Synopsis
Gentleman/banker-robber Jack Foley is back in prison doing a thirty-year sentence after a week-long escape. Brought in by Karen Sisco, US marshall, who got her man after being abducted with the escapees, Jack and Karen have a thing for each other, and Karen arrests him only after a meaningful 'time'out' together. Jack is resigning himself to doing time, lots of it, and he seems to have a friendly and easy control over the hardened criminals he is imprisoned with. This easiness is enhanced in the minds of others by his fame as a bank robber. It is this ease which impresses Cuando Rey, a Cuban refugee and criminal who is doing time for murder. Cuando arranges to have Foley's sentence hugely reduced, but has favors aplenty to ask when they're both released. Cuando's wife, Dawn, is pretending to be saintly all the while (whilst quite the opposite) under the negligent eye of The Monk, a gay accountant similarly in thrall to Cuando. Foley is freed, and, as he fears, Cuando wants to use him on a job, just as his every move is being scrutinised by FBI detective Lou Adams. In an instant, though, Dawn has seduced him, and she has an agenda all of her own.
Writing as an octogenarian, crime-fiction top dog Elmore Leonard has lost none of his style or wit. Hardcore fans will recognize several of the characters in ROAD DOGS from earlier stories, but such expertise is certainly not required to enjoy this entertaining romp. Cundo Rey, who's been making the most of his own prison sentence acquiring real estate, splurges for a crackerjack lawyer to get his man Jack Foley's jail time significantly reduced. Out scot free, notorious bank robber Foley makes himself comfortable in one of Cundo's houses. Taking a different perspective on their friendship, Foley quickly shacks up with Cundo's lady, Dawn Navarro, a psychic with an ancient-Egypt fascination and brazen ambitions. So when Cundo also gets out of the pen early, things get a little messy. Full of betrayals, schemes, and seductions, ROAD DOGS is classic Leonard.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2009-05-12 |
| Size | | Length: | 262 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 15.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
A latest work by the author of Get Shortyand LaBrava unites Cuban con man Cundo Rey and gentleman bank robber Jack Foley in a scheme that is marked by the women in their lives and a beautiful psychic. Original.
Industry Reviews
"[A] seemingly effortless performance...."
(02/02/2009)
"[O]ne of Mr. Leonard's most enjoyably sneaky stories....However widely imitated Mr. Leonard is by a generation of writers who can mistake terseness for talent, it's unimaginable that any other stylist could come up with this....[Leonard] still writes with high style, great energy, unflappable cool and a jubilant love of the game."
(05/10/2009)
"Droll and exciting, enriched by the self-aware, what-the-hell-why-not insouciance of a master now in his mid-80s, ROAD DOGS--underlying its material of sex, violence and money, and beyond its cast of cons and thugs and movie stars--presents interesting questions."
(05/31/2009)
"The fun in the best of his novels - and this is the best in years - stems from the fact that Leonard starts turning the screws on page one and never stops. The dialogue crackles; the supporting characters are crisply drawn; and the story achieves almost instant escape velocity."
(05/17/2009)
"[Y]et another gem in a career that has endured for more than half a century and given us 42 novels....There is clearly more fun to be had here, and Leonard, the hippest, funniest national treasure in sight, is the man to provide it."
(05/18/2009)
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