The Switch [Paperback]

Elmore Leonard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 1990

Black Ordell Robbie and white Louis Gara have lots in common--time in the same slammer, convictions for grand theft auto, and a plan for a big score. They're going to snatch the wife of a Detroit developer and collect some easy ransom money. They don't figure on a bum of a husband who has a secret mistress and no desire to get his wife back. Or on his crazy, beautiful broad of a housewife who's going to join Ordell and Louis in the slickest, saviest crime of all...

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The finest thriller writer alive."--The Village Voice.

"Mr. Leonard dazzles as he sprinkles his work continually with unexpected convolutions...  his people are real, with nary a stereotype in the pack."--The New York Times Book Review.

"Elmore Lenord is the real thing... he raises the hard-boiled suspense novel beyond the limits of the genre... he paints an acute picture of the world that is all too real and recognizable."--The Washington Post

From the Publisher

"The finest thriller writer alive."--The Village Voice.

"Mr. Leonard dazzles as he sprinkles his work continually with unexpected convolutions... his people are real, with nary a stereotype in the pack."--The New York Times Book Review.

Black Ordell Robbie and white Louis Gara have lots in common--time in the same slammer, convictions for grand theft auto, and a plan for a big score. They're going to snatch the wife of a Detroit developer and collect some easy ransom money. They don't figure on a bum of a husband who has a secret mistress and no desire to get his wife back. Or on his crazy, beautiful broad of a housewife who's going to join Ordell and Louis in the slickest, saviest crime of all...

"Elmore Lenord is the real thing... he raises the hard-boiled suspense novel beyond the limits of the genre... he paints an acute picture of the world that is all too real and recognizable."--The Washington Post

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Dell; Sep. 1990 edition (August 4, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440208319
• ISBN-13: 978-0440208310
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #485,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elmore Leonard has written more than forty novels, including bestsellers Up in Honey's Room, The Hot Kid, Mr. Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, Pagan Babies, and Glitz. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. He lives with his wife, Christine, in Bloomfield Village, Michigan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Switch to this book now, June 8, 2000

By 

David Baldwin (Solihull, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Switch (Paperback)

This is possibly the most enjoyable Leonard novel I have read. It really is superb, mixing violence and humour to great effect. The story is streamlined, with no unnecessary characters or plotlines, and the jokes are very funny. The ending is especially enjoyable, the type of ending you wish for but know that the author won't deliver...unless it's Elmore Leonard. It really ties things up nicely, and there's not a cliche or stereotype to be seen. That's what makes Leonard so enjoyable...it's believable people doing believable things. Funny, clever, engrossing. I couldn't put it down, and that's a cliche I don't mind using...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From the Leonard Reviews: Make "The Switch" from "Rum Punch", March 29, 2001

By 

Samuel Louis "raisindot" (Natick, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Switch (Paperback)

For anyone who saw "Jackie Brown" or read the Leonard novel on which it's based, "Rum Punch," try to get your hands on this far superior first-appearance of the loveable criminal trio, Ordell Robbie, Luis Gaza, and "that fine big woman," Melanie.

This simple story of a loveless marriage whose seams truly start showing when the docile, country club wife, Mickey is kidnapped by Ordell and Luis is good, solid, 70's era Leonard. Mickey's marriage is many ways a mirror image of the married couple at the center of Leonard's previous "marital troubles cum crim" novel, "52 Pickup." Her husband is a brute who flies to the Bahamas to dally with his street savvy mistress, Melanie, a day before he serves Mickey a divorce summons.

The husband's refusal to pay ransom becomes the epiphany for the mouselike Mickey's transformation into the smart, independent woman--in some ways, she is the chrystalis for a whole series of strong female Leonard heroines who appear in later novels.

If the story sounds like the movie "Ruthless People," you can bet that the movie was probably based in part on this novel. In fact, in the vastly inferior sequel, "Rum Punch," the characters allude to the movie when recalling the events that happened in "The Switch." Frankly, the criminal trio is much more appealing here than they were in "Punch," when they became more violent, more hardened, and more cliched.

While not the best of his classic 70's novels, "The Switch" is definitely top-drawer Leonard, filled with the same sharp dialogue that has been his stock in trade for more than forty years. If you like "The Switch," I recommend you seek out "52 Pickup" and compare the ways Leonard explores the "criminal" aspects of infidelity.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Little Less Satisfying..., August 3, 2000

By 

Sarah Horowitz (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Switch (Paperback)

than Leonard's usual. But of course, that's still high praise, given that he's far and away the best crime writer of this or any other generation. The first two-thirds of the way through I was captivated, enthralled, wondering why this one, like so many others, hadn't already spawned a blockbuster movie. As the remaining pages grew thinner and thinner, though, I had my answer: an anticlimactic ending in which Leonard just seemed to run out of gas. Nonetheless, if you've read the others you should certainly read this--a 4-star effort from Elmore Leonard still beats the best that anyone else working in the genre today can muster.