Raylan
by Elmore Leonard
William Morrow 2012
Raylan Givens is, perhaps, the most enduring of heroes in crime stories. A U.S. Marshall in the Kentucky coal mines, Raylan must weigh rationality with strict letter of the law justice.
By the same token, Elmore Leonard is one of our heroes in the crime fiction world, having created so many memorable characters over his long career, which continues in his late 80s (providing aspirational incentive to all of us budding, second career writers). Raylan is one of his best, serving, in turn, as inspiration for successful television series. Indeed, we will likely see the themes in Raylan on the little or big screen.
In Raylan, Raylan is thrown into the mayhem of kidney snatching marijuana growers. He then transitions into efforts of a coal mining company to secure the mountain top of the drug king, an old friend of Raylan’s (it’s a small world in Kentucky), which, predictably, leads to murders.
In the process of solving the mining murders, by and of women, Raylan comes across an interesting young woman who has become a professional poker player in her college years in Indiana. She needs a stake, gets it from a thoroughbred owner and falls in love with the aging Raylan. The budding romance adds a clever, human twist to a story told in the Elmore Leonard fashion – straight, charming, and disarming in its simplicity. There is no backstory, yet the reader is fully in the swing of the story, knowing everything that is really necessary. It is a style that is both lean and fascinating.
I had the feeling of Elmore sitting at his computer thinking how he would handle a winsome young poker player who he has just helped get rich, who wants into pants. Great fun for the next story.
I learn a lot from reading the work of successful authors. Elmore a life of learning to impart, which I hope I am absorbing.
Warms, Cym
ElmoreLeonard
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