Raylan

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Overview

The revered New York Times bestselling author, recognized as "America's greatest crime writer" (Newsweek), brings back U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, the laconic, Stetson-wearing, fast-drawing lawman of Pronto, Riding the Rap, and the hit FX series Justified in this dark and droll page-turner filled with the sparkling dialogue and sly suspense that are the hallmarks of this modern master.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

MWA Grand Master Leonard’s fast-paced, darkly humorous third crime novel starring straight-shooting, supercool U.S. marshal Raylan Givens (after 1995’s Riding the Rap) pits Givens, a former coal miner from Harlan County, Ky., against three very different female crooks—a transplant nurse illegally harvesting organs, a viperous coal company vice president, and a poker-playing Butler University coed, who may or may not be robbing banks to support her habit. The author’s trademark witty dialogue and adeptness at developing quirky, memorable characters overshadows the novel’s plot, which reads like a series of interconnected short stories. For example, the plights of perpetually stoned dope dealers Dickie and Coover Crowe; their infamous father, Pervis “Speed” Crowe; and out-of-work miner Otis Culpepper serve to highlight the economic issues affecting Kentucky coal country. Readers will want to see more of the endearing Givens, the focal character of Justified, the popular FX TV series that starts its third season in early 2012. Agent: Jeff Posternak, the Andrew Wylie Agency. (Feb.)

Library Journal

Deputy U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens first appeared in Pronto and Riding the Rap. Then Raylan, as portrayed by actor Timothy Olyphant, became the hero of the hit Fox television series Justified. Now Leonard lays down another splendidly grimy crime yarn featuring his law-enforcing protagonist. Raylan finds himself drawn into a bizarre set of cases involving drug dealers, moonshiners, coal-mining conglomerates, and the urban legend-like harvesting of human organs. Yes, siree, Harlan County, KY, ain't no sleepy bunch of tree-lined hollers no more. Raylan, true to character, is willing to allow cocky law breakers enough leash to choke themselves. The bolder ones wind up in front of his pistol. VERDICT Leonard lovers will find the fascinatingly twisted personalities common to his fiction here, along with memorable trademark Leonard moments of humor, grit, and greed. Raylan will play well with his current popularity and won't disappoint fans of the books and the show. [See Prepub Alert, 8/21/11.]—Russell Miller, Prescott P.L., AZ

More Reviews (3) Fewer Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Raylan Givens, the U.S. Marshal who brought law and order to Pronto (1993), is back in a series of three interlinked stories disguised as a novel. The first and most successful of the stories complicates Raylan's apprehension of marijuana trader Angel Arenas with the discovery that the dealers with whom Angel was meeting left with his money, his grass and his kidneys, which they propose to sell back to him for $100,000 (the price they demand for either one or both). Raylan's questioning of Pervis Crowe, eastern Kentucky's top marijuana grower, soon leads him to a transplant nurse known, for excellent reasons, as Layla the Dragon Lady. Their encounter ends with a sizable body count and Pervis's oath of vengeance. Raylan's second adventure pits him against Carol Conlan, a law-school–trained vice president of M-T Mining, whose skills in dealing with the problems that beset her employer extend far beyond the courtroom. After their conflict ends in a standoff, Leonard introduces still another strong woman, poker-playing Butler College student Jackie Nevada, who's staked by aging horseman Harry Burgoyne, who'd appeared more briefly in the first tale. The villain of this third piece, Delroy Lewis, forces three of his female acquaintances to rob banks and then gets mighty annoyed when one of them ends up with an exploding dye packet. The fadeout finds Leonard acting as if he's wrapped everything up, but you have to wonder. A master's valedictory canter around a familiar track—an unimpressive job of carpentry that's still treasurable for Leonard's patented dialogue and some truly loopy situations handled with deadpan brio.

Olen Steinhauer

This sounds bleak, and it is. But in addition to kinetic storytelling and spot-on dialogue, Leonard has a cool wit…[Raylan] Givens's one-line declarations help ease the reader through the desolate landscape, and so do Leonard's lively, idiosyncratic characters.
—The New York Times Book Review

The Barnes & Noble Review

There's a streak of perversity in Elmore Leonard, contemporary American fiction's master of dialogue, choosing the laconic cowboy type as a hero for his crime fiction. True, Leonard started out writing westerns, but the characters who populate his crime stories are talkers, some profane, some funny, some sarcastic, many all at once. But they are talkers.

Raylan Givens, the U.S. marshal who first appeared in Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole" and has since become the hero of the FX series Justified, occupies the center of Leonard's Raylan, essentially a couple of long short stories woven loosely into a novel. Leonard's Raylan is a bit more upfront about his appetites than he is in Timothy Olyphant's wittily underplayed portrayal of the character in the series. He's still no chatterbox, though.

Both Raylan and Justified are contemporary westerns, moving the conventions of horse opera to present-day Kentucky. Oxycontin ("hillbilly heroin," as it's called in one episode) has supplemented moonshine, but much else is still the same. Raylan is the upright, no-nonsense lawman, and the villains he faces (many of them) are the type of inbred bad news who caused problems for decent, law-abiding folks in pictures like My Darling Clementine, Man of the West, and Ride the High Country. Raylan, like every great western hero, is burdened by his own reputation, which in his case stems from the time he gave a Miami drug kingpin twenty-four hours to get out of town (and blew the bastard away when he didn't). That gets Raylan reassigned to the hometown he wanted to escape, back in the same territory with his scheming con man daddy, his ex-wife, and his high school crush, who's just taken permanent revenge on her abusive husband.

Leonard's novels have inspired some fine adaptations, both in movies (Out of Sight, Jackie Brown, the relatively unseen Killshot) and on TV (the late, lamented Karen Cisco). Justified may be the best anyone has done at capturing the novelist's mordant, flippant tone. The various brands of mayhem that have turned up on the show are greeted by victims and lawmen alike with a "Well, whadd're you gonna do?" shrug. As Raylan, Olyphant is what you might have seen if the young Gary Cooper had been a put-on artist. The marshal is a hot pistol who's had to learn to play it cool. His ten-gallon hat might be the cork that keeps his inner volcano from blowing. Much of the time Olyphant, who moves through each episode in lean, clean strides, seems to be privately amused by the corruption of the fools who mess with him.

As a novel, Raylan is a casual endeavor, Leonard having fun with a character who's gained a measure of popularity. It's also a pisser. Leonard has come up with some doozies for the plot: the dimwit sons of a backwoods pot grower joining in a scheme to swipe kidneys and then ransom them back for replacement in the victims' bodies; a female coal company exec who, annoyed with a local's complaints about the pollution caused by strip mining, picks up a rifle and shoots the old man. The violence here has the swift kick of a good, mean joke. It makes you wince and grin at the same time.

Raylan's a straight arrow, but he's not a stick-in-the-mud. He's not too upright to consider a dalliance with the transplant nurse who's masterminding the kidney-swiping scheme or that coal company exec, who hires him as her bodyguard. (His common sense wins out — by a hair — over his libido.) The compressed form of the stories is perfect for a writer who long ago learned to pare away every extraneous word.

There's another reason Leonard's creation and the TV show it spawned have clicked. A hero who sees the irony in being the tall, true man of the law — and is anyway — may be the only kind of traditional hero we can believe in now. In recent years, "cowboy" has come to be an epithet denoting ill-advised American military adventuring. But what's denigrated as cowboy behavior is almost always more appropriate to the recklessness of the outlaw that the westerner faces. Raylan keeps his own counsel, considers the consequences before he acts, tells those who oppose him what the consequences are, uses violence when it's called for but never revels in it and would just as soon avoid it. Among the other pleasures Leonard and his Kentucky lawman provide, they've restored the cowboy's good name.

Charles Taylor has written for numerous publications, includingSalon, The Boston Phoenix, and The New York Times Book Review.

Reviewer: Charles Taylor

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780062119469
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 1/17/2012
Pages: 263
Sales rank: 1,476
Product dimensions: 6.10 (w) x 9.10 (h) x 1.20 (d)

Meet the Author

Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard has written forty-five books during his highly successful writing career, and many of his novels have been made into movies. Leonard is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives in Bloomfield Village, Michigan.

Biography

Elmore Leonard has written more than three dozen books during his highly successful writing career, including the bestsellers Be Cool, Get Shorty and Rum Punch. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. He is the recipient of the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife in Bloomfield Village, Michigan.

Author biography courtesy of HarperCollins.

1. Also Known As:
  
  Elmore John Leonard Jr.
  Elmore Leonard
2. Hometown:
  
  Bloomfield Village, Michigan
1. Date of Birth:
  
  October 11, 1925
2. Place of Birth:
  
  New Orleans, Louisiana
1. Education:
  
  B.Ph., University of Detroit, 1950
2. Website:
  
  http://www.elmoreleonard.com/

Read an Excerpt

Raylan

A Novel

By Elmore Leonard

William Morrow

Copyright © 2012 Elmore Leonard
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780062119469

Chapter One

Chapter One
Raylan Givens was holding a federal warrant to serve on a man in the marijuana
trade known as Angel Arenas, forty-seven, born in the U.S. but 100 percent
of him Hispanic.
"I met him," Raylan said, "the time I was on court duty
in Miami and he was up for selling khat. That Arab plant you
chew on and get high."
"Just medium high," Rachel Brooks said, in the front seat
of the SUV, Raylan driving, early morning sun showing behind
them. "Khat's just catchin on, grown in California, big in San Diego
among real Africans."
"You buy any, you want to know it was picked that morning," Raylan said.
"It gives you a high for the day and that's it."
"I have some friends," Rachel said, "like to chew it now and
then. They never get silly, have fun with it. They just seem to
mellow out."
"Get dreamy," Raylan said.
"What'd Angel go down for?"
"Thirty- six months out of forty and went back to selling
weed. Violated his parole. He was supposed to have made a deal
through that Rastafarian ran the Church?"
"Temple of the Cool and Beautiful J.C.," Rachel said.
"Israel Fendi, with the dreads, Ethiopian by way of Jamaica. Was
he in the deal?"
"Never went near it. But somebody put the stuff on Angel, some doper looking
for a plea deal. Swears Angel was taking delivery last night.
I doubt we walk in and find Angel sitting on it."
From the backseat they heard Tim Gutterson say, "He's looking
at two hundred and forty months this time." Tim going
through a file folder of Angel Arenas photos came to a mug shot.
"Look at that grin. Nothing about him armed and dangerous."
"He never packs," Raylan said, "that I know of. Or has gun thugs hanging around."
The SUV was traveling through a bottom section of East
Kentucky, creeping along behind the state troopers' radio cars,
following a lake that looked more like a river looping around on
its way down past the Tennessee line. A few minutes shy of 6:00
a.m. they pulled up to the Cumberland Inn.
The state troopers, four of them, watched Raylan and his crew slip on Kevlar vests,
which they wore underneath their U.S. marshal jackets,
and watched them check their sidearms.
Raylan told the officers he didn't expect Angel would resist, but
you never knew for sure.
He said, "You hear gunfire come running, all right?"
One of the troopers said, "You want, we'll bust in the door
for you."
"You're dying to," Raylan said. "I thought I'd stop by the
desk and get a key."
The troopers got a kick out of this marshal, at one time a
coal miner from Harlan County but sounded like a lawman, his
attitude about his job. This morning they watched him enter a
fugitive felon's motel room without drawing his gun.
There wasn't a sound but the hum of air conditioning. Sunlight
from the windows lay on the king size bed, unmade but
thrown together, the spread pulled up over bedding and pillows.
Raylan turned to Rachel and nodded to the bed. Now he stepped
over to the bathroom door, not closed all the way, listened and
then shoved it open.
Angel Arenas's head rested against the curved end of the
bathtub, his hair floating in water that came past his chin, his
eyes closed, his body stretched out naked in a tub filled close to
the brim with bits of ice in water turning pink.
Raylan said, "Angel . . . ?" Got no response and kneeled at
the tub to feel Angel's throat for a pulse. "He's freezing to death
but still breathing."
Behind him he heard Rachel say, "Raylan, the bed's full of
blood. Like he was killing chickens in there." And heard her say,
"Oh my God," sucking in her breath as she saw Angel.
Raylan turned the knob to let the water run out, lowering
it around Angel, his belly becoming an island in the tub of ice
water, blood showing in two places on the island.
"He had something done to him," Raylan said. "He's got
like staples closing up what look like wounds. Or was he
operated on?"
"Somebody shot him," Tim said.
"I don't think so," Raylan said, staring at the two incisions
stapled closed.
Rachel said, "That's how they did my mother last year,
at UK Medical. Made one entry below the ribs and the other
under her belly button. I asked her why they did it there 'stead of
around through her back."
Tim said, "You gonna tell us what the operation was?"
"They took out her kidneys," Rachel said. "Both of 'em, and
she got an almost new pair the same day, from a child who'd
drowned."
They wrapped Angel in a blanket, carried him into the bedroom
and laid him on the spread, the man shuddering, trying to
breathe. His eyes closed he said to Raylan staring at him, "What
happen to me?"
"You're here making a deal?"
Angel hesitated. "Two guys I know, growers. We have a
drink— "
"And you end up in the tub," Raylan said. "How much you
pay them?"
"Is none of your business."
"They left the weed?"
"What you see," Angel said.
"There isn't any here."
Angel's eyes came open. "I bought a hundred pounds,
twenty-two thousand dollar. I saw it, I tried some."
"You got taken," Raylan said. "They put you out and left
with the swag and the weed."
Now his eyes closed and he said, "Man, I'm in pain," his
hands under the blanket feeling his stomach. "What did they
take out of me?"
Raylan felt his pulse again. "He's hangin' in, tough little
whatever he is, Sorta Rican? I can see these growers ripping him
off, but why'd they take his kidneys?"
"It's like that old story," Tim said. "Guy wakes up missing a kidney.
Has no idea who took it. People bring it up from time to
time, but nobody ever proved it happened."
"It has now," Raylan said.
"You can't live without kidneys," Tim said.
"Be hard," Raylan said. "Less you get on dialysis pretty
quick. What I don't see, what these pot growers are doing yanking
out people's kidneys. They aren't making it selling weed? I've
heard a whole cadaver, selling parts of it at a time? Will go for a
hundred grand. But you make more you sell enough weed, and
it isn't near as messy as dealing kidneys. What I'm wondering . . ."
He paused, thinking about it.
Tim said, "Yeah . . . ?"
"Who did the surgery?"
About noon, Art Mullen, Marshal in charge of the Harlan
field office, came by the motel to find Raylan still poking around
the room.
Art said, "You know what you're looking for?"
"Techs dusted the place," Raylan said, "picked up Angel's
clothes, bloody dressings, surgical staples, an empty sack of Mail
Pouch, but no kidneys. How's Angel doing?"
"They got him in intensive care, maintaining."
"He's gonna make it?"
"I think what keeps him alive," Art said, "he's half out but
mad as hell these weed dealers ripped him off. Took what he
paid for the reefer— if you believe him— and left him to die."
"Didn't mention," Raylan said, "they took his kidneys?"
"I kept making the point," Art said. " 'Tell me who these
boys are, we'll get your kidneys back for you.' He commenced to
breathe hard and the nurse shooed me out. No, but his kidneys,"
Art said, "were taken out by someone knew what he was doing."
Raylan said, "They were taken out the front."
"They're always taken out the front. Only this was the latest
procedure. Smaller incision and they don't cut through any
muscle."
"I'd like to see Angel," Raylan said, "less you don't want
me to. I've known him since that time he was brought up for selling khat.
When I was on court duty in Miami. Angel and I
got along pretty good," Raylan said. "I think he believes I saved
his life."
"You probably did."
"So he oughta be willing to talk to me."
"He's at Cumberland Regional," Art said. "Maybe they'll let
you see him, maybe not. Where're your partners?"
"There wasn't anything pressing— I told 'em go on back to
Harlan."
"They took the SUV— how're you gonna get around?"
"We have Angel's BMW," Raylan said, "don't we?"
Angel was lying on his back, his eyes closed. Raylan got
down close, brushed Angel's hair out of his face, caught a whiff
of hospital breath and said in a whisper, "Your old court buddy
from Miami's here, Raylan Givens." Angel's eyes came open.
"Was that time you went down for selling khat."
Now it looked like Angel was trying to grin.
"Did you know," Raylan said, "I saved your life this morning?
Another five minutes in that ice water you'd of froze to
death. Thank the Lord I got there when I did."
"For what, to arrest me?"
"You're alive, partner, that's the main thing. Maybe a little
pale's all."
Pale— he looked like he was dead.
"They hook my arm to a machine," Angel said, "takes the
impurities from my blood and keeps me alive long as I can wait
for a kidney. Or I have a relative like a brother wants to give me
one."
"You have a brother?"
"I have someone better."
Smiling now. He was, and Raylan said, "You know I won't
tell where you're getting this kidney, you don't want me to."
"Everybody in the hospital knows," Angel said. "They send
me a fax. You believe it? The nurse comes in and reads it to me.
Tanya, tha's her name. She's very fine, with skin you know will
be soft you touch it. Tanya, man. I ask her she like to go to Lexington
with me when I'm better. You know, I always like a nurse.
You don't have to bullshit them too much."
"The fax," Raylan said. "You get to buy your kidneys back
for how much?"
"A hundred grand," Angel said, "tha's what they offer. You
imagine the balls on these redneck guys? They bring a surgeon
last night so they can take my fucking kidneys and rip me off
twice, counting what they stole from me. They say if I only want
one kidney is still a hundred grand."
Raylan said, "The hospital knows what's going on?"
"I tole you, everybody knows, the doctors, the nurses, Tanya.
They send the fax, then one of them calls the hospital and makes
the arrangement. Nobody saw who deliver them."
"The hospital knows they're yours?"
"Why can't you get that in your head?"
"And they go along with it?"
"Or what, let me die? They not paying for the kidneys."
"When do you have to come up with the money?"
"They say they give me a break, a week or so."
"You know these boys— tell me who they are."
"They kill me. No hurry, get around to it."
"And take your kidneys back," Raylan said. "I don't believe I
ever heard of this one. You know the hospital called the police."
"The police already talk to me. I tole them I don't know
these guys. Never saw them before."
"Or know who's telling them what to do?" Raylan said.
Angel stared at Raylan. "I don't follow you."
"You think your guys came up with this new way to score?
They can take whoever they want off the street," Raylan said,
"while this doctor's scrubbing up for surgery. Why should they be
picky, wait for a drug deal to go down?" Raylan paused. He said,
"You want, I'll help you out."
"For what? You find product in that motel room? Man, I'm
the victim of a crime and you want to fucking put me in jail?"
Finally they reached a point, Angel on a gurney on his way
to the operating room, Raylan tagging along next to it saying,
"Give me a name. I swear on my star you won't have to pay for
either one."
He watched Angel shake his head saying, "You don't know
these people."
"I will, you tell me who they are."
"You have to go in the woods to find them."
"Buddy, it's what I do." They were coming to double doors
swinging open. "I call Lexington with the names and they e-mail
me their sheets. I might even know these guys."
"They grow reefer," Angel said, "from here to West Virginia."

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Raylan by Elmore Leonard Copyright © 2012 by Elmore Leonard. Excerpted by permission of William Morrow. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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McCarthy92

Posted February 4, 2012

more from this reviewer

I Also Recommend:

Raylan

I love Elmore Leonard and I love the FX series Justified, led by one of the greatest TV characters, Raylan Givens. Inspired by the excellent series, Leonard decided to write a new novel featuring Givens, a U.S. Marshall in Harlan County, Kentucky. Raylan, as all Leonard's novels do, features spectacular dialogue, which is always entertaining to read, along with characters that are always interesting to follow as they go through several double-crosses and gunfights. Raylan isn't as much a novel as it is a book with inter-twined novellas. Reviews for the book have said that there are three "novellas", but from what I read, there are clearly four, excellent, fun novellas in Elmore Leonard's most recent criminal masterpiece.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted January 27, 2012

Loved it!

It's Elmore Leonard...what's NOT to love??!!!

2 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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jonibo

Posted February 20, 2012

more from this reviewer

Glad I watch the television series

I don't often think a television series or movie is better than the book but this is one of those times that I could have skipped the book. While I like the character Raylan Givens, the characters in the book are not well developed so if I had not already been familiar with them by watching "Justified" the book would have been very weak indeed. Also, the story seemed to have no cohesiveness. As a previous review mentioned, it was like two episodes written into a book. However, in this case there was no character development to meld the two together. I commend the producers of "Justified" for "seeing" promise in Raylan because this book was disappointing after watching the series.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Sansabiel

Posted May 27, 2012

Leonard's usual fine style!

Loved it, love Raylan Have read Leonard for years, then rediscovered him when my husband and I got hooked on TV's "Justified". A great read, great characters, and close to authentic Southern accents and mind-sets. Loved it.
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Anonymous

Posted May 26, 2012

If you enjoyed the tv series, "Justified" you must read this one!

Elmore Leonard fans will surely not want to pass this one up. I was not disappointed, even after watching all the tv episodes of "Justified" before reading the book. This character Rayland is really entertaining. U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens illustrates law enforcement in the most cynical and aggressive mode. A modern day Wyatt Earp on steroids.
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Anonymous

Posted May 23, 2012

Justified

When I read this story I can help but imagine the characters from the TV show Justified. Everything in the story is brought to life comparing it to the TV show.
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MrsGris

Posted April 19, 2012

Loved it!

If you like the tv series 'Justified' you will love this book.
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Anonymous

Posted March 31, 2012

pretty lame

This book filled some time and that's all it was really good for. I almost didn't finish it but had nothing else to read at the time.
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pen21

Posted March 13, 2012

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Raylan was a great Elmore Leonard read. Leonard's distinctive st

Raylan was a great Elmore Leonard read. Leonard's distinctive style comes through with Raylan's one sentence dialog. The book is very reminiscent of the TV show. I listened to the audio of this book and the music and delivery of the lines were like the TV show also. Very good book.
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KenCady

Posted March 8, 2012

more from this reviewer

When the book started off with kidney kidnappings, I wasn't too

When the book started off with kidney kidnappings, I wasn't too sure it was for me. But that was just the beginning, and several wild tales followed, keeping me entertained. It would be 3 stars, but the interesting characters make it a 4.
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calyxia

Posted March 4, 2012

If you are a fan of Justified

This will kill some time, but no surprises..
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TedFeit

Posted March 4, 2012

More Cornpone

Resurrecting Raylan Givens, the U.S. Marshall from Kentucky given to wearing a Stetson cowboy hat and shooting instead of apprehending, Elmore Leonard once again uses his unusual talent for writing droll dialogue and creating amusing and unusual characters to entertain the reader. This time, he begins in Harlan County, where marijuana is king instead of coal (100 pounds of weed can fetch $300,000) which apparently doesn’t satisfy two nincompoop sons of the dope-grower who turn their attention to reaping and selling body parts.

Then the author goes on to tell us about another cast of characters, with the slyness only he can muster. It’s a world only people created by Leonard inhabit, and they talk as only he can make them speak. Read it and laugh. Highly recommended.
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SgtWalt

Posted February 24, 2012

Raylin,,,,a good book!

This book is written for everyone who enjoys law enforcment type action.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted February 23, 2012

Leonarf Elmore and Raylan

Would have been better with a stronger central plot. But even when its not his best work, Elmore Leonard is always fun.
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Twink

Posted February 20, 2012

more from this reviewer

Book vs. Show

Fans of Elmore Leonard will be familiar with Raylan Givens, the US Marshall who was featured in Leonard's previous books Pronto and Riding the Rap. At eighty six years old, Elmore Leonard shows no signs of slowing down. He's just released his latest book - Raylan. Raylan is also the star of the hit television series Justified. (I'm hooked on the show and Timothy Olyphant)

Harlan County, Kentucky is hurting from the closure of coal mines. Entreprenurial folk have now made marijanua the county's number one cash crop. Raylan is familiar with most of the players, having grown up in Harlan County. But two enterprising souls have discovered yet another lucrative sideline - body parts, mostly kidneys. How to stop this dogged US Marshall that's hot on their trail? Well, he does have two perfectly good kidneys...And that's just one of the three storylines Leonard has penned for Raylan. Although they were loosely connected, each felt like a separate novella.

Now, Raylan released after the mid season break of Season Two of Justified. I found some of story lines and characters from television repeated in the book, albeit with a few changes. Or did the television series borrow heavily from the book? So, part of the storyline was not new, but parts of it were. No matter, fans will still be captured.

The audio version of Raylan features Brian D'Arcy James as the reader. As a fan of Justified, I have come to associated certain actors and voices with the characters. I was concerned that I wouldn't identify with new voices. But that concern was unfounded. James employed a great accent for each of the characters, almost matching those I knew. His tones and inflections immediately brought Harlan County to life. Leonard's strength is in his dialogue and James did it justice.

Raylan is a walk tall, talk soft, draw your gun and use it kind of lawman. Fans of Jack Reacher and Joe Pike would enjoy the character of Raylan Givens. A gritty, down and dirty tale filled with Leonard's trademark whip smart dialogue.
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sally44

Posted February 19, 2012

Really, Really good story

One of the best books I have read this year!
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bev122

Posted February 15, 2012

Disappointed

If you watch the Tv show you will be disappointed with the book. It is compiled of episodes of the show.
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Anonymous

Posted February 14, 2012

A bit of a ripoff....

I love Elmore Leonard but this book is just a crass attempt to capitalize on the success of Justified. It just reads like a bunch of plot sketches for the show. In fact, all the story lines in this book have already been used in the show . Save your money and just watch the series.
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Xtro

Posted February 13, 2012

What a disappointing read!

I usually enjoy Elmore Leonard, and I really like Justified. This short, uninspired book was a true disappointment.
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Anonymous

Posted February 10, 2012

Question??

I enjoy Elmore Leonard books, my husband LOVES them and collects them all. Our favorite show on TV in Justified BUT....my question is, in reading Raylan I find numerous similarites between seanson one and the book...Mags and her two boys (one named Dickie) - Pervis and his two boys (one named Dickie); the drugs, the guy who manhandles the young girl (whose father was growing weed), the problem with the coal mining company, the woman sent in by the company to smooth things over AND Boyd Crowder as the enforcer....I'm not finished with the book yet but see flash backs of season one of Justified...did Mr. Leonard write a NEW book or take from the TV show? Was this book in the works before the TV show and the show took from the book? In explaining all this to my husband he is not inclined to read it.
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Raylan

Loved it!

Glad I watch the television series

Leonard's usual fine style!

If you enjoyed the tv series, "Justified" you must read this one!

Justified

Loved it!

pretty lame

Raylan was a great Elmore Leonard read. Leonard's distinctive st

When the book started off with kidney kidnappings, I wasn't too

If you are a fan of Justified

More Cornpone

Raylin,,,,a good book!

Leonarf Elmore and Raylan

Book vs. Show

Really, Really good story

Disappointed

A bit of a ripoff....

What a disappointing read!

Question??