Riding the Rap (Mass Market Paperback)

by Elmore Leonard (Author) "Ocala Police picked up Dale Crowe Junior for weaving, two o'clock in the morning, crossing the center line and having a busted taillight..." (more)
Key Phrases: fiesta shirt, hostage room, bathing cap, Bobby Deo, Dale Junior, Reverend Dawn (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
In this sequel to Pronto, Harry Arno has retired from bookmaking but is still closing out some of his outstanding debts. But then his collection agent, an ex-con by the name of Bobby Deo, goes to pick up $1,800 from Chip Ganz and ends up getting hired for a hostage-taking operation (like kidnapping "in a way," Chip tells him, "only different. A lot different.") When Harry's taken by his own man, it's up to United States Marshal Raylan Givens to track him down, in the same methodically relentless fashion he tracked Harry that time he ran off to Italy. Throw in a henchman named Louis Lewis with plans of his own and an attractive young psychic named Reverend Dawn, and you've got yet another crime story that'll keep you on the edge of your seat--occasionally chuckling to yourself--straight through to the finish. (And bonus points to loyal Leonard fans who can spot the crossover elements from Rum Punch and Maximum Bob.) --Ron Hogan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Simple scams usually turn complex in Leonard land, where the author can doubtless choreograph his scammers' moves in his sleep by now; indeed, much of Rap appears to be riding on automatic pilot. Nevertheless, even middling Leonard is as good as anyone else gets on a good day. This darkly witty page-turner returns to the vexed, triangular relationship of Florida marshal Raylan Givens, his girlfriend, Joyce, and her ex-lover, the aging bookie Harry Arno (all seen previously in Pronto). When Harry disappears while chasing down a tardy debtor named Chip Ganz, Joyce admonishes Raylan to investigate. It turns out Chip is a middle-aged pothead living in his mother's seedy beach mansion, whose stoned analysis of televised hostage situations has fueled a baroque kidnapping scheme, into which Harry has stumbled. Like many a Leonard bad guy, Ganz only talks a good game. It falls upon an ex-con and his preening psychotic cohort to execute the caper, with help from an alluring psychic. Raylan's probe takes him into a shadowy New Age subculture of Tarot readings and Hugger conventions, which Leonard limns with characteristic grit and black humor. Ultimately, however, the story lacks the high voltage of Leonard's best work.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch (June 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060082186
• ISBN-13: 978-0060082185
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #263,986 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars God bless Elmore Leonard, November 3, 2003

By	Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

There's hardly ever a truly good guy in Leonard's books. Even the best of his protagonists who ride in on white horses to slay evil dragons have a dark side, a dark secret, or a dark sin. And the worst of the baddies all have some marvelous redeeming or hilarious quality that makes you root for them now and then.
There should be, instead of Murphy's Law, a Leonard's Law, in which some seemingly simple scheme will inevitably turn complex and twisted when this master of his genre gets hold of it.
In Riding the Rap, we get to revisit Florida Marshall Raylan Givins as he investigates the disappearance of his girlfriend's ex-lover. Don't ask. It's too complicated to go into details in a short book review. Just trust me: it's filled with the usual Leonard people-stew of weirdos, strange scams, superb dialogue full of lingo and slang, and and and and...
Not his very best, but very good stuff.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not great, April 26, 2008

By	lostboy - See all my reviews

Ellmore Leonard can't be beat for character development and pacing, but he's asleep at the wheel on this one. Good to see Raylan Givens in action again. He's even more confident in this book. The bad guy, Chip Ganz, wasn't completely believable, but his no good sidekicks were. Lots of cross/double cross action. I'm ambiguous about the psychic character (which is probably how the author meant her to be).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Rapping The Ride, October 29, 2007

By	Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

If someone was to write a full-length parody of Elmore Leonard's series of South Florida crime novels, echoing the rap some give about his tough-guy patois, cardboard characterization, and violently lurching plot shifts, they could ding him up hardly as much as Leonard's own 1995 novel "Riding The Rap".

It's another day for U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens when his girlfriend Joyce asks him to look into the disappearance of her friend, a bookie named Harry Arno. Turns out Arno's kidnapped by some scuzzy reefer toker named Chip with the help of two ex-cons. Their plan: Break Arno into giving up some loot he has stashed offshore. Can Givens find Arno before the crooks get the goods or kill Arno trying?

"Riding The Rap" gets off to a promising if somewhat under-revved start, developing the main setting of Chip's rundown Miami mansion (he lives there while his mother rots in a nursing home) and a female friend named Reverend Dawn who reads fortunes at a cafe. She's the one spark of early life character-wise, as Chip and his buds come off like dim retreads from other Leonard books, especially "Rum Punch" but also "The Hidden" and "Glitz". They idle away a lot of time talking tough and turning nasty as Raylan moves in and turns up the heat.

As psychics go, Dawn is pretty good. So is Raylan, who like many Leonard protagonists is always a move or two ahead of everyone else and ready with a dry wisecrack. Usually, though, the plots are better and the dialogue sharper for you not to mind that so.

"What you'll have to do now is ride the rap, as they say," Raylan says early on to some carjackers who fail to get the drop on him. "It's all anybody has to do." I don't know what that means either, but it certainly sounds tough, don't it?

Actually, Raylan's banter plays better than that of the villains. After one of them blows another away, he has the nerve to tell someone else he "fired" the guy.

Like I say, Leonard critics can have a field day with this novel, crammed with Leonard's literary offenses and almost none of his strengths. Arno is introduced at some length as an alcoholic, as if that will be a plot point or a source of drama later. But it never comes up again. Chip's partners hold up a convenience store, which gets Raylan's notice, but that strand too is left dangling in the breeze.

The plot does move, mostly because Leonard keeps having his characters do sudden things with no explanation. It makes for an interesting read, but leaves a few unanswered questions. Why, if Dawn is so psychic, does she hang out with a bunch of homicidal losers? Why would anyone take Chip's side in a crackpot scheme like this? Why does Raylan put his life on the line for any of these people he sees right through?

Look, it's Leonard, so you're going to have fun reading it. Just not a lot, and it doesn't come close to coming together at the end. Maybe he was playing with his critics on this one, a possibility suggested by the title. Whatever his motive, Leonard was typing more than writing here, and the result is dispiriting.