Customer Reviews

Killshot

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The theme of this book is one that Elmore Leonard uses often, and nearly always to great effect - a romantic couple is swept innocently into the world of crime and has to discover heretofore-unknown resources to save themselves.

The reason this works so well for Leonard is that it lets him write to two of his great strengths. First, of course, is the world of criminals and cops. His criminals are always incredibly well drawn and always very distinct and three-dimensional. I have never read it anywhere, but I would guess that Quentin Tarantino must have been a big Leonard fan in his developmental years. His screen killers bear the hallmarks of Leonard characters; i.e. impassioned conversations about everyday things (like the two hit men in Pulp Fiction discussing McDonald's Big Macs) while dwelling in the sub-culture of crime and violence.

The second and less-commented-on strength Leonard has is the ability to portray the tugs and pulls of a male/female relationship with such effortless accuracy. In the interplay of the novel's husband and wife team, the subtle, aggravating, thrilling differences between man and woman are expertly rendered with a few classic, Leonard strokes. Also, Leonard is also the master at local color and authentic detail. His research and detail always has the feel of easy, unforced truth.

But let's face it; crime is what makes Leonard tick - the deal, the scam - and the men and women licking their chops over money and guns. It is certainly all here in this book. Here, it's an extortion scheme combining the efforts of an aging, nearly burned out hit man (Armand Degas) and a clever, hyperactive sociopath (Richie Nix). As always, Leonard develops his characters with subtle, concise power. Nix slowly becomes a truly frightening, dangerous character,

My favorite element of the book is Leonard's portrait of the half Ojibwa, half Canadian hit man, Armand Degas. In a way, the book is his somehow his story. From the beginning, he seems vaguely aware that his end is coming. Leonard's portrayal of this tiring man of violence lends certain poignancy to this character that stays with the reader.

All in all, classic Leonard - meaning a work that will keep you turning pages in effortless joy.

"Killshot" is a fast-paced, edgy and action-filled novel with strong emphasis on character, which is what one expects from Elmore Leonard. Leonard effectively paints telling portraits complete with physical details, emotions and mannerisms, and he never short-changes on plot or suspense. This book hums along. The killers are reprehensible, but Leonard makes them human, with their own particular vulnerabilities. Richie Nix is a sociopath seeing people only as objects to be used or eliminated. The Bird is somewhat more empathetic, but a cold, bloodless professional killer nonetheless. Carmen and Wayne Colson are a married couple who get caught up in a shakedown scam by mistake, and they end up having the two killers on their trail. Leonard does an outstanding job with minor characters as well giving them pivotal roles, especially Donna, the woman who becomes a lover to both killers, and the egotistical deputy sheriff. While the reader might find him or herself rooting more against the evilness of Richie or Bird, rather than for any compelling traits in the Colson's, there is more than enough tension inherent in "Killshot" to make this a very good read.

Since I am a fan of the movie adaptations of Elmore Leonard's works ("Jackie Brown," "Be Cool") I've been wanting to start reading his books. This is the first I've read and I was most impressed with his writing style.

I was amused to find him not at all sympathetic toward police or U.S. Marshals, although he did seem to like his FBI character; in fact, if anything, he seemed most sympathetic toward Blackbird, his assassin character. Despite gaping holes in this character, his was the most filled in one in the bunch and by the end you almost found yourself wondering if he could be redeemed.

The Colsons, the couple who find themselves on the run after accidentally being caught in the middle of an attempted protection shake-down by an ex-prisoner, Richie Nix, and Blackbird, are presented initially as the perfect married couple, but as the strain of the chase gets to them, the strains they have kept hidden within their marriage start to come out. Perhaps to a certain degree this book is about how everyone faces the strain of day-to-day living by hiding how they feel? I hesitate to say, as I believe everyone will get something different from this book - however, I feel that there may be a deeper meaning hidden within this story.

I can't wait to go on and read more of Mr. Leonard's books, and accumulate more of them as well - I only have two more at this time, but will be on the lookout for more at my favorite 2nd hand and discount stores (which is generally where I buy my books - otherwise, as many books as I buy, I'd be in severe trouble . . . )

An ironworker and his wife are being hunted down by a professional hitman and a murdering ex-con. Wayne Colson and his wife Carmen found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Armand and Richie, two lifelong criminals, are very poorly attempting to extort money from Carmen's boss. The inept thieves harebrained scheme is to walk into his office and take the money. But they are in for a surprise.

Wayne is visiting his wifes office the day the gangsters attempt to grab the money. They mistake him for Carmen's boss and a melee ensues. Wayne gives the crooks a real good lambasting and they take off empty handed.

When the goons trackdown the man responsible for giving them the beating, they want revenge. The Colsons, in an effort to save their lives, enter the Witness Security Program. They soon find out they might have been better off to try and make it on their own.

This was the first book I have read from Elmore Leonard and I really enjoyed it. The dialogue is funny and smart. But I felt that the story was a little thin at times.

From 'Split Images' to 'Get Shorty', a run encompassing about ten books, Elmore Leonard could do no wrong -- every one of these titles is compelling. 'Killshot' ranks as the best (perhaps tying with 'Split Images') book of this period. The plotting is clever in that it is put at the service of the characters -- action unfolds from character, rather than being imposed on it. And the prose, especially the dialogue, is pitch-perfect. (Compare Leonard's dialogue with that of James Ellroy, and see why Leonard is still regarded as the master.) What makes Leonard's books so enjoyable, however, is the amount of arcane information he's able to put into his story without ever making it feel crammed. He's written about graphology, Mississippi rivermen, high-steel construction, and Elvis Presley conspiracies (all 'Killshot'); leprosy and embalming ('Bandits'); St Francis of Assisi ('Touch' and 'Bandits'); the overthrow of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic ('Split Images', 'Cat Chaser'); photography and the Secret Service ('LaBrava'); casino operations ('Glitz'); hippie politics ('Freaky Deaky'); and countless other subjects. His facility for making these things interesting almost defies belief. Surrender yourself to 'Killshot', especially the redoubtable Carmen Colson, and find your plams getting sweaty, your mouth dry, and your heart racing. You'll laugh a lot, too.

Rider Strong reads this book with an impassioned, evocative style. I really like the way he reads one of the main characters, Armand Degas, an Ojibway. He gets the deep tone and cadence down pat. It must have been how Elmore Leonard heard the character as he was writing Armand.

The ADHD-type 35-year old adolescent criminal Ritchie is read in a snotty tone with a sniveling pace - perfect.

While it's often hard for men to voice women's characters, I thought Rider Strong did a decent job with the women of this story. Leonard's female characters are some of my favorite literary women. Killshot's Carmen Colson is realistically feminine, brave AND human all at once.

This is what Elmore Leonard churns out better than about any other modern writer I've read. This book isn't about what it's about, it's about HOW it's about it. So in otherwords, forget the plot and just watch some cool people interact very realistically. The funniest murder in an Elmore Leonard novel to date (two words: chewing gum) and it's a great thriller in a sense as well. So, yeah, it's a very simple structure, where you are introduced to a couple of characters and then a conflict early on, but the conlfict takes the back burner as you hear some great dialogue, tense situations, and comic underpinnings.

Killshot remains one of my favorite Elmore Leonard novels despite how much I enjoy his later work. Leonard's writing has gone through a number of stages, and Killshot was written when his tone was darker than his most recent fiction. The set up of a savvy native American assasin who teams up - with misgivings - with a small time (incompetent) crook, creates a situation where failure is almost predictable. This is wonderful writing of a sort that transcends the typical mystery/thriller. Funny and grotesques by turns, this is one great read. I highly recommend it.

Only Elmore Leonard can humorously dress a maniac, two-bit criminal like Richie Nix in a t-shirt with that kind of statement... and it is Richie that ultimately F*#!'S everything up in Leonard's crazy world of crime. Ritchie meets his match when he tries to roll Armand Degas "The Blackbird,"-- a real hitman, and they come to an agreement at gunpoint to do business together. Their scheme goes south when they encounter the wrong couple: The Colsons. Carmen Colson, the wife, is everything you want out of a female lead: smart, sexy, resourceful. Killshot is highly entertaining like Tishomingo Blues (one of my favorite Elmore Leonard books). Killshot's characters are solid, indelible and always hilarious. Richie Nix's girlfriend's obsession with Elvis Presley and her dialogue with Armand is laugh-out-loud funny. The locations of Killshot spoke to me personally, having grown up in Detroit-- my mother used to live in Algonac and we took trips to Toronto. Leonard, for me, stirred nostalgia from the St. Clair River Drive, Port Huron, Sarnia, the Blue Water Bridge and Selfridge Air National Guard, Harsens Island Ferry, to the 94 Freeway. I recommend Killshot and hope the film holds up to the book.

...but the middle sags and bulges like a beer belly in a prom dress. Also, I felt like he relied too much on coincidence as a plot device. Still, no one alive writes crime fiction like this man.