Description
From Publishers Weekly Leonard's ( Get Shorty ) 40th novel is a nearly flawless audio production. Initially, Howard's lackadaisical meter and reading style comes off as flat and unenthused. But as the flavor of the story steeps, his low-key, deliberate delivery sets the perfect pitch for Leonard's stripped down dialogue. His slow cowpoke pace leaves plenty of space for the nuance with which he breathes life into Leonard's characters. Everyone is tough, everyone is cool, and nearly all speak in clipped Hemingway-like sentences. However, Howard carefully assigns each character a specific voice, timber and speed, saving the most calm and cool for Carlos "Carl" Webster, the young, quick-drawing U.S. marshal hero of the tale. The only thing amiss with this package is the music that opens and closes each CD. This is a western tale of shootouts, cattle rustlers and bank robbers. The swanky, sultry jazz music with lilting sax better fits Chandler than L'Amour. Once past these spurious strains, however, the listener is in for a satisfying earful. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Elmore Leonard wrote more than forty books during his long career, including the bestsellers Raylan , Tishomingo Blues , Be Cool , Get Shorty , and Rum Punch , as well as the acclaimed collection When the Women Come Out to Dance , which was a New York Times Notable Book. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight . The short story "Fire in the Hole," and three books, including Raylan , were the basis for the FX hit show Justified . Leonard received the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He died in 2013. Versatile actor Arliss Howard has appeared in films by many renowned directors, including Steven Spielberg, in Amistad and Jurassic Park: The Lost World ; Stanley Kubrick, in Full Metal Jacket ; and Oliver Stone, in Natural Born Killers . From AudioFile Arliss Howard offers a straightforward reading of Leonard's latest, a foray into the 1930s' Wild West. The hot kid of the title is a young U.S. marshal based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who wants to become the most famous lawman in America by nabbing gangsters--Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde. The gangsters, meanwhile, are striving to be number one on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list. This is perfect territory for Leonard, who makes the most of the adventure. Howard adopts the tone of a movie western, reminiscent of John Wayne or John Ford. It's gritty and direct, and it works. The only difficulty is with the high number of quote attributions in Leonard's dialogue-driven book, some of which Howard reads in the voice of the speaker, rather than the narrator. It can be confusing. Otherwise, this is an entertaining listen. R.E.K. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine Read more
Features & Highlights
- Carl Webster, the hot kid of the marshals service, is polite, respects his elders, and can shoot a man driving away in an Essex at four hundred yards. Carl works out of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, federal courthouse in the 1930s, the period of America's most notorious bank robbers. Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, those guys.
- Carl wants to be America's most famous lawman. He shot his first felon when he was fifteen years old. With a Winchester.
- Jack Belmont wants to rob banks, become public enemy number one, and show his dad, an oil millionaire, he can make it on his own.With tommy guns, hot cars, speakeasies, cops and robbers, and a former lawman who believes in vigilante justice, all played out against the flapper period of gun molls and Prohibition,
- The Hot Kid
- is Elmore Leonard -- the true master -- at his best.
- Performed by Arliss Howard
