Hot Kid

Gun molls, speakeasies, bank robbers and murder ... Another fantastic thriller from the grandmaster of US crime fiction.Set in Oklahoma during the 1930s, THE HOT KID is a powerfully entertaining story and introduces Carl Webster, one of the coolest lawmen ever to draw on a fugitive felon.At 21, Carl Webster's on his way to becoming the most famous Deputy US Marshal in America. He has shot and killed notorious bank robber Emmet Long and is now tracking Jack Belmont, the no-good son of an oil millionaire with dreams of becoming Public Enemy Number One. True Detective writer Tony Antonelli is following the story, and this one's big, full of beautiful women, Tommy guns and a former lawman who believes in vigilante justice. THE HOT KID is an exhilarating story played out against the flapper period of gun molls and Prohibition.

"the author finds plenty of time to colour in a vividly Runyonesque canvas of gangsters' molls, dust-bowl desperadoes and dime-novel hacks. Even at 80, Leonard is bulletproof: still the last man standing." SUNDAY TIMES "I am taking three books with me to the (I'm afraid at this point merely metaphorical) beach... Another is Elmore Leonard's The Hot Kid, because it's by Elmore Leonard. (Despite its title, it's not my biography.) " -- Daniel Menaker, (Exec Ed in Chief of Random House) SLATE "This tale of ur-tabloid culture in a savage country is utterly convincing, and Leonard's refreshingly terse, sharp prose makes for an exhilarating read." -- LAURA WILSON THE GUARDIAN "As far as I'm concerned there is only one true king of modern American crime fiction and that is Elmore Leonard... with The Hot Kid he's back on cracking form... what more could you want in a novel?" MAIL ON SUNDAY "Quick-talking, sharp-shooting story of gangsters, molls and jazz" -- MARK SANDERSON EVENING STANDARD "Leonard is the favourite American crime writer of so many crime writers, that his reputation is assured. Apart from the plotting, it is of course, his wonderfully sardonic dialogue and characters that mark Leonard out as the best in the business and all those characteristics are fully in place here... Along with all usual Leonard pleasures, this one folds in a brilliantly observed jazz age setting." CRIME TIME "his wonderfully sardonic dialogue and characters that mark out Leonard as the best in the business" GOOD BOOK GUIDE

Elmore Leonard was born in New Orleans on 11 October 1925. He wrote forty-five books during his phenomenal career, including the bestsellers Mr Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, Be Cool and The Hot Kid. Many have been made into successful movies, including Get Shorty with John Travolta, Out of Sight with George Clooney and Rum Punch, which became Tarantino's Jackie Brown. He is the recipient of the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award and the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award. He died on 20 August 2013 in Detroit.www.elmoreleonard.com