Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Reading an Elmore Leonard novel is a visceral experience, like eating a great burger paired with a perfect cold glass of pilsner. It's like watching a boxing match in which the boxer you're rooting for lands every punch perfectly. It's exhilerating.

Leonard works on that viceral level. You become a fly on the wall. Better yet: you are a minor character sitting in the room, privy to the conversation going on in front of you. And, oh, what a fucking great conversation. Until the bullets start flying, and then you're fucked.

"Pronto", written in 1993, introduced the world to Raylan Givens, U.S. Marshall. He would later get his own TV show "Justified" and played by Timothy Oliphant.

Givens is a prototypical Leonard hero: taciturn, laid-back, not one to toot his own horn. In fact, Leonard's heroes are almost always underestimated by everyone. The bad guys, especially, who never see them as a clear and present danger. Until, of course, it's too late.

In "Pronto", Givens is assigned to protect a mob bookie named Harry Arno, who the mob is after for skimming money. Arno gives Givens the slip, which wouldn't be so bad except that Arno has done it to Givens before, years ago, for a completely unrelated thing. It's frankly embarrassing, and Givens is kind of a laughing-stock among his peers in the U.S. Marshall service and the FBI.

An old-school Sicilian hitman is after Arno, and he's willing to go through Arno's stripper girlfriend Joyce to get to him. Joyce, however, is a prototypical Leonard damsel: smart and tougher than she looks.

Plus, Raylan's kinda sweet on her. It won't stop him from doing his job: find Arno, alive. He's a gentleman that way.

There's a lot of humor in a Leonard novel, much of which comes from the naturalistic dialogue. (Quentin Tarantino owes his entire career to Leonard.) There's also a lot of violence, much of which happens suddenly and out of the blue.

Don't be surprised, when reading a Leonard novel, to feel the need to duck every once in a while...