Stick

By Elmore Leonard

Book Overview

"A little beauty of a story....A hot, fast read with pungent characters." -- Los Angeles Times "A slam-bang, no-bull action thriller...and nobody but nobody writes better dialogue." -- New York Daily News It's an established fact: Elmore Leonard is "the uncontested master of the crime thriller" ( Washington Post ) who "does crime fiction better than anyone" ( Cleveland Plain Dealer ), and nowhere is this more obvious than in the pages of Stick . One of his most acclaimed noir masterworks, it is the story of ex-con Ernest "Stick" Stickley who's nudged from the straight-and-narrow path when a big time drug dealer randomly selects him to die and a perfect revenge/payday opportunity presents itself. The author of Raylan , featuring U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, the sometimes trigger-happy protagonist of TV's Justified , Leonard is indeed the king, holding court with the best of the best, including Coban and Connally, and the late great John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Robert B. Parker.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060085630
• ISBN13: 9780060085636
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Elmore is just the best!

Every Elmore Leonard book is terrific. This book continues the outstanding characterizations and dialogue that have earned Leonard the reputation of best living crime writer, perhaps of all time.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

This is Elmore Leonard at his finest. It's all here. The spare, clean prose, the dead-on dialogue, and the tight, strong, driven plot shot through with the fatalistic humor of the street. If you have never read an Elmore Leonard book this should be your first. And if you're an old fan, this book will showcase everything that's drawn you to read his other books, and whet your appetite for even more.Much of what Leonard writes now days is throwaway. It's entertaining, but it won't last. Stick is different. My fearless prediction: In another 50 years Stick will be considered a classic, in much the way Damon Runyon's work is today. If I'm wrong, look me up and I'll buy you lunch.

beautifully simple

One of the things that made Shakespeare great was that he was able to make room for common people in his works. Previous authors limited themselves to the lives of the nobility. Stick is remarkable for the unremarkable nature of its characters: small-time crooks, the hired help, the women who hang around money, one yuppie, and one aspiring yuppie. All perfectly rendered in spare prose. Writers should read this book just to admire the craft.

Leonard at his best

This is a hard, fast-paced, joyride of a book. Leonard doesn't write many bad books, but occasionally he seems to run out of ideas. Not this time, though. If you're looking for the perfect busride/planeride/trainride reading, something to keep you absorbed for hours, pick this baby up.JK

one of leonards best

stick manages to keep you guessing through out the book.its a nice crime caper with some surprises thrown in.stick plans to set up a dealer who tried to kill him.he gets help from a pretty blonde woman who knows how to deal with men and money.