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Did I read the same book as everyone else? After hearing about Leonard's supposed "mastery" of the hard-boiled crime genre, I picked this one up expecting plenty of twists, turns, and action. Instead, I found myself reading page after page of dull dialogue. They go to a restaurant and talk. Then they go to Italy and talk in cafes. Then they talk in a villa. The plot is so simple and the action so scarce that one must wonder if Leonard is simply bored with his own work. I can imagine the author being vaguely interested in Ezra Pound's time in Italy, so he shoehorns it in here as much as he can. None of what actually does happen is particularly exciting, with the minor exception of the (somewhat anti-climactic) final "shootout". The character of Givens may be somewhat interesting, but his motivations for doing some absurd things are never really explained, and his love interest comes seemingly out of nowhere.