色色啦

Mariner Books, 512 pages, $39.50

Let鈥檚 get this out of the way right at the start: Elmore Leonard was the best American crime writer of the 20th century. Better than Hammett. Better than Chandler. Better than Macdonald (Ross). Better than MacDonald (John D.). The reason is his style. No less a literary light than Martin Amis was a huge Leonard fan. In a review for the New York Times, Amis identified one of the stylistic flourishes that made the author, popularly known as 鈥淒utch,鈥� so masterful: 鈥淭he essence of Elmore is to be found in his use of the present participle. 鈥� He writes, 鈥楤obby saying,鈥� then opens quotes.鈥�

The review, in which Amis calls Leonard a 鈥渓iterary genius,鈥� is quoted in C.M. Kushins鈥檚 new biography of the late American crime writer. It鈥檚 an exhaustive, though never exhausting, look at the career of the man responsible for 鈥淕litz,鈥� 鈥淔reaky Deaky,鈥� 鈥淐ity Primeval鈥� and other classics of the genre. Kushins traces Leonard鈥檚 path through the pulps, where he wrote Western short stories, to his early Western novels and screenplays, the latter of which led to severe disillusionment and cynicism about the movies, a pose that would eventually result in his writing 鈥淕et Shorty.鈥� (The thesis of both the 1990 book and the 1995 film is that there is no difference between the Hollywood production system and the mob.)

Kushins also delves into Leonard鈥檚 personal life: his Catholic upbringing, his marriages, his alcoholism, and his strict 鈥� not to say puritanical 鈥� work ethic. But his bio does one thing right above all else: it makes the reader want to go back and revisit Leonard鈥檚 brilliant and enduring fiction.

King of Ashes

S.A. Cosby

Flatiron Books, 352 pages, $25.99

One of the writers who has thoroughly absorbed Leonard鈥檚 post-Western-era insight 鈥� that in the real world, there are no heroes and villains, but merely gradations of something in between 鈥� is S.A. Cosby, whose four previous novels served to establish him as one of the top American practitioners of hard-boiled noir.

Cosby鈥檚 latest centres on Roman Carruthers, a money manager for the rich and entitled, who is more than happy to bend laws involving insider trading in the service of making his clients, and by extension himself, obscenely wealthy. Roman is called home after a car accident puts his father in a coma. He quickly discovers the incident was anything but accidental, as it was spurred by his ne鈥檈r-do-well brother鈥檚 botched attempt at drug dealing, which has put him in hock to a pair of nasty gangster brothers. Roman鈥檚 ego is big enough to convince him he can negotiate with the mobsters; after a brutal beating, he finds himself more entangled with them than he would like, something that becomes even more dangerous when he falls for one of the gangsters鈥� sisters.

鈥淜ing of Ashes鈥� is a fast, brutal read with some truly gruesome scenes of violence (including torture and murder at the teeth of the gangsters鈥� vicious dogs). But there is a subtlety to the writing; the metaphor of fire 鈥� rising out of the crematorium business Roman鈥檚 father runs 鈥� is nicely extended throughout the narrative. As Roman鈥檚 father always counselled, in this story 鈥渆verything burns.鈥�

Angelhunting: A Seamus Caron Mystery

Ji Hong Sayo

ECW Press, 264 pages, $24.95

As this debut series novel opens, 色色啦 private investigator Seamus Caron is engaged by a wealthy femme fatale to recover a missing briefcase containing unspecified, but valuable, material. No sooner has he agreed to assist on that case than his close friend, homicide detective Sandra Blair, enlists his help uncovering the killer of a lawyer who worked for notorious local mob boss Olexa Greene. With the aid of Blair and his new secretary, the precocious and perpetually tardy Maxwell Moscovitz, Seamus makes his way through 色色啦鈥檚 mean streets to investigate a pair of crimes that seasoned mystery readers know from the jump must be connected.

The connection has something to do with a lethal street drug called Platinum and a mysterious, anonymous figure known as the Angelmaker. Author Ji Hong Sayo, who is a student of biomedical engineering at the University of 色色啦, displays a knowledge of hard-boiled tropes and conventions, though some of the elements in this book beggar belief. Seamus鈥檚 checkered history as a pickpocket and failed med student both come into play in ways that seem too convenient for the plot, and some of the leaps of logic are a real stretch.

In the 鈥淎ngelmaker,鈥� Sayo appears to be creating a faceless villain along the lines of SPECTRE or Karla, which leaves room for development in future instalments of this series. But this first book is a bit too contrived, with a tone that veers wildly from comedy to violence, to be entirely satisfying.

Be Gay Do Crime: Sixteen Stories of Queer Chaos

Edited by Molly Llewellyn and Kristel Buckley

Dzanc Books, 204 pages, $27.95

The slogan 鈥渂e gay do crime鈥� originated in the queer anarchist subculture, referring to a belief that it is often necessary to subvert the law or social institutions to achieve equality and justice for LGBTQ people subject to historical and ongoing discrimination and oppression. Editors Molly Llewellyn and Kristel Buckley, the pair responsible for the 2023 anthology 鈥淧each Pit: Sixteen Stories of Unsavoury Women,鈥� have repurposed the phrase as an umbrella for a clutch of stories about queer characters engaging in anti-social behaviour. This ranges from the minor (a lesbian couple tossing balloons filled with rancid hops from homemade beer at MAGA protesters during COVID lockdowns in S.J. Sindu鈥檚 鈥淲ild Ale鈥�) to the extreme (political assassination in Priya Guns鈥檚 allegorical 鈥淢ake Life Great Again鈥�).

Not all the stories feature crime as their centre. In Alissa Nutting鈥檚 鈥淧eep Show,鈥� one of the best in the collection, a woman steals a dog from her pervy tech-bro boss, but this is only the inciting incident as she becomes convinced the dog is equipped with surveillance technology that allows her boss to spy on her and her partner having sex. In Emily Austin鈥檚 鈥淕rand Beaver Cabin,鈥� an adult woman masquerades as a six-year-old to enter children鈥檚 art contests.

As with most anthologies, the pieces can be uneven, with some stronger than others. But the collection as a whole is an effective barbaric yawp of queer resistance and righteous anger.