God really is in the dialogue. It crackles, it snaps, it moves forwards, back and sideways, and carries the narrative. Like all Leonard's best books, though, THE HOT KID belongs to the characters. He manages his magic with such savvy that you come to care about them when they might otherwise have been mere caricatures or cartoons... the dialogue is like a cocktail with Carl and Virgil Webster on the front porch of the California-style bungalow on the pecan plantation in Oklahoma; a good belt of sour mash, a slice of juicy orange and a dash of sugar for sweetness. THE TIMES Before becoming the world's greatest crime writer, Elmore Leonard made his name as an author of such westerns as Last Stand at Saber River and Hombre. With The Hot Kid, he now combines both genres to create a story in which the flinty violence of his cowboy fiction is enhanced by the ironic verve of his detective books. -- STEPHEN AMIDON SUNDAY TIMES The Hot Kid is the quintessence of gangster chic... As the Model Ts rattle across the wide-open spaces, you can see the dust trails unfurl behind them, hear the jazz on the soundtrack. -- MARK SANDERSON EVENING STANDARD clearly destined for the silver screen... it will appeal to the solid fan base, of which there are millions. And to sum up the plot in one word: kerpow! DAILY EXPRESS Leonard. lovingly captures Oklahma right before the dust-bowl years, when it was the oil capital of the world... More suprisingly for such an avowedly unwriterly writer, Leonard also finds room to comment on his own literary methods... while I've read more straightforwardly thrilling Leonard novels, The Hot Kid is among the richest and the most satisfying. -- JAMES WALTON DAILY TELEGRAPH The background of Prohibition, molls, hot cars and vigilante justice is perfect for Leonard's particularly laconic style of crime writing, fizzing with wit and insight, and not a word wasted. DAILY MAIL A minor masterpiece -- MAXIM JAKUBOWSKI THE GUARDIAN Leonard just keeps on getting better and better. THE SCOTSMAN right back on form. Tremendous stuff! INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY As ever with the writer of Get Shorty and Rum Punch, every scene is littered with no-good chancers from society's darker corners. But here Leonard's humour is subservient to a patchwork of rollicking vignettes of Prohibition-era Oklahoma and a sharp appreciation of the allure of the villain... he writes the most colourful baddies. METRO Like many of Leonard's recent works, THE HOT KID features an ensemble cast which emerges into the story line fully grown and so vivid it's hard to appreciate the members were ever an idea in a writer's head... likely to endure. SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY ... a kind of hybrid of the author's early westerns and his latter-day crime novesl... The end result is one of his strongest pieces in ages. Not for nothing do they call him the King of Crime... as good as it gets. THE HERALD uber slick crime writing with dialogue as snappy as a bright young thing's text messages... Elmore Leonard is the alpha male of the crime writers' world - successful, rich, prolific and the best. If you haven't Elmored before, get on with it. IRISH EXAMINER This is a welcome 40th novel from Elmore Leonard and has the mark of his best work. The language is spare and punchy and has more in common with earlier western tales than with later gangster novels... A great, hot, dusty novel. IRELAND ON SUNDAY a western which examines the nature of myth making and stardom and does it wonderfully... As always, his attention to spoken rhythm is second to none, his distilled style again the perfect way to tell the story. SUNDAY TRIBUNE The King of serious literary crime returns with a classy fable of justice and retribution set in 1930s Oklahoma... Studded with knowing reflections on celebrity and the business of crime writing, this latest is all you'd expect from Elmore Leonard plus a bit more. BLOOMBERG.COM Relentlessly stripped-down dialogue, laconic, fast and funny... Leonard has produced an affectionate, unsentimental history of bad times past. Racy, well-remembered. Irresistible. LITERARY REVIEW an utter delight from start to violent finish. IRISH INDEPENDENT
