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Dan Schwent's Reviews > Swag
Swag
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Dan Schwent's review
bookshelves: crime-and-mystery, 2012, favorites, elmore-leonard, leonard
Jan 20, 2012
bookshelves: crime-and-mystery, 2012, favorites, elmore-leonard, leonard
When used car salesman Frank Ryan catches Ernest Stickley stealing a car off his lot, ideas start going through his head. Soon, Ryan and Stickley are armed robbers and damn good ones. Things go smoothly until someone offers them a crack at even bigger money...
Like many Elmore Leonard books, Swag is a fast-moving crime story. The two main characters, Ryan and Stick, are cast from one of Leonard' standard molds: the criminals who aren't as smart as they think they are. They're a bit of an odd couple. Stick's nervous and not all that confident while Ryan is overconfident and thinks he knows everything. They were pretty likeable as far as armed robbers go but I kept thinking about how Richard Stark's Parker would mop the floor with them.
The bad guys were suitably bad, both Sportree and the cops. As he does a lot of the time, Leonard makes the antagonists almost as interesting as the protagonists. Once complications start surfacing, they come in droves, (view spoiler) The ending was surprising but was also perfect.
Leonard's smooth-flowing dialogue and twisting plot were the stars of the show, as they normally are in one of his books. I loved that Frank Ryan had his rules of robbery, just like Elmore Leonard has his rules of writing.
It wasn't perfect but I liked it quite a bit. It was a good way to spend a Sunday evening.
Like many Elmore Leonard books, Swag is a fast-moving crime story. The two main characters, Ryan and Stick, are cast from one of Leonard' standard molds: the criminals who aren't as smart as they think they are. They're a bit of an odd couple. Stick's nervous and not all that confident while Ryan is overconfident and thinks he knows everything. They were pretty likeable as far as armed robbers go but I kept thinking about how Richard Stark's Parker would mop the floor with them.
The bad guys were suitably bad, both Sportree and the cops. As he does a lot of the time, Leonard makes the antagonists almost as interesting as the protagonists. Once complications start surfacing, they come in droves, (view spoiler) The ending was surprising but was also perfect.
Leonard's smooth-flowing dialogue and twisting plot were the stars of the show, as they normally are in one of his books. I loved that Frank Ryan had his rules of robbery, just like Elmore Leonard has his rules of writing.
It wasn't perfect but I liked it quite a bit. It was a good way to spend a Sunday evening.
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Reading Progress
January 20, 2012
– Shelved
January 20, 2012
– Shelved as:
crime-and-mystery
January 29, 2012
–
Started Reading
January 29, 2012
– Shelved as:
2012
January 29, 2012
–
Finished Reading
March 15, 2012
– Shelved as:
favorites
September 5, 2012
– Shelved as:
elmore-leonard
May 16, 2013
– Shelved as:
leonard
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James
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rated it 4 stars
Feb 01, 2012 10:36AM
Good point about the contrast between Leonard's criminals and Parker, but I love them both.
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James wrote: "Good point about the contrast between Leonard's criminals and Parker, but I love them both."Me too. I think this is going to be the year I devour twenty or thirty Elmore Leonard books.
I probably won't get to that many of them since I'm rereading several other series as well, but I am looking forward to reading Raylan once this season of "Justified" is over.
I have a copy that I haven't read yet. The cover says that it was originally published under the title "Ryan's Rules." That title makes a lot of sense after reading your review.
