Reviews for City primeval

The average rating for City primeval based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-08-03 00:00:00 Linda Layng Career criminal Clement Mansell killed a crooked judge and the only witness to the crime, the judge's girlfriend. Now, detective Raymond Cruz is trying to pin the crime on Clement but Clement is the slipperiest of worms. Cruz and Clement are heading for a showdown that only one of them will walk away from... As of this writing, I've read 15 Elmore Leonard novels. Many of them have the same sort of rhythm. The bad guys are slick, the good guys are slicker, and you wind up liking most of them to some degree. This one doesn't quite fit in that mold. The characters drive the story in City Primeval. Roger Cruz, the divorced detective trying to make his squad take him seriously, and Clement Mansell, the career criminal who might just be too slick for his own good, contrast one another nicely. The interaction between the pair make this cop story feel more like a modern western than anything else. Unlike a lot of Leonard antagonists, I couldn't wait for Mansell's has to get settled. He was a reprehensible worm and I had the literary equivalent of a screaming orgasm when he finally met his fate. The supporting cast was a little light on personality but the two lead female supporting cast members contrasted one another almost as well as Cruz and Clement. Sandy was a pothead who lived in fear of Clement while Carolyn was a tough lady lawyer who was reluctant to let herself need anyone. The writing was still Leonard's standard style but with a coldness where much of the humor would normally be. Of all the Elmore Leonard's I've read, this one would be the only one that I could see being at home in the Hard Case Crime series. No complaints on this one. It was quick and breezy and a slight departure from Leonard's normal fare. Four easy stars. Also posted at Shelf Inflicted

Review # 2 was written on 2015-10-31 00:00:00 Dorothy Smith "Fight, bleep, or hold the flashlight" - Elmore Leonard, "Impressions of a Murder" This novel was tight as a futtock shroud, smooth as Mai Noi silk, sharp as the turns on Col de Braus, and hard as a boiled egg. I finish reading Elmore Leonard and I want to be him, just for a second. Now look: Chandler, Cain and Hammett are absolutely the Holy Trinity of crime; the Father, Son and Holy Ghosts of Noir. Leonard, however, is both the Word and death's echo. He is the ultimate end, the great inevitable, the voice in the void. His dialogue alone would be scary in its perfection, but you drape that shit on his plot and it is magical. He sets this novel up from the title. City Primeval' was inspired by both 'High Noon' and Leonard's early Western fixation and Leonard's own work with The Detroit News and writing a piece called "Impressions of a murder" that he wrote for The Detroit News Sunday Magazine. Anyway, there really wasn't anything I didn't love here.