Helpful Score: 1
I give this book 3 stars and it is just a good, fast read.
Helpful Score: 1
Typical Leonard but somehow better than ever.
Helpful Score: 1
Western pulp at its finest. Great colorful writing, fun characters, nonstop action. Classic Elmore Leonard.
Helpful Score: 1
Good story
Helpful Score: 1
Quick read, lots of good characters. Another classic by the "Get Shorty" author.
Elmore Leonard at his best
"One of his finest books...an expertly crafted, deftly balanced crime novel"--Houston Chronicle
I was pleasantly surprized by this book. I love Elmore Leonard He makes me laugh out loud every time as well as keeping me glued from start to finish.
elmore leonards best yet
THIS IS AN EXPERTLY CRAFTED, DEFTLY BALANVE CRIME NOVEL
I've read a great deal of Elmore Leonard over the years and I'm a fan of his writing. I enjoyed THE HOT KID as it is set during an era when characters like Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Bonnie and Clyde, et al dominated the headlines. Mr. Leonard weaves them and their times into this unique story about a surprisingly young US Marshall, Carl Webster, looking to make a name for himself by bringing the hooligans to justice. If you like your fiction laced with realism I think you will enjoy THE HOT KID very much.
I like Elmore Leonard and this was as good as he usually does. I would tell people to read it.
I chose this for this month's "Hot" theme in my online book club, The Reading Cove. It didn't take long for me to realize that I'm definitely not the target audience for this book. I couldn't get into it. The writing style felt disjointed and awkward, so the characters and scenes never engaged me. I couldn't get beyond the first 50 pages. Yawn. It just wasn't my cuppa.
I enjoyed many of Elmore Leonard's others books, but not this one. I'm still trying to understand why I wasted my time reading 387 pages. All the characters in this story are two-dimensional and almost all the female characters are basically sluts.
Kathy N. (addicated-to-reading) reviewed The Hot Kid (Carl Webster, Bk 1) on + 152 more book reviews
Typical Elmore Leonard with a strong main character and lots of well developed supporting characters. Set in the early years of the 20th century with the on-set of the Depression and the Dust Bowl years and the gangsters of that era. Set in Oklahoma with its sense of the Old West and right and wrong. If you like Leonard, you'll like this book.
Elmore Leonard is another of my favorite crime fiction authors. I've read and enjoyed many of his works dating back to 52 Pickup and Cat Chaser in the 1980s. His novels are always gritty and pack a punch. The Hot Kid takes place in depression era Oklahoma in the 1930s. Carlos Webster came face to face with a hardened criminal, Emmett Long, when he was 15 who called him a greaser, stole his ice cream cone, and killed an Indian Cop. He later uses the name Carl and decides to be a U.S. Marshall after killing a cattle thief who was rustling his dad's stock. It is the era of the famous bank robbers of the time including Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, and John Dillinger. Carl is the "hot kid" making a name for himself as one of the famous lawmen of the day. He ends up killing Long and many believe it was because of their meeting years before. He then ends up in a hunt to bring Jack Belmont to justice. Jack is the son of an oil millionaire who wants to be public enemy number one. Along the way he meets up with some gun molls and falls for Louly, who is related to Pretty Boy Floyd's wife. He also gets fame by being chronicled in True Detective magazine by a local writer.
Overall, I did enjoy this. However, sometimes I thought the storyline seemed to drag and was a little repetitious. It also never really had a real wow moment or conclusion as in most of Leonard's other novels. Some of the characters, especially the women, seemed also to be interchangeable. I did like the Carl Webster character who reminded me a lot of Raylan Givens, one of my favorite Leonard characters. I will be reading the followup to this novel, Up in Honey's Room soon.
Overall, I did enjoy this. However, sometimes I thought the storyline seemed to drag and was a little repetitious. It also never really had a real wow moment or conclusion as in most of Leonard's other novels. Some of the characters, especially the women, seemed also to be interchangeable. I did like the Carl Webster character who reminded me a lot of Raylan Givens, one of my favorite Leonard characters. I will be reading the followup to this novel, Up in Honey's Room soon.
