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Summary
Summary
"Speedy, exhilarating, and smooth. Nobody does it better."
--Washington Post
"The man knows how to grab you--and Pronto is one of the best grabbers in years."
--Entertainment Weekly
Fans of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens of the hit TV series Justified are in for a major treat. The unstoppable manhunter with the very itchy trigger finger stars in Pronto, a crime fiction gem from the one and only Elmore Leonard, "the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever" (New York Times Book Review). The Grand Master justifies the overwhelming acclaim he has received over the course of his remarkable career with an electrifying thriller that sends the indomitable Raylan racing to Italy on the trail of a fugitive bookie who's hiding from the vengeful Miami mob. The legendary Leonard, whom the Seattle Times lauds as the "King Daddy of crime writers," proves that all comparisons to American noir icons John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain are well deserved with this tale of very dirty doings and extremely dangerous men coming together in the birthplace of Puccini, Garibaldi, and La Cosa Nostra.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
From sly title through breath-stopping climax to funny wrap-up, readers will relish Leonard's ( Maximum Bob ) latest roller coaster ride. South Miami Beach bookie Harry Arno has been skimming from his mafia bosses for years. After a ruthless FBI man spreads a rumor to that effect, in an attempt to get Harry to testify against his boss, ``Jimmy Cap,'' the 66-year-old bookie splits early on his long-planned retirement in Rapallo, Italy. Rapallo is soon mobbed, so to speak, as Harry is joined by his girlfriend, his new bodyguard, Jimmy Cap's Italian-born enforcer ``the Zip,'' a handful of Italian thugs and a deputy U.S. Marshal, Raylan Givens. All engage in a deadly dance before Raylan manages to get most of the good guys back to Miami, where the dance begins again. Leonard's spare language and propulsive plotting still leave room for expositions of Sicilian slang, gamblers' lingo and Ezra Pound's private life. His colorful characters work together splendidly, especially the top trio: Harry, whose drinking, posturing and willfulness endanger everybody; the lethal Zip, who models himself, literally, on Frank Costello; and Raylan, whose Stetson and apparent goofiness mask a hard past in bloody Harlan County, Ky. The only problem with the book is that it ends. BOMC and QPB selection; major ad/promo; author tour. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
It's been frequently observed that Elmore Leonard is a master at creating lovable bad guys. That's close, but it's not quite right. In Leonard's world, it's not easy to get a fix on good and bad--everyone has an angle, to be sure, and some of those angles are more mean spirited than others, but beyond that, good and bad don't make much sense. Leonard's characters aren't bad guys; they're just fuck-ups. No other word will do to describe the bumbling brigade of Miami Beach bookies, mobsters, molls, and federal agents who populate this latest lowlife farce. Harry Arno, senior-citizen bookie, is at the center of the careening action: the feds have set up a sting to make it look like Harry is skimming profits from his mobster boss (he really is skimming, but that's another story); the mobster wants to hit Harry, but the doofuses he gives the job to can't handle it; Harry, for his part, escapes to Rapallo, Italy, where he wants to retire because he has this thing about Ezra Pound (yes, that's right, a South Beach bookie with a thing about Pound--it started in World War II, but that's another story, too); then there's U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens, the Shane of South Beach, who chases Harry to Italy, falls in love with his girlfriend, and insists on believing that the world is a well-ordered place. It's not, of course, especially after the fuck-ups get through with it. Leonard has been making that point for years, in novels that draw from every shade of the tragicomic spectrum. This one is lighter and funnier than most but not without an edge. Think of it as a Marx Brothers movie where people get killed. (Reviewed July 1993)0385308469Bill Ott