Road Dogs: The Return of Jack Foley

Road Dogs
by Elmore Leonard
2009 William Morrow
Genre: Thriller
Related Authors: Denis Lehane, Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler.

I can honestly say I have not read nearly as much crime/Thriller fiction as I would have liked to. As a film major, I've devoured many hours of Crime cinema, often based off of books by great writers (The Godfather Saga, The Maltese Falcon, Jackie Brown, etc.), but I really did not delve into this book genre with any depth until this very week. Boy howdy, was I missing out!

I am familiar (as I'm sure many people are) with the Elmore Leonard bank robber Jack Foley from the 1998 film Out of Sight, which explores amongst other story threads Foley's brief but serious romantic encounter with an assistant US Marshall, Karen Sisco. Since in that film George Clooney played Foley, he's the voice I heard whenever he spoke. This book would make a great follow up film for that character, not that anyone seems to be developing it at this point.

Here we have Jack Foley landed in prison for 30 years for the combined crimes of kidnapping a US Marshall - Sisco, and escaping prison. The fact that he was being pushed into the escape vehicle by same dangerous digger types who had harmed him, and he only shoved Sisco into the trunk to protect her was of no concern to his honorable Justice 'Maximum Bob' - so named for dishing out the longest possible sentence for any felony. Maximum Bob tried him in Florida, so Foley finds himself admitted to prison the same day Cundo Rey, a Cuban murderer, transfers to the said Florida prison. There they develop a fast friendship when Foley disarms the white supremacists who were about to hurt Cundo badly at supper time. With Cundo's help, Foley gets a good lawyer who has his sentence reduced to 3 months.

Upon achieving freedom, Cundo offers him hospitality at his homes in Venice, CA. Its there that the story takes off. The caper and double crosses come fast and furious. There is great humor in this book, and Elmore Leonard possesses a very crisp and clean writing style. He only uses the word 'said' whenever a character speaks, thus allowing the language to let you know the emotional state of the speaker. He believes in brief books, this apparently is one of his longer 'tomes' at 262 pages.

While its clear by the end that Jack Foley may not be involved in any more capers, it's a very satisfying story that I could not put down. I read the whole thing in four hours. A very wondrous book. I highly recommend it for anyone above the age of 13.