From Publishers Weekly
Leonard's less than stellar second caper novel, with its Detroit setting, wacky characters and elaborate schemes that misfire, may strike Elmore Leonard fans as too derivative of his father's work. When two thieves, Bobby and Lloyd, break into the house of Karen Delaney, a knockout with red hair and creamy white skin, she manages to enlist the pair in a plot to rob her bookmaker ex-boyfriend, Samir Fakir, who has $300,000 of hers that he kept at the time he threw her out. The robbery goes off, but not without fatal hitches. Karen must scramble out of harm's way as Bobby and Lloyd, a bunch of Fakir's eager debt collectors, grasping relatives, Arab hit men and a stubborn ex-cop who's also an ex-con pursue her and the money. While Leonard (Quiver) has a ways to go before he approaches his father's high standard, he keeps Karen and the action rolling along nicely enough with occasional chuckles and mild surprises. (Apr.)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Leonard’s first novel, Quiver(2008), displayed some rookie flaws, but his second effort establishes him as a genuinely gifted storyteller. Although the book is similar in many ways to the hard-edged, witty, character-driven novels of Leonard’s father, Elmore, it has its own voice and its own stylistic flourishes. In this fast-paced, elaborately plotted tale, a woman concocts a scheme to retrieve $300,000 from an ex-boyfriend, but she doesn’t count on the wrath of an angry thug, her ex-boyfriend’s scheming nephew, or a pair of hit men with their own plans for that 300 grand. While the cachet of the author’s more famous father should guarantee the novel plenty of interest, it’s Peter Leonard’s own talent that shines through here. In time, if you find yourself referring to “that really cool mystery writer, Leonard,” you might have to explain which one you’re talking about. --David Pitt
