Helpful Score: 2
Elmore Leonard doesn't disappoint. While having the same basic story structure as most of his others, Leonard still creates an interesting, compelling, and very, very funny story.
Read it several times.
Read it several times.
Helpful Score: 1
It's been a while since I read an Elmore Leonard novel - not sure why because I always enjoy him. Leonard is one of the greats as far as weird storylines and characters - right up there with one of my other favorites - Carl Hiaasen. The plot line for "Tishomingo Blues" includes a high diver, Civil War reenactors, an Indian ex-baseball player, members of the "Dixie Mafia", and an African-American gangster fond of the blues. Leonard pulls this all together into a plot that would be very difficult to describe. However, it works! Some of this was quite hilarious and outrageous. I enjoyed it very much and would highly recommend this one!
Helpful Score: 1
Good vacation book!
Take a high diver who witnesses a murder from his perch 80 feet above a Mississippi casino. Add a cooler-than-thou con artist from Detroit who's out to take over the Dixie mafia's lucrative Gulf Coast drug business. Throw in a crooked deputy sheriff and an honest state cop. Put them all in costume along with a bunch of other "reenactors" bent on refighting an important Civil War battle, season with plenty of historic detail, and you've got all the classic ingredients of an Elmore Leonard novel. As the author himself explains, his intent was to entertain himself by gathering an odd assortment of characters, building a story as they bump heads, and seeing what happens. And as usual, he carries it off with style, wit, and brio. If you like Leonard, you'll enjoy this book.
Another great Elmore Leonard. You gotta read it.
Excellent Elmore Leonard. Especially interesting if you like high divers or Civil War reenactments, or if you would just like to learn about both. Extremely well written characters.
I had a lot of fun with this one. Leonard brings us the usual cast of motley rejects and works a nice story around them. Good crime fiction touched by Leonard's fine understanding of human behavior.
If you like Elmore Leonard, you'll really enjoy this one.
Almost incredibly dull, but I could not in good conscience use that strong an adverb to describe something so senseless. Plastic characters, and too many of them; unlikely plot, and wandering at that; hackneyed atmosphere, and worst of all, every southern stereotype. What a waste of paper.
You really never know what's going to happen in Elmore Leonard's books. I enjoy all of them because of the unusual stories and writing.
Daredevil Dennis Lenahan has brought his act to the Tishomingo Lodge & Casino in Tunica, Mississippi--diving off an eighty-foot ladder into a nine feet of water for the amusement of gamblers, gangsters, and luscious belles. His riskiest feat, however, was witnessing a Dixie-style mob execution while atop his diving platform. Robert Taylor saw the hit also. A blues-loving Detroit hustler touring the Southland in a black Jaguar, Taylor's got his own secret agenda re the "Cornbread Cosa Nostra," and he wants Dennis in on the game. But there's a lot more in Robert Taylor's pocket than a photo of his lynched great-grandfather. And high-diver Dennis could be about to take a long, fatal fall--right into a mess of hoop skirts, Civil War play-acting...and more trouble than he ever dreamed possible.
This is a fast moving suspenseful book filled with likeable characters. The main character makes his living in an act diving from a tall ladder into a small amount of water. Preparing to dive, everthing changes when he witnesses a mob execution on the ground below.
vintage elmore
Daredevil Dennis Lenahan has brought his act to the Tishomingo Lodge and Casino in Tunica, Mississippi - diving off an eighty-foot ladder into nine feet of water for the amusement of gamblers, gangster, and luscious belles. His rishiest feat, however, was witnessing a Dixie-style mob execution while atop his diving platform. Robert Taylor saw the hit also. A blues-loving Detroit hustler touring the Southland in a black Jaguar, Taylor's got his own secret agenda re the "Cornbread Cosa Nostra," and he wants Dennis in on the game. But there's a lot more in Robert Taylor's pocket than a photo of his lynched great-grandfather. And high-diver Dennis could be about to take a long, fatal fall - right into a mess of hoop skirts, Civil War playacting... and more trouble than he ever dreamed possible.
Everything you expect from Leonard.
Daredevil Dennis Lenahan has brought his act to the Tishomingo Lodge & Casino in Tunica, Mississippi-diving off an eighty-foot ladder into nine feet of water for the amusement of gamblers, gangsters, and luscious belles. His riskiest feat, however, was witnessing a Dixie-style mob execution while atop his diving platform. Robert Taylor saw the hit also. A blues-loving Detroit hustler touring the Southland in a black Jaguar, Taylor's got his own secret agenda re the "Cornbread Cosa Nostra", and he wants Dennis in on the game.
I was too distracted to read it. Although, I know others who enjoyed it.
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