Elmore Leonard: Four Later Novels (LOA #280): Get Shorty / Rum Punch / Out of Sight / Tishomingo Blues

The definitive edition of an American master of crime fiction culminates with four modern classics. In Get Shorty, a Miami loan shark with an idea for a movie finds a way to break into Hollywood as a producer, the perfect setup for Elmore Leonard’s brilliantly satiric take on an industry he knew well. Rum Punch (filmed by Quentin Tarantino as Jackie Brown in 1997) shows an aging bail bondsman and an airline stewardess matching wits against lawmen and criminals alike. In Out of Sight, deputy U.S. marshal Karen Sisco and escaped bank robber Jack Foley find themselves thrust together in a highrisk fusion of violent adventure and unlikely romance; included as a special feature is “Karen Makes Out,” the story that introduced Sisco. The collection concludes with Tishomingo Blues, a kaleidoscopic story involving exhibition high divers, Civil War reenactors, and an unforgettable cast of gangsters and hustlers. This is Elmore Leonard at his unbeatable best.

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.