Here’s some very welcome news. Penguin have undertaken a reissue programme of novels by one of the greatest of American crime fiction practitioners, the matchless Elmore Leonard, as part of the Penguin Modern Classics Crime series. The first three titles are set to publish on 5th June: Swag, The Switch and Rum Punch, which Quentin Tarantino filmed as Jackie Brown. The centenary of Elmore Leonard’s birth takes place later this year, this is the perfect opportunity to revisit the unmatched brilliance of the king of crime.
Rum Punch (1992) is vintage Leonard. Many crooks are amateurs too, and the great chronicler of the kinds of clowns that make life a misery for the rest of us was Elmore Leonard. Rum Punch is one of his Florida novels, featuring an array of classic Leonard types such as Max Cherry, a bail bondsman, and Ordell Robbie, an ambitious psycho who has the Mercedes and attitude and wants more, but is unlikely to achieve this with his posse of loser, weed-smoking ex-cons (junkie criminals rarely fare well in Leonard – see also Fifty-Two Pickup (1974)). Enter Jackie Burke, glamorous but ageing air hostess who is supplementing her income smuggling for Robbie. When she is caught red-handed by a couple of shady cops, Max Cherry raises her bail and falls in love with her at the same time. His problem is how to get her out of her dilemma, while not crossing the cops or Robbie. The usual sly plotting, narrative pace, matter-of-fact offhand violence and sharp street dialogue make for a Leonard classic, but the portraits of Robbie – dumber than he thinks he is – and his risible henchmen are what stick.
Swag and The Switch are equally engaging – and the perfect start for Penguin’s Elmore Leonard reissue initiative.
