Tishomingo Blues [Hardcover]

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--except for drama, suspense, or mystery, that is. This is a rib-tickler in the Carl Hiaasen/Dave Barry tradition rather than the kind of thriller Leonard wrote before Hollywood discovered him. 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. Readers will be casting the inevitable movie in their heads (Samuel L. Jackson is a lock for Robert, who glides into town in a flashy Jag and gets the action going) as they chuckle their way to the last hilarious page. --Jane Adams

On the advance reading copy of this novel sent to PW, the title appears in blue letters half an inch high. Leonard's name floats above the title in red letters a full inch high. A Leonard novel is an event, and for good reason. Over the past 40 years, this writer has evolved into the undisputed champ of the American crime novel, and he hasn't lost a step. His new (and 37th) novel is one of his smoothest, a return to the South of Out of Sight (1996) and numerous earlier Leonards though this is the author's first foray into deep country Mississippi, birthplace of the blues. Men and women who scrape at the margins of the American dream are Leonard's forte, and here he presents several such folk, all memorable, beginning with his hero, Dennis Lenahan, a high diver who contracts for a gig to perform at the Tishomingo Lodge & Casino. While setting up his rig, Dennis witnesses a murder by local members of the Dixie Mafia. So, perhaps, does a mysterious, very slick black guy, Robert Johnson, down from the North in his Jag to run a con on a local powerbroker or so it seems. But Robert, who befriends Dennis, and the Detroit mobster and moll who join him at the Lodge & Casino, have other, more complicated, more ambitious plans, for Tishomingo, for the Dixie Mafia and for Dennis, plans that come to a head during the Civil War battle re-enactment that provides the unusual and fascinating backdrop for the book's second half. As usual, Leonard's characters walk onto the page as real as sunlight and shadow; the dialogue is dead-on, the loopy story line strewn with the unexpected, including sudden flourishes of romance and death. Prime Leonard, prime reading. (Feb. 1)Forecast: Backed by a $250,000 marketing campaign and Leonard's ever-soaring rep, this title, his first with Morrow, could be his biggest seller yet, buoyed by a seven-city author tour and simultaneous HarperAudio (abridged and unabridged cassette) and HarperLargePrint editions.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

No blues here: fans will be delighted to learn that Leonard is back with another raucous tale. Here, when a daredevil diver performing way down South happens to witness a murder by the local Dixie Mafia, he must team with a black gangsta from Detroit to save his skin.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

*Starred Review* Leonard remains the only A-list crime fiction writer who doesn't rely on a series hero. Not that his people don't have plenty in common: expert at thinking on their feet, not above bending the law, hard-boiled with a touch of romance, and always possessing a quirky interest in the minutiae of daily life. Where they differ is in what they do: bail bondsmen, bookies, fallen priests, and now, a high diver surrounded by a gaggle of Civil War reenactors. Dennis Lenahan, the high diver, travels from gig to gig with an 80-foot ladder and a 22-foot-wide tank, which, he tells female fans, looks like a 50-cent piece from the top of the ladder. His latest gig is at the Tishomingo Lodge and Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. Everything is going swimmingly until Dennis witnesses a murder 80 feet underneath him. Silence seems the best policy, but it turns out quite a few people saw Dennis up on his ladder, including a smooth-talking black man from Detroit called Robert, who finagles Dennis into participating in an upcoming reenactment of the Battle of Brice's Cross Roads. That's only the tip of the iceberg, of course, but the elaborate action is really only an excuse to let another group of wonderfully eccentric people bang into each other. What's most impressive this time--along with the fast-talking characters--is Leonard's ability to get inside a world, respecting the details yet always sensitive to the comic possibilities. There are other crime novels involving Civil War reenactors (Peter Abrahams' Last of the Dixie Heroes [BKL My 15 01], for example), but no one but Leonard would think of throwing a casino and a high diver into the mix. Pure entertainment. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

"Pure gold." -- Ft. Worth Star-Telegram

"The tentacles of Elmore's style pull you in like a giant octopus. There's no escape till the last page." -- Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith

The hottest thriller writer in the U. S. -- Time

“America’s greatest crime writer.” -- Newsweek

“Elmore Leonard . . . has been imitated by many but remains the original.” -- Wall Street Journal

“God bless Elmore Leonard. Grade: A.” -- Entertainment Weekly

“Pure reading pleasure.” -- Playboy

“The coolest, hottest thriller writer in America.” -- Chicago Tribune

High diver Dennis Lenahan is about to perform his regular stunt of diving into a small water tank from the roof of the Tishomingo Lodge in Mississippi when, way below, he sees a guy getting killed. Dennis has stumbled into one hell of a scene - unfortunate enough to be present when the cool dudes from Detroit are trying to muscle in on the local activities of the Dixie Mafia. And he's still around when it all comes to a shoot-out at the annual reconstruction of the Civil War Battle of Tishomingo - only this time they're playing with real guns...Elmore Leonard's great new bestseller combines, as always, high comedy with high action, and some of the best dialogue ever given to characters in a novel. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Elmore Leonard has written more than three dozen books including Cuba Libre, Rum Punch, and Get Shorty, and numerous screenplays. He has an unparalleled reputation among lovers of mayhem, suspense, and just plain wonderful writing. A Grand Master Award winner of the Mystery Writers of America, he has been likened to everyone from Balzac to Dostoevsky to Dickens to Dashiell Hammett -- but he is, in fact, entirely and entertainingly sui generis.

He lives in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Like a blues riff, the story of Dennis Lenahan, stunt high diver, improvises in ways unexpected and totally satisfying. Leonard throws a mixed bunch of "good" and bad guys together and lets them talk (or shoot) their way through the Tishomingo Lodge and Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. As always, the dialogue and action are hilarious, believable, and strange. And nobody does it better. Paul Rudd's no-nonsense performance captures the cadences of the good old boys and the menace of a sometimes blundering, sometimes dangerous Dixie Mafiosi. Rudd's narration highlights Leonard's ironic look at human nature, culminating in the ultimate absurdity of those reenactments of battles so popular with tourists and locals alike. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.