Cat Chaser - Softcover

Leonard, Elmore

3.74

2,340 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060512229 ISBN 13: 9780060512224

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2003

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“Cat Chaser is just what one would expect from Elmore Leonard—quirky, peopled with oddball characters...and more twists and turns than a roller coaster.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A superior example of gritty writing and violent action.”
—New York Times

There are numerous reasons why Grand Master Elmore Leonard is considered “the coolest, hottest thriller writer in America” (Chicago Tribune) and “the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever” (New York Times Book Review). Cat Chaser is one of them. A gripping, lightning-paced tale of an ex-soldier-turned Florida motel owner whose dangerous affair with the mistress of a Dominican general in exile—a former death squad leader—threatens to have lethal consequences...especially when drugs, double-cross, and murderous mob thugs are added into the mix. A classic thriller from crime fiction master who first brought us U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, currently of TV’s Justified, Cat Chaser proves once more that when the true greats of mystery and suspense are mentioned—John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Robert Parker, et al—Elmore Leonard tops the list.

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Review:

In the world of Elmore Leonard novels, two ex-soldiers can sit around a hotel swimming pool in Florida and, as if it were perfectly natural, chat about a friendly fire incident during an "interventionist action" in Santo Domingo. His characters have learned the futility of complaining about a life where deadly violence and moral obligations are all too frequently intertwined. In Cat Chaser George Moran is the hotel manager who got shot at back then; now, he's rekindling his intimate acquaintance with the wife of Andres de Boya, a former Dominican military enforcer who currently invests in real estate with a healthy sideline in drugs.

A dizzying series of plot twists involving various grifters and strongmen (both hired and freelance) leads to the grimly comic suspense action that Elmore Leonard fans have come to know and love. But as always, it's Leonard's impressive ear for dialogue that raises Cat Chaser above the herd of crime novels. An example:

"That's correct," Scully said, "I'm a consultant... I advise people on business matters, act as a go-between, bring people together that want to make deals... things like that. You want to know any more, come by my office, we'll have a coffee sometime. Okay? Right now I'm going to see Mr. Pradi. Where you come in--I'm gonna knock on his door, he don't open it then I might have to kick it in. I mean the business I got with him is that pressing. So you can give me a key and maybe save yourself a door. What do you think?"

Well, what do you think? --Ron Hogan

From the Back Cover:

The hero of Cat Chaser, George Moran, isn't looking for trouble but finds it anyway when he winds up in bed with the wife of a drug-dealing mob-connected Dominican cop—vicious, macho and ready to follow George to the ends of the earth, which in this case means Miami.

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