I’ll tell you something: my love/hate relationship with Elmore Leonard has just shifted to slightly more into the love side of the equation. I didn’t much care for Pronto but I liked the audio book version of Raylan quite a bit. So I thought I’d leave it up to Riding the Rap to decide if Elmore Leonard was “my thing” or not. I have to admit that I’m beginning to come around. I’m still not a huge fan of his incomplete sentences or his jarring scene shifts, but I really do enjoy his characters, his plotting and his pacing.Riding the Rap is Elmore Leonard’s second Raylan Givens novel and is a pretty fun (not to mention unique) story. It includes characters from Pronto while introducing a whole new cast of rogues for Raylan to tangle with. This time around, however, Raylan isn’t working in any kind of official capacity with the U.S. Marshal’s office. No, Raylan has a friend who’s in trouble and needs his help as a man – not a Marshal. There’s all kinds of fortune telling, gun slinging, detective work, intuition, hugging and life evaluating going on in this one and – surprisingly – I took right to it.Raylan is the kind of character I’ve been waiting my whole reading life for. He’s quiet by solid, firm yet easy going, brave but mild and cool while somewhat old fashioned too. To me, he’s the perfect mix of hair-triggered Wyatt Earp and cool-headed Perry Mason (how’s that for a weird analogy). I can’t seem to get enough of him. Whether it’s re-watching the FX series Justified on Blu-Ray or digging into another Elmore Leonard novel, I always seem to crave more. Sure, I’m not a big fan of Leonard’s writing style, but his characters are so darn good that I still can’t help myself!On the technical end of things, Riding the Rap is still pretty much the same as the other Raylan Givens novels: aggravatingly choppy in parts but not so much as to make it indecipherable. Leonard’s verbiage is flawless – not too flowery while not too bland. His prose is bold and reckless as it should be in any hard-boiled crime novel worth its salt. There were a handful of jarring scene shifts where it might have taken me several sentences to figure out that this new paragraph was in a completely different setting with completely different characters from what I had just been reading. But, overall, Riding the Rap was a really fun novel that I found myself enjoying as I read.The plot was genuinely entertaining. Nothing was overly complex – the bad guys were the bad guys and the good guys were the good guys. The pace moved things right along with maybe - maybe - a slower spot in the middle. However, this was easy to ignore as the cast of characters was pretty tight and each one was pleasant enough to follow during the narrative.All in all, I’d have to say I found Riding the Rap to be right up there with Raylan in the likability range. It was memorable and fairly easy to visualize (whether or not that is due to being made into a TV show is anybody’s guess). Having enjoyed this one to the point where my complaints were more than over shadowed by my enjoyment, I’m going to give it 3 ½ stars – 4 since there are no halvsies on Goodreads.
I think the appeal here is that we crave heroes and we want our heroes to be flawed. We want to see our heroes do the things we know we can't do and at the same time we want to feel superior to them. Elmore Leonard hits the nail on the head with this sentiment. He gives us just enough of the impossible to strike awe and just enough weakness to make us feel hopeful.Elmore Leonard is my guilty pleasure. I know I can always turn to Elmore Leonard when I want great characters and an exciting plot. Riding the Rap is just such a story.Recently I've been bogged down in overreaching literary masterpieces that bored me near to tears. Elmore Leonard to the rescue. This story has an adequate plot but what the author does as well as anyone else in the business is create flawed but realistic characters. The cast in this book includes Raylon Givens, a tough guy US Marshal whose life is kind of a mess and his job doesn't allow for the excitement that he craves.Next up is Chip Ganz, a spoiled rich man who never grew up and now can't pay his gambling debts. Throw in a psychic named Reverand Dawn who might have the gift or might just use her looks and charm to get by. You also have a couple of nasty violent felons and a millionaire bookmaker who can't stay off the sauce long enough to stay out of trouble. These are grit that holds the story together.Leonard doesn't exactly write mysteries so much as create great characters and allow them to interact. It's no wonder that the character of Raylon Givens as been made into a television series. It's also no wonder that many of Elmore Leonard's better stories find their way onto the screen. I have to say I had a fun ride in this book. The ending was never really in doubt but that's not the point of the story. The point of the story is to see Raylon do his thing and be cool while doing it. Maybe I'm just a simplistic reader but sometimes you just want to see a character do his thing and to cheer him on.I'm not going to give it five stars, even though that's my inclination. I know this is a five star book and I know it wasn't that hard for Mr. Leonard to write. However, sometimes I want to remind people who are always looking for the masterpiece that good stories told well will always resonate with the reading public.
What do You think about Riding The Rap (2002)?
U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens. That hat. Them boots. He's a man with a code. His mama raised him to have good manners. You don't go into a person's house uninvited. Or unless you have a warrant. If you have a warrant, then you are justified in busting the door down. As a favor to a friend, Raylan is checking into the whereabouts of Harry Arno, who has been missing for several days. He has been kidnapped by a crew who seem to think he has a great deal of money. An ex-con with the unlikely name of Louis Lewis, Jimmy Deo who wears his pruning shears like a gun, and Chip Ganz, a broke gambler who owes money and has perfect teeth. Dawn Navarro, a pretty, young psychic with her fingernails bitten down to the nub, may or may not figure into the motley mix.Good story. Sure was nice to spend some time with Raylan Givens, even if I could only see him in my mind's eye.
—Zoeytron
I'll start by confessing that I am a huge fan of the FX series Justified, based on the Raylan Givens character. This was my first Elmore Leonard novel, and I must admit that what most caught my attention is how perfectly the television show mimics his style. (I recognized at least one scene that had been "borrowed" by the television series.) This book is not a whodunit, but more Dial M for Murder or Columbo in that it's a "how will he catch them" story. The plot is very straight forward with almost no side plots and the characters don't have much depth, but are very entertaining. You won't be a better person for having read it and it's definitely not challenging, but for a light read that's great on atmosphere you'll find yourself smiling as turn each page (and no annoying commercial breaks!).
—Rick Merrick
Elmore Leonard featured Raylan Givens in two books and one short story, and the TV show based on Raylan, Justified, has already used the entire short story for the pilot, several key scenes from Pronto, and the basic plot from Riding the Rap. And that was just through the first four or five episodes. I like the show so I hope they’ve got a plan for the rest of the series beyond asking Leonard to write faster.This time out retired bookie Harry Arno from Pronto is still causing Raylan grief because his girlfriend, who used to date Harry, still seems to be at his beck and call. When two typical Leonard-style sly-but-stupid criminals decide to kidnap Harry and let him figure out a way to pay for his own ransom, Raylan gets reluctantly drawn into the action. While the kidnappers quickly learn what a pain-in-the-ass Harry is, Raylan is intrigued by Dawn Navvaro, a self-proclaimed psychic who is mixed up in the plot. (Dawn would reappear in Road Dogs.)Raylan was one of my favorite Leonard characters before Hollywood came calling, and I’m absolutely loving the show. It’s also great that it’s bringing some more deserved attention to Leonard’s books. Anyone who likes the show will get a kick out of the original Raylan stories, but Pronto should definitely be read before this one.
—Kemper
