By Joel Lyczak on Wednesday, August 14, 2002 - 04:30 pm:
An idea for an addition to the web-site.
Call it: TOUCHSTONES;

A person, event, or something that links one Leonard novel with another.

By Gregg Sutter (Admin) on Wednesday, August 14, 2002 - 04:43 pm:
I’m all for it. Let’s see what happens.

By graveljoe on Wednesday, August 14, 2002 - 05:10 pm:
Of course, there’s a lot of characters that appear in more than one novel (Raylon Givens, Harry Arno, Stick, Chili), but I’m halfway through Freaky Deaky and have already found three connections from this book to others:

The character Donnell was in a club where they were playing “Tishamingo Blues” (as it was spelled in Freaky Deaky).

The cop Wendell Robinson appeared in City Primeval.

Also, this might be a stretch, but Donnell is unable to swim, whi

By Gregg Sutter (Admin) on Wednesday, August 14, 2002 - 05:28 pm:
Quote short passages that underscore the connection.

By graveljoe on Thursday, August 15, 2002 - 12:05 am:
I think my first two “touchstones” are fairly self-explanatory, so here are passages for the last one:

From Cat Chaser:

Moran hammered him with a straight left [...] and Rafi stumbled back, over the side of the pool. He landed on his back, smacking the water hard, went under and came up waving his arms, gasping. [...]
“Relax will you. Take it easy.”
Moran glanced around to see the girl, Loret next to him now, calmly watching Rafi in the water.
“Can’t he swim?”
“I don’t know,” the girl said. “It don’t look like it.”

From Freaky Deaky:

Chris reached behind Donnell with one hand and gave him a shove. It didn’t take much. Donnell yelled “Hey!” off balance, waved his arms in the air, hit the water and went under. Chris hunched over, hands on his knees. He watched Donnell’s head come up, saw his eyes, his chin pointing, straining, the look of panic, arms fighting the water.
Chris said, “You don’t know how to swim, do you?”

Just a similar element I noticed in two great, very different novels.

By CD on Thursday, August 15, 2002 - 06:15 am:
How about Vincent Majestek? A Vietnam vet watermellon farmer who is a fighting machine in Mr. Majestek

Then in a small part, Majestek is a older,wiser, and overweight owner of a resort on Lake Michigan in the Big bounce.

Interesting the Big Bounce came out in 1969.
Mr. Majestek in 1974.A prequel of sorts,I guess
I hope my facts are right.

By Gregg Sutter (Admin) on Thursday, August 15, 2002 - 06:42 am:
Not the same guy. Connection of name only

By Gregg Sutter (Admin) on Monday, August 19, 2002 - 08:02 am:
Come on experts!
Do I have to give away prizes?

Which location has been used in the most books?

Which character has been used or mentioned in the most books?

By graveljoe on Monday, August 19, 2002 - 10:16 am:
Gregg,

Do you mean DETROIT? That was too obvious to mention—it’s practically synonymous w/Dutch. Are you going for a more specific location, like the police station at 1300 Beaubien, or one of the other Motown streets? Or a particular area of South Florida?

As far as the character, the ones I mentioned in a previous post were in at least two novels, along with Ray Nicolet, Jimmy Cap, and the bad guys from Rum Punch. But if it’s not one of them, I’m stumped.

Please tell us—the only prize I want is Elmore expertise.

By Robb on Thursday, August 22, 2002 - 05:26 pm:
Jack Foley (from Out of Sight)is Cully’s (from Bandits) nephew.

Jack Foley, “I starting driving for my Uncle Culley… ...I did 27 months… ...Cully did 27 years.”

By Gregg Sutter (Admin) on Thursday, August 22, 2002 - 05:36 pm:
That’s what I’m talking about!

By Robb on Friday, August 23, 2002 - 11:36 pm:
OUT OF SIGHT connections

Raymond Cruz is in City Primeval. He is also in Out of Sight.

The bar, Galligan’s in Detroit, was in Freaky Deaky and in Out of Sight. I am sure it is in other books.

Snoop’s girl, Moselle Miller, is in Out of Sight and she is the one who called Juicy’s boss in Freaky Deaky. I can’t remember his name, but he sat down on the chair with the bomb.

“I was with a man before Maurice… ...I spoke to him on the phone… ...He sat down… ...he got blown up.”

There are a million connections in his books. I forget to write them down. His westerns have a bunch, also. Sundeen, Vega, Yuma, Early, Bo, Moon, etc. Bo, Early, and Moon are mentioned in Gunsights, Cuba Libre, and/or “Hurrah for Capt. Early”.

By Gregg Sutter (Admin) on Saturday, August 24, 2002 - 08:02 am:
Interesting thing abot Raymond Cruz. He was in another book and removed.

Which book?

Why?

By Robb on Saturday, August 24, 2002 - 11:36 am:
Split Images. I have no idea why?

Jack Ryan is mentioned in another book besides The Big Bounce and Unknown Man #89. Was it Stick?

By Gregg Sutter (Admin) on Saturday, August 24, 2002 - 12:10 pm:
Elmore started to write another Raymond Cruz novel (like City Primeval) but changed the detective to Bryan Hurd and “lightened his moustache.

The reason? United Artists owned the character name and his agent didn’t want to tie up another book. Especially since City Primeval aka “Hang Tough” was in turnaround.

Can you find the one instance where the copy editor did not replace Raymond with Bryan in Split Images? Warning: I’ll have to check with EL to see if this blooper was corrected in the HaperCollins reprint.

As for Jack Ryan. Of course it was Frank Ryan in Swag and mentioned in Stick. I think it was just the two books, but I’ll check.

By Robb on Saturday, August 24, 2002 - 04:04 pm:
I think Jack Ryan is mentioned in Stick, maybe Swag. I gave away my only copies of those books. I remember one of the characters saying something like, “I don’t remember Frank Ryan. I do remember a guy named Jack Ryan. We did some business back in the days.” They were talking about Frank Ryan at the time and mentioned Jack.