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Title: Unknown Man #89 by Elmore Leonard ISBN: 0-06-008221-6 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 01 June, 2002 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.82 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Desperate people, violence, vivid dialogue -- a must-read!
Comment: Leonard is an experienced writer who knows precisely how to sketch the human frailties of his characters. Jack Ryan is the process-server so good at finding people that he's approached by some shady businessmen to locate a woman with a ruinous drinking problem. What's at stake is the money and maybe a chance for something that can pass for love, but the gallery of crooks includes a violent ex-con and an amoral wheeler-dealer. The text reads truer than life; this is surely an Elmore Leonard classic
Rating: 5
Summary: The Best Leonard Novel You've Never Heard Of
Comment: I stumbled upon 'Unknown Man #89' while looking for something else. I've read over two dozen Leonard novels, so at first, I thought it had to be new. Checking the back of the title page, I noticed it was copyrighted in 1977. So, I wondered why I had never heard of it?
And I'm still wondering. 'Unknown Man #89' (UM89) is fantastic. The protagonist is Jack Ryan, who was featured in 'The Big Bounce', an earlier Leonard novel. UM89 is a superior novel though. The stakes are higher and the characters more real than in 'The Big Bounce'.
Opening in Detroit, Ryan is a process server. He thinks he has finally stumbled on his calling. He is also a recovering alcoholic who attends AA meetings. An acquaintance, Jay Walt, sets him up with Frank Perez, who is trying to locate a Mr. Robert Leary with a business proposal. Before he knows it, Ryan is siding with Leary's widow in an attempt to get her dead husband's property while dodging shotgun blasts from Perez's associate Raymond Guidre.
The novel has a strong beginning that lets the reader learn who Ryan is up front: how he acts, what he believes, and what he does. The search for Leary brings in the rest of the characters and draws the reader into the plot quite well. The middle of the novel bogs down with events that lead to a key AA meeting, but then the action picks up and sprints towards the conclusion.
Overall, the novel is well paced. The characters are some of Leonard's most believable and interesting to the point you can picture what actors you would cast for the movie version, if there ever was one. I'd recommend this to any crime fiction fan, and as a must read for any Leonard fan. I still don't know why this novel was so obscure.
Rating: 5
Summary: No One Does it Better than Leonard!
Comment: I have always been an Elmore Leonard fan and have read everything he's published. I just can't get enough of him. His concise way of writing is superb. He doesn't overengage in descriptives, thank goodness - that gets boring - yet manages to convey exactly what he wants more succinctly than any author I've ever read. The characters never disappoint and the sense of humor displayed is simply unsurpassable. Another fantastic book by an author who is the best.
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Title: The Bounty Hunters by Elmore Leonard ISBN: 0380822253 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 02 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: 52 Pickup by Elmore Leonard ISBN: 0060083999 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 30 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: The Big Bounce by Elmore Leonard ISBN: 0060084022 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 28 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Valdez Is Coming by Elmore Leonard ISBN: 0380822237 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 05 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Mr. Paradise : A Novel by Elmore Leonard ISBN: 0060083956 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 13 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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