicles the life of Harry Mitchell, a happy matrimony man/businessman, who's had a slipup of sorts for the first time in his life in the form of a secret affair.
He encounters trouble with a few blackmailers who threaten to expose his dalliance if he doesn't pay up the ransom they demand, The rest of the novel depicts an intelligently woven series of bluff, negotiations, betrayal, and ultimately, redemption,
This novel screams quintessential Hollywood mystery flick to an extent that I could literally visualise the scenes playing out in my mind crisply directed and all that.
It gave me the typical Fight Club vibes from the word go, The dialogues were also hardcore American, see for yourself:
You start accusing me, calling me a liarlets see you prove I done anything.
Keep your head on, man, Everything will be cool. Go west to Seventyfive. We going downtown.
Try us one more time, I think you going to dig this trip,
Shit, you know as well as I do who done it,
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I especially enjoyed the pace of the novel, it kept me on my toes at all times.
Couple that with a gripping mystery and you have a fan in me, I gather from other reviews that this isn't the author's best works, so I'm sure to pick up more of his novels to get an occasional American respite from all that conventional Old English I immerse myself in.
I thought my first Elmore Leonard novel should be one that A Had an impact on his career and B Was set in Detroit.
You could add to that, maybe, a book of his that was made into a movie, This book doesn't disappoint. Not as tightly plotted as, say a Westlake book, but moves along, I liked it. My reading of an Elmore Leonard book was a long time coming, And what a nice one to start with, The story is straight out of a film noir movie, man gets caught cheating on his wife by three hoodlums who blackmail him for,.
. . things get out of hand and revenge is taken, While the subplots do get in the way of the main story "wife deals with husband's infidelity" and "union manager uses thug before contract talks" add very little in comparison to what they subtract from the book, this worked wonderfully for a quick read.
And yes, Leonard does know how to write natural dialogue without dialect, While it may not be as artsy as Hubert Selby Jr who really works hard on his dialogue or as comical as Chuck Palahniuk, Elmore Leonard's dialogue is a must for any aspiring writer.
First off, it's simple. No unnecessary tricks. Second, the tricks that are used dropping a word to demonstrate a person's education level, but no need to misspell any words are used economically and effectively.
Truly, read any dialogue heavy section in this book and you will have a bachelor's in finding voice for characters, correct use of the word "said", writing dialect without dialect, subtext, and so much more.
No doubt there are other books of his that have better stories, better examples of dialogue or are more entertaining, but if you don't know where to start, sitelinkPickup is a great choice.
I decided to become a fan of Elmore Leonard after realizing that many entertaining movies I've seen have come from his books Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, Hombre.
This novel was also made into a movie, though I haven't seen it yet,
What I really enjoyed about this book was that dialogue plays a key role in character development, a great technique for "showing not telling" as we writers are so often advised.
And, as with practically all of Leonard's crime books, police and law enforcement play no role, or are only minor, the protagonists and villains battle it out and outwit each other all on their own.
It's a style that is a trademark of this author,
I'll be reading more of this author down the line, This was an interesting read, but it was hard to really like any of the characters, And the ending seemed to come abruptly, with some loose ends unless I missed something, Pickup: Elmore Leonard's Card Game
"If you want it, here it is, come and get it
Make your mind up fast
If you want it, anytime, I can give it
But you better hurry 'cause it may not last
Did I hear you say
That there must be a catch
Will you walk away
From a fool and his money"
Paul McCartney,
Ever playedPickup It only takes two players.
A standard deck will do, It's a joke, man. The dealer's in on the trick, The stooge is the pigeon, the patsy, The dealer shuffles the deck, Ready The dealer throws the deck up in the air, scattering the cards on the floor, gleefully yelling, "Pickup!" And the pigeon has to pick up the cards.
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The Game
sitelinkElmore Leonard plays sitelinkPick Up with the best of them.
But cards are not what you need to play his game, It's dollars. Lots of them.
Alan Raimy is a pretty smart guy, He's got a degree in Business Advertising, He can read a Dunn and Bradstreet analysis, He likes Ranco Manufacturing owned and run by Harry Mitchell, Business hasn't been so good for Alan, Sex gets a smart guy in trouble, especially when the girlies are underage, You know, it starts out simple, a little wienie wagging and then you're giving teeny boppers a little weed and you're off the street for a bit.
Alan has an adult theater,
Alan has friends, Leo is the set up, He's got this modeling studio where guys can rent a polaroid and photograph a model in a little white room for next to nothing.
Leo has a cute little twenty one year old girl named Cini, working her way through school,
Sometimes you hold all the cards, In walks Harry Mitchell with a business client who wants a little fun, Harry's client hits on Cini, but she's not playing, Cini talks to Harry.
Harry's got hormones, Cini's half his wife's age, She's young, she's fresh. Harry rents an apartment for Cini, Harry and Cini have sex, Alan has it on film, He'll show the film to Harry's wife and other people that might view this film as a blemish on Harry's reputation,
But Harry's stubborn, He knows one payment won't be the end of it, He's stalling on the down payment ofK,
Harry's going to have to learn the hard way, Alan produces a little snuff film with Cni as the star, Alan's muscle, Bobby Shay, who likes to pull the trigger is the third in this merry little band of bad asses, Oh, yeah. And the gun that snuffs Cyni, it's Harry's,
Harry's over a barrel, right No, Elmore Leonard is writing this story, You know the bad guys are not going to beat him, You're cheering for Harry.
It's simple. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, You know what they say about assume, It makes an ass out of you and me, Alan has picked the wrong patsy, Harry's no simple white collar business man, He started Ranco. He worked on the line for nineteen years, He's got brawn and brains, Sometimes a Dunn amp Bradstreet doesn't tell you all you need to know, Things like Harry was a World War II fighter pilot who shot down nine Luftwaffe planes,
Harry spills the beans to Barbara, his wife of twentytwo years, Gosh, I've only screwed around on you once! Barbara forgives, Hmmm, male fantasy She's missed Harry, Frenzied lovemaking follows. Long leisurely lovemaking follows.
Harry spins his trap, Divide and conquer. Cut a deal with Alan, Show him the books. Show him he can only pay,,. Let nature take its course,,split three ways doesn't go as far as,,. The gang of three will take care of themselves, especially after Harry tells Leo and Bobby about the deal he's cut with Alan,
Sit back. Have a good whiskey. Enjoy the ride. Do you really have any question on who's going to be left standing when this game is played out
Leonard's dialog crackles.
The action moves faster than a bullet, The suspense crackles. A bit dated Consider this a look back at thes, This is no Brady Bunch, Just roll with it.
This is another Leonard novel that made it to the movies, A good one.
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Thefilm directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Roy Scheider, Ann Margaret as Barbara and Kelly Prestion as Cini.
In, the film made the litmus test list of top twenty man movies, I'd say if there were a list of books appealing to men, Leonard's novel would make the list, too,
And, if somebody asks you to playPickup, make sure you're the dealer,
Like crime novels Grab this one, Harry Mitchell could be a poster boy for the Greatest Generation, He was a World War II ace fighter pilot and afterwards started his own manufacturing firm thats become a successful business while he and his wife Barbara enjoyed a happy marriage and raised two kids.
Ah, but the midlife crisis has made more than one man stupid, and Harry has a fling with a woman half his age.
Just as he is about to break it off, Harry is confronted by a trio of blackmailers who have films that show his infidelity.
They demand a small fortune, but when Harry balks, they up the ante and try to tie him into an even larger crime, However, Harry isnt the kind of guy who is just going to allow himself to be extorted,
This is vintage Elmore Leonard with slick plotting, offbeat characters and sharp dialogue, The setting of Detroit in the mids is a great time and place for a gritty crime novel and doesnt seem too dated.
Theres a couple of loose ends that bothered me, The subplot about a union representative pushing Harrys buttons about an upcoming negotiation seems to just disappear which is odd after . Even though theres a satisfactory conclusion, I would have liked to have had some kind of epilogue to give us an idea of how things were going to play out.
Those are relatively minor complaints about a well crafted crime story by one of the alltime greats in the genre, .
Obtain 52 Pick-up Formulated By Elmore Leonard Available As Document
Elmore Leonard