The Hot Kid
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.81 (826 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1491507195 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 439 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-09-05 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
A few weeks later, he killed his first man—a cattle thief who was rustling his dad's stock. Carlos Webster was fifteen in the fall of 1921 the first time he came face-to-face with a nationally known criminal. Now Carlos, called Carl, is the hot kid of the U.S. Marshals Service, one of the elite manhunters currently chasing the likes of Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd across America's Depression-ravaged heartland.Carl wants to be the country's most famous lawman.Jack Belmont, the bent son of an oil millionaire, wants to be public enemy number one.Tony Antonelli of True Detective magazine wants to write about this world of cops and robbers, molls and speakeasies from perilously close up.Then there are the hot dames—Louly and Elodie—hooking their schemes and dreams onto dangerous men.And before the gunsmoke clears, everybody just might end up getting exactly what he or she wished for….
We’re in the early 30's here, just as a dust cloud is rolling across the Oklahoma plains--the days of Bonnie and Clyde, when gangsters captured the public attention, and Leonard makes good use of place and time. A show-down between Tulsa oil wildcatter and millionaire Oris Belmont and his 18-year-old son, who's attempting to shake him down, says all there is to say about both men: "I don’t know what's wrong with you. His minor characters are much more interesting than his protagonists, especially the women, and the writing shows occasional flashes of his trademarked ironic humor. But it's not as cool--or as hot--as even his most dedicated readers are used to, and there's barely a trace of the bizarre plot twists and unlikely coincidences that define his most recent caper novels in this one. Before Elmore Leona
"Bang Bang Crime Novel Set Amidst Oklahoma's Oil Boom" according to Richard Seeley. This is one of many novels that will cause the late Elmore Leonard's readers to miss him all the more. Set in the Pretty Boy Floyd era of the Oklahoma oil boom, the story pits Carl Webster, a newly minted hot shot young deputy U.S. marshal, against the bad guys who plied their nasty trade between Tulsa and Kansas City. Although this crime story is set in Depression-era Oklahoma, it harkens back to the shoot'em up Westerns that Leonard wrote earlier in his career. Deputy Marshal Webster always warns the evildoers in advance that if he has to draw his gun, he'll shoot to k. "the one they should have made a tv series" according to John F. Montag. nothing against Raylon Givens, but Marshall Carlos Webster is a man with a story! one of EL's longer novels, it's a bit episodic, with a string of intertwining conflicts. this, of course, gives EL plenty of opportunity to develop some interesting characters--rotten hearts, gorgeous molls, and idiot gangsters--who people the land around Tulsa in the most memorable way. I've read around half of EL's novels, and this may be my favorite so far.. John Kotula said It's written by Elmore Leonard. What more do you need to know?. Elmore Leonard tells a great story here. He tells it clearly and engagingly, effortlessly presenting wonderful characters, period details, and plenty of action. At the same time, he is commenting on the all the richness of story telling; how to tell a story, what to put in what to leave out, what kind of language to use. I was sad to come to the end. Fortunately, some of the same characters reappear in Up In Honey's Room, a sexier, more violent, funnier book, if you can imagine!