Road Dogs

Like no Other

The book was better than great which one would expect from E.L. The good guys aren't really good, the bad guys are so bad, the girls are so sexy and treacherous. You are in it, the reality of the convict world grabs you by the throat.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Really good, but no plot.

CD/unabridged: This novel is a sequel of three other characters in two other Leonard books. This is my first Elmore Leonard book and I found it very entertaining. However, there wasn't really a plot. Jack Foley, the charming bank robber, meets Cundo Rey in prison. During the course of the story, they are both released and into the clutches of Dawn.
I was always waiting for something to happen.
Frances James does a narrative of the story. Jack Foley is smooth and reminds me of Micheal on Burn Notice. Cundo is on the lower ranks of humanity and Dawn is out for herself. I don't know if I would have been happy reading this, but it was a entertaining audio.

Not Leornard's Best, but It Still Works

I am am Elmore Leonard fan; so, when I see one of his books, I will get one. I especially like When the Women Come Out To Dance, Get Shorty and Be Cool (to name only a few). What I love is his use of language. He is a master at capturing the spirit of a culture and, his characters pop off the page. On top of that, many of plots are clever and have so many twists and turns that Lombard Street (in San Francisco) would be impressed.

However, one cannot always be on (Terry Pratchett an exception). Road Dogs is entertaining, but not deep. It won't rate with Hammett, but is in line with another fave of mine, Robert B Parker. The writing is always top-notch, the characters are interesting, and the story moves along nicely. It just won't blow your socks off. I was not compelled to read it in the way I was with other works where I couldn't put it down. Regardless, I couldn't help but pick it up and smile.

So, I did enjoy myself, and any fan of Leonard's will. If this is your first time reading his stuff, though, try Maximum Bob, Get Shorty or one of his westerns.

Road Dogs is undomesticated fun and best-in-show at the book club

Elmore Leonard has a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue and an unfettered writing style. Jack Foley and Cundo Rey are his road dogs (prison buddies) who, despite their differences in age, size, and criminal style, are bonded for life. Dawn Navarro is the dream girl every man wants to sleep with and the nightmare wife some men end up with. Leonard's characters are absolutely real while plot twits roles out like unexpected curves on the PCH, revealing breathtaking landscapes of human behavior. It's a hell of a book.

just okay, expected more

Two guys meet in prison, form a friendship and one (Cundo) helps the other (Jack) get his sentence reduced. Now Jack owes Cundo, or does he? Outside, Jack stays at Cundo's house, meets Cundo's woman and waits for Cundo to get released. Oh, did I mention that Jack has an FBI agent hounding him, waiting for him to rob another bank? What we have here is a peculiar group of characters who definitely are not being honest with each other. "Road Dogs" is filled with witty dialogue, but with a plot that doesn't hold for the full length of the novel. It was enjoyable but there has been better from Elmore Leonard.

return characters and the passage of time

i found this book enjoyable. it has the same "old guy just telling you a story" feel to it. it's got that element of ridiculous that makes things so real because they sound like such bull at times. there is some repetition here - and i suppose this could rub you wrong or right, depending on your taste. i found the surfacing of some familiar names and faces, and they were surfacing in new times and set ups. it took me forward and brought me back. the book reads fast. if you don't end up loving it, you're only out a couple of sittings.

Trite & Overrated

I don't know how this guy gets away with good reviews. I know the NYT and some of the elites think he is original. He was at one time but no more. He is now writing for the Long Island crowd that used to hire hippies to entertain at their Saturday night parties during the sixties or the Leonard Bernstein crowd that enjoyed an evening with the Black Panthers. Leonard is now a certified Limousine Liberal for whom he now writes. He was good before he had to try so hard to be authentic. Too much time in Hollywood?

I found this book boring. For some Southampton clown or Imas who wants to be "with it" it might be interesting. Leonard is not the NYT or the New Yorker, thank heavens for that, but his writing for that crowd of effete hypocrites and ,as far as I am concerned, has overstayed its interest level. He will continue to draw the ever evolving boring crowd referred to above.

Good to meet some old characters again

My one recommendation is that if the reader read the books with these characters in the a while ago (like me) that they reread the books they were in to get reacquainted with them.

Otherwise, this was a good book. Leonard goes into good detail, if you've ever been to Venice, he did an ecellent jod describing it--I felt like I was right there. The book had the typical plot twists of a Leonard novel. I just hope he writes another novel with Foley in it, as I especially like hi scharacter.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Leonard (Almost Doesn't) Does It Again

Leonard revisits familiar, yet lush, territory with this work. While this opus looks familiar in spots, Leonard's ear for dialogue and characters saves Road Dogs from retread status. All in all, a good read.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Reviewed for Midwest Book Review

Elmore Leonard brings back three characters from previous books for an encore performance in his latest comedic foray into the criminal world. Bank robber Jack Foley (Out of Sight), and Cundo Rey (LaBrava), meet in prison and quickly become friends, referring to themselves as Road Dogs. Rey's lawyer has arranged for his early release from prison and Rey offers her services to Foley, who's in for thirty years. She manages to get Foley's prison term reduced to thirty months and Foley is released two weeks before Rey. Rey offers Foley one of his houses in Venice Beach but admonishes him to keep his hands off his girlfriend, Dawn (Riding the Rap), a psychic/ghost hunter patiently waiting for Rey's release so she can con him out of his millions. When she meets Foley, Dawn knows he is her way to the money and tries to work her magic on him. Foley is intrigued but distracted by an FBI agent tailing him, waiting to capture him after he robs his next bank.

As usual, Leonard adroitly moves the story forward through realistic, at times quirky, dialogue and the inner thoughts of some pretty wacky people. He excels at delivering entertaining scenes of duplicity and complicity among characters on the wrong and right side of the law. Foley takes the lead in this comedy and is a cool guy who manages to stay one step ahead of those who have no qualms about taking him out, legally or illegally. The interplay between Foley and the others will keep the readers turning pages, laughing along the way. This is one fun read.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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