Here’s another attempt of an ongoing blog-feeder called The Top Four: You Pick.  If you want to play, great. 

Pick your top four Elmore Leonard titles and explain however briefly why you choose them and what connection, if any, exists when you put them together.  In my example, I chose: Classic Titles from The Last Four Decades.  You might chose “books in the trunk of the car as Buddy sped away from the prison.” 

Everybody has a different take on Elmore’s work.  We want to see what you think.  Post your choices in The Dutch Forum

Most dog-ear’d:

Be Cool - Funniest
The Hunted - Best shoot-out
Swag - The criminal mind
Pagan Babies - Most literary

Most watched:

Joe Kidd - ‘Cept for the train at the end, a neat little Western
Mr. Majestic - Everyone hates it but me
Be Cool - So cool
Hombre - Man, a great Western, almost like Mr. L wrote it

SWAG
BANDITS
GLITZ
GET SHORTY

Wait…

Um…

UNKNOWN MAN #89
CITY PRIMEVAL
FREAKY DEAKY
LABRAVA

But…

Um…

KILLSHOT
52 PICK-UP
CAT CHASER
RUM PUNCH

Or…

Um…

OUT OF SIGHT….

(you get the idea)

Swag, City Primeval, Unknown Man #89 and The Switch.

I picked these 4 because they all feature characters that were featured in multiple books written in different decades. These are also my four favorite Elmore books.

My four that go down easy after rolling a fat ‘yobie.’

Tishomingo Blues
Road Dogs
The Switch
Split Images

My Top 4
SWAG - read this now
STICK - then read this
PAGAN BABIES - the awards are arriving next week
TISHOMINGO BLUES - the book that was never a film

That Other Guy’s Top 4
UNKNOWN MAN #89 - Hitchcock liked it
OUT OF SIGHT -  of course
LABRAVA - Noir with a capital N
GLITZ - the one that made him a superstar

Some dude just told me that CITY PRIMEVEL is a really good book.

Have you read the westerens?

Cowboy Bob says 40 LASHES LESS ONE, HOMBRE, are VALDEZ IS COMING are classics.  That’s only three, so he said just read them all.

Who in the hell left GET SHORTY off the list?

My 2nd (Swag) & 3rd (Get Shorty) choices have been influenced largely by reading & posting on this forum. Nearly everyone includes them in their top 5 or whatever. This influencing effect is known as cumulative advantage: I like them because everyone else likes them.

4th choice I’m not really sure. Freaky Deaky, Maximum Bob or Gold Coast, one.

No. 1 I’m sure is Glitz, because it’s so serious and so funny.

My top four is :

Swag - great dialouge,two great criminal characters
The Hot Kid - he captured the era, the writing was better than ever.
Stick - my first,Stick made a very cool read
The Bounty Hunters - a very enjoyable,different western.

Okay i have only read 6 books of his so far.  Those 4 plus 52 Pick UP,Complete Westerns.

I have have Pagan Babies,Killshot,Up in Honey’s Room at home.  I have been obsessed by reading his friend Donald E Westlake books.  His comic crime like God Save the Mark kill me.