scrum, go back to the first page of the thread
started when I had completed the list
in an out of order headlong meandering ramble.
Thus began a rereading of the list in chronological order
Elmore Time
The library had a complete list of titles at that time
but seems to have lost Gunsights since,
honest I didn’t take it.
am waiting for Amazon
to deliver it soon
as I am savoring
The Hunted
knowing
The Switch
waiting for me,
Queen Saulter Branch
appears with Russell Crowe
in the film
Cinderella Man,
summer is a time
for reading
for dreaming
in the garden
ordered a large print edition
type large enough to read the typos
with my first edition Mr. Majestyk
Gunsights will double my personal EL collection
not expecting any disruption in flow of messier
except perhaps time required to harmonize
dstrings and my clarinet
Swag 1976
They crossed off gas stations and altered a couple of their ten rules for success and happiness, finding it was all right to be polite, but you still had to scare the guy enough so he’d know better than to try and be a hero. It was all right, to dress well, look presentable. But they realized they’d better not become typecast or pretty soon the police would be writing a book on the two dudes who always wore business suits and said please and thank you. So they wore jackets sometimes, and raincoats. Stick had a pair of coveralls he liked he’d bought at J. C. Penney. They were comfortable and no one seemed to bother looking at him. Frank liked his pale-tan safari jacket with the epaulets. Very sharp, big in California. He liked the way the Python rested in the deep side pocket and didn’t show. Usually, after a job, they kept the guns locked in the glove compartment of the T-bird. Stick thought they should put them away somewhere, hidden. But Frank said it was better to have them handy; they saw a place they liked, they were ready. Keep them in the apartment, some inquisitive broad could be snooping around and find them. Ho ho, what’re these two business types doing with loaded firearms? Stick wasn’t convinced, but he couldn’t think of a better place to keep them.
Speaking of rules, Stick said maybe there was one more they should add. Number Eleven. Never try and hold up an Armenian.
Second Detroit crime story, Elmore antiheroes, I dare say the first of many to follow,
Frank Ryan, no relation to Jack except he “knows” Maurice “Sportree” Jackson
who knows Leon Woody, the very same Leon Woody that taught Jack Ryan how to B&E;in the Big Bounce back story,
Earnest J. “Stick” Stickely who will reappear in his own novel later.
Balanced between two persona right from the opening page this is really Stick’s story, narrative viewpoint.
How do these two guys get into Robbery, Armed?
Stick already stealing cars to further his lot in life is a hard working truck driver getting only bad breaks.
Frank, smooth used car salesman at Red Bowers Chevrolet on Telegraph, has been making a study on how to get Money, Easy.
How do they do it and how much fun is it?
A note here re the Rules written on cocktail napkins,
Elmore Leonard is right here having a drink with us, perhaps his last, so enjoy it because the wagon is coming.
Halfway through the story we come, after many adventures, to “the big job”
even though everything is saying “NO” Stick goes for it
even though it should work out right,
he should get the girl and live happily,
see his little girl,
separation anxiety,
she’ll be 16 when next they meet.
There are no black and white hats
Hats are in fact an ongoing touchstone of Dutch’s work
Heroes and villains alike sporting expressive brims
