Issue #8

Blog #5-2015

Section: Book Reviews

Blogger: Joseph Clay

The reason I checked this book out, Justified, the TV series, I love the show and the characters.

The series Justified came from several of Elmore Leonard’s books. Pronto, released in 1993, also a made for TV Movie in 1997. Riding the Rap released in 1995, Fire in the Hole, as an e-book in 2001, then a paperback, reprint edition 2012. The last installment Raylan published in 2012.

Fire in the hole is a collection of  nine short stories, Fire in the Hole is the fifth. Out of the nine, I only enjoyed one-third of them. Fire in Hole, Karen Makes Out, and Tenkiller, the rest were not bad, but not good either.

Listed below or the nine stories, with a one to five rating in parentheses.

• Sparks (1)
• Hanging Out at the Buena Vista (1)
• Chickasaw Charlie Hoke (2)
• When the Women Come Out and Dance (3)
• Fire in the Hole (4)
• Karen Makes Out (4)
• Hurrah for Capt. Early (2)
• The Tonto Woman (3)
• Tenkiller (4)

That’s a total of 24 stars divided by nine equals 2.666.

I was disappointed that the stories weren’t better. After all this Elmore Leonard we are talking about. The same Elmore Leonard that penned over 45 Novels, along with numerous short stories with several books turned into movies.

With all due respect to Elmore Leonard, I don’t care for his writing style, it’s hard to explain, but there’s something about it, which aggravates me.

Since I love Justified, I’ll suffer through the books pertaining to the show, but that will be all I read of Elmore Leonard.

[Bloggers note: The book review of Fire in the Hole was originally published on 2-20-15 on Joseph Clay – Author Official Blog. The review was moved to this site 5-19-18.]

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