Road Dogs: A Novel
by Elmore Leonard
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elmore LeonardEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-05-12
ISBN: 0061733148
Number of pages: 262
Publisher: William Morrow
Book Reviews of Road Dogs: A Novel
Book Review: Jack Foley returns in another great Elmore Leonard novel!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Thank God Elmore Leonard is still kicking and writing. With each new book of his that gets published, I always think that it's going to be his last. This author, however, keeps surprising me, and for that, I'm eternally grateful. You see, Elmore Leonard has been writing novels since the late fifties, and a lot of them have been bestsellers, not to mention great films (Get Shorty and Out of Sight). In fact, his newest book, Road Dogs, is the sequel to Out of Sight and brings back the character of Jack Foley in full form with all of his bravado, sarcastic wit, charm, and his instinctual skills for survival. Though not quite to the level of greatness that Out of Sight was (after all, this novel had the love affair between Jack and U.S. Marshall Karen Sisco, a.k.a. Jennifer Lopez in the film), Road Dogs is still an extremely entertaining read from the first page to the last. Also, if you've seen George Clooney as Jack Foley in the film version of Out of Sight, then you're going to see Clooney in your mind's eye through the entire new book, which certainly adds to the pleasure of reading it.
At the beginning of Road Dogs, Foley is back in Glades Correctional, facing a possible thirty-year sentence for his escape from the facility and for the deaths of several people in Detroit, where he was eventually shot by his lover and hunter, Karen Sisco. His new bubby at Glades is Cuando Rey, who's also in jail for murder. Though an unlikely pair, they hit it off as fellow inmates and Jack ends up covering Cuando's back whenever there's trouble. Cuando, being a millionaire from his life of crime and from his real estate investments in California, hires the most talented and beautiful lawyer that money can buy, Megan Norris, to represent both him and Foley. The lawyer, with the help of Karen Sisco's somewhat untruthful testimony, gets Jack off with time served, and then she gets Cuando off due to a lack of physical evidence.
Getting out of jail a few weeks earlier than his friend, Jack heads to Venice, California to stay in one of Cuando's multi-million dollar homes and to keep an eye on his common-law wife, Dawn Navarro, who just happens to be lovely and sexy and a professional psychic. Dawn is also a scam who recognizes a good thing when she sees it. For eight years, she's been waiting patiently for Cuando to get out of jail, not because she loves him, but rather because she wants a sizable chunk of his money. All of it would be better, but Dawn's willing to settle for a few million dollars for time served as the chase wife of a criminal. When Jack Foley arrives, she quickly sees the possibility of having a partner to help her with her plans, if he's willing to go the distance by killing Cuando. Dawn is smart enough to make the offer very enticing to Jack by giving him her body and promising a large cut of the money. This is something Jack has to think really hard about because he still owes Cuando thirty thousand dollars in lawyer's fees, plus there's Lou Adams, an F.B.I. agent, who wants to put Jack back in jail for robbing so many banks and thus, making himself into a legend as the man who nailed the greatest bank robber in history. Lou's taken a month off from work and follows Jack to California, knowing that he will cross the line sooner or later. Poor Jack is going to have his hands full just trying to stay one step ahead of everybody in the game and not getting killed in the shuffle, or ending up back in jail for the rest of his life.
Road Dogs is Elmore Leonard at his best. Though just a notch below Out of Sight in entertainment value, this novel proves that Mr. Leonard is still the greatest thriller writer living today. Few authors can even come close to the skills that he has in creating characters that the reader can see in his mind and think that he actually knows. And, when it comes to dialogue, nobody does it better than this icon of the publishing industry in creating such believable, yet witty lines for his characters to speak. The words are never forced, but rather flows with a smoothness that rings true to the ear. His books also come alive in ways that enable the readers to live inside the stories with the characters for a few hours, and then to come away from it with a totally satisfied experience that stays with them for days to come. It certainly does that to me!
Elmore Leonard is a true master of his craft, and he's still delivering the goods after fifty years of writing. Road Dogs is a winner in every sense of the word, and a novel that will get you hooked on one of the best author America has ever produced. He's now working on another novel, and I'm hoping to read it before either of us dies.
Summary of Road Dogs: A Novel
Jack Foley and Cundo Rey are road dogs: trusted jailhouse comrades watching each other's back. They're so tight, Cundo's using his own money and his shark lady lawyer to get Foley's sentence reduced from thirty years to three months. And when Jack gets out, the wealthy Cuban criminal wants him to stay in Cundo's multimillion dollar Venice Beach house?right across from the one where Cundo's common-law wife, professional psychic Dawn Navarro, resides. There will certainly be some payback expected, though Jack can't figure out what. Sexy Dawn's intentions are a lot clearer. But Cundo's coming home earlier than anticipated, and Jack smells a double-cross cooking?the kind that could turn a road dog into road kill.
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Questions for Elmore Leonard
Q:Where did the inspiration for the title Road Dogs come from?
A: Road Dogs was on a list of prison expressions my researcher Gregg Sutter got for me: inmates who watch each other?s back. I liked the sound of the words together.
Q: What made you decide to bring back Jack Foley, Cundo Rey, and Dawn Navarro now? What is it about these three characters that stuck with you through the years?
A: Foley was played by George Clooney in Out of Sight. I imagined George in the scenes I wrote and it worked. Dawn Navarro was the psychic in Riding the Rap, a supporting character ready for a leading role. Cundo Rey from LaBrava, another favorite of mine, also deserved a bigger role, so I brought him back..
Q: Any chance Foley and the woman he loves, Federal Marshal Karen Sisco, will be back in the near future?
A: I?m not sure Foley is up to robbing another bank. But Karen Sisco, the federal marshal in Out of Sight, could show up again; maybe working for her dad, a private investigator.
Q: One of the hallmarks of your writing is your gift for the telling detail. When Foley is offering Cundo Rey?s money man, Jimmy, some advice about his skimming, he tells him that Cundo won?t kill him, but he might ?break your legs with a José Canseco bat.? That?s one of those small yet wonderfully deft touches that adds color without slowing the pace. How do you do this so well?
A: Realism is the key to my style of writing and dialogue is what keeps it moving, always in live scenes. Rather than use my voice, my language, to describe what?s going on, I let the characters tell who they are and what they?re up to by the way they talk. Scenes are written from a character?s point of view, never mine.
Q: Many of your characters are working class stiffs and tough, intelligent broads. What draws you to these kind of characters? What do you think accounts for their popularity?
A: My women often upstage the guys; they?re natural, their own person, while my cops and criminals talk the way I?ve observed them through research and being on the scene.
Q: What?s next for Elmore Leonard?
A: Next comes Djibouti, with Dara Barr, a documentary filmmaker with the Somali pirates off the coast of East Africa.
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