Maximum Bob (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Darker than his usual fare (something very bad occurs to a good guy), Leonard's ( Get Shorty ) latest is no less excellent. Elvin Crowe, of a habitually criminal Florida family, is out of jail and looking to run a scam on rich probationer Dr. Tommy Vasco, ex-friend (lover?) of Elvin's prison boyfriend. Turns out that all three were sentenced by illiberal Palm Beach County judge Bob Isom Gibbs, aka Maximum Bob. For $10,000 Elvin contracts to kill Gibbs, wondering if he can get more out of Dr. Tommy. Meanwhile Gibbs is trying to scare off his weird young wife, Leanne, a possible psychic sharing a body with Wanda Grace, a dead slave girl. Racist and sexist as any redneck, Gibbs has eyes for young Kathy Diaz Baker, probation officer for Elvin, Elvin's nephew and eventually Dr. Tommy. Still angry about a failed marriage to an Anglo cad, Kathy meets youngish detective Gary Hammond. They start working together (Who brought a gator to Gibbs's house? Who shot at the house? What's Elvin up to with Dr. Tommy?) and fall in love. Leonard's suspense, pace, humor and ear (probation officers talking shop, e.g.) are as wonderful, dry and true as ever. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club featured alternates; author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Leonard returns to the Florida coastline for his weakest novel since Touch (1987)--a bumpily humorous but unfocused seriofarce about a probation officer and the eccentric judge she gets entangled with. As one of Leonard's very few heroines in 29 novels, spunky Kathy Baker of the Florida Dept. of Corrections blows a whiff of fresh air into the Leonard canon--as does the outspoken, aging hanging-judge Bob Gibbs--but not enough to put the spring into a slack plot that begins when skirt-chasing Gibbs takes a fancy to Kathy as she shows up in his courtroom with probation-violator Dale Crowe Junior. Gibbs throws the book at Dale, then asks former psychology-major Kathy out on a date under the guise of her talking to his wife, a former showgirl who seems to be possessed by the spirit of a 12-year-old 18th-century slave girl. Before Kathy can visit Gibbs, however, a hugh alligator appears on his property and sends his wife scurrying for northern climes. And that's just fine by Gibbs, who turns out to have imported the gator to get rid of his loony wife. But when Gibbs double-deals Dickey Campau, who brought the gator, Campau drives out to the judge's home and shoots up the house. Which is just as well, because the shots scare off Elvin Crowe, Dale's mean and flaky uncle, who's been hired by another of the judge's irate courtroom-victims, a crack-addicted M.D., to kill the judge. Caught up in the investigation into the gator-attack and shooting, Kathy matches up professionally and romantically with cool cop Gary Hammond--until a jarring note of raw violence takes out Gary and sets Kathy up for an anticlimactic confrontation with Elvin and the M.D. Nicely realized characters, the usual smart Leonard dialogue, a few moments of brisk high/low humor--but the meandering plot lacks drive, Gibbs rolls around like a loose wheel, and the whole affair seems more like a pale Carl Hiaasen imitation than true-blue Leonard: It's all a big disappointment after Leonard's crackling last, Get Shorty (1990). -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Delta; Reprint edition (March 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385323964
• ISBN-13: 978-0385323963
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,416,343 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Leonard scrapes the bottom rung of society yet again, March 9, 2005

By	Christopher Moyer "moyer.privatjokr.com" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Maximum Bob (Mass Market Paperback)

Judge Bob Gibbs, or, as his friends call him, "Big," is known for handing out the maximum sentence for even the pettiest of crimes. Kathy Baker is a probation officer who runs into the hard-nosed judge while working on the case of Dale Crowe, a punk kid who can't keep out of trouble. Gibbs has always had girls on the side since his wife has become more and more distant over the years, and is interested in Kathy from the get-go.

A live alligator ends up in Gibbs's yard one day, prompting a police investigation, with any number of suspects, including Dale Crowe's mischievous uncle Elvin, who was sent to prison by Maximum Bob, and just recently released. Along the way, we run into a whole cast of colorful Floridian characters from the seedier side, including an unlicensed dermatologist and his Cuban houseboy - both mischievous in their own ways.

Elmore Leonard has a keen ear for dialogue and, in my opinion, is second to none in today's crime fiction writing. His characters are society's outcasts: criminals who can't stay out of trouble because they are just too stupid. But he treats them with full attention, and they never act out of character; everyone's got their motives, it's just a matter of who can outfox the others by being less incompetent.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Enjoyable Book, July 10, 2002

By	Untouchable (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Judge Bob Gibbs takes his job seriously. So much so that he tends to mete out the maximum punishment possible to offenders brought before him, earning him the nickname "Maximum Bob".

The book's protagonist is Kathy Baker who works as a probation officer which puts her in occasional contact with Judge Gibbs. It seems that Judge Gibbs takes a liking to her, so much so that he comes up with a very imaginative way to remove his wife from the picture to leave him free to pursue Kathy. What has escaped the lust-filled judge's attention is that his affection is not being returned.

As a probation officer, her job also puts Kathy in contact with criminals and this is where the third main character is introduced. Elvin Crowe is a mean piece of work who has recently been released from prison and it's obvious the rehabilitation didn't stick. Elvin somehow comes across someone who is willing to pay him to kill Judge Gibbs, who just happened to be the presiding judge during Elvin's case in which he drew...yep, that's right, the maximum penalty.

It was hard to decide how to treat this book. While it contains quite a few scenes that border on the farcical thanks to some offbeat characterisations, there is also the ever-present undertone of menace tinged with despair. What kept wrenching me back whenever I began losing myself in the book's humour was the realisation that lives were constantly in danger.

Maximum Bob is an enjoyable book exposing us to Florida complete with heat, psychos, druggies and alligators.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars memorable characters, disappointing novel, December 12, 2000

By	brothersjudd - See all my reviews

There are few enough decent television series these days for us to be able to let a good one slip away. Unfortunately, the TV version of Maximum Bob, starring Beau Bridges, lasted only a few short weeks. Unfortunate because in this book Elmore Leonard introduces an interesting cast of characters, Kathy Baker, one of his rare female leads, is okay, but Bob "Maximum Bob" Gibbs, a notoriously lecherous and racist judge prone to harsh sentences, and Leanne, the judge's wife, former mermaid at the Weeki Wachee aqua bar, who--since a close encounter with an alligator--has developed a psychic link with a twelve year old slave girl, are both terrific.

These characters, and a copious serving of lowlifes, combine with Leonard's trademark dialogue to make for a colorful story. However, the plot just kind of meanders towards a conclusion and the prodigious final body count seems to reflect the author's desire to end the tale rather than any necessary mechanics of the plot.

Television, which is almost totally character and dialogue driven, and where lack of a coherent plot is to be expected, was an ideal medium for this collection of oddballs. Alas, the show disappeared quickly and though several folks in this intermittently amusing novel are memorable, it doesn't rank among Elmore Leonard's best efforts.

GRADE : B-