Raylan

There’s never a dull day for no-nonsense U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. First, he is tasked with finding out who in Kentucky has been trafficking in stolen kidneys. Signs point to a pair of redneck brothers, but someone higher up is clearly the brains of the operation. Next, Raylan, a former coal miner, finds himself caught in a conflict between mining folk – one of whom has been shot under suspicious circumstances – and a mining company, represented by a hardnosed businesswoman and Raylan’s old friend/nemesis, Boyd. Lastly, he must track down a college-age poker prodigy who skipped a court appearance while determining if she has also been dabbling in bank robbery.

Two things have happened to Elmore Leonard since he reached his mid-80s. One: he received some long overdue recognition thanks to the popularity of the TV show Justified (which centers on that very same Raylan Givens). Two: his writing has become a lot sparser and more inconsistent. In Raylan, both of these phenomena converge.

Raylan is not a novel in the traditional sense. There is no overarching plot, and it reads more like three novellas lumped together. One can’t help but wonder why Leonard didn’t simply structure it that way. True, Raylan’s three cases relate and refer to one another, but the episodic nature of each one causes the book to meander and lose tension. Judging from this effort, you would never have guessed that Leonard was once as great at plotting as he is at dialogue (which remains as sharp and colorful as ever).

No, the best way to read Raylan is as a bizarre companion piece to Justified. Many of the series’ characters – beleaguered boss Art Mullen, conniving Boyd Crowder – show up here intact. That’s good news for series fans, but for those looking for a stand-alone adventure, you may find the supporting cast to be somewhat thinly drawn.

These criticisms aside, Raylan does have its high points. The title character takes on a little more depth here while remaining the hat-wearing gun-slinging badass many of us have come to appreciate. The imbecilic Crowe family (seen in a number of Leonard’s other works) lends some levity through their impossibly dumb criminal antics, and the conclusion, while the conclusion puts a refreshingly outrageous spin on the “final showdown” cliché.

Raylan is far from Leonard’s best work, and it would be a shame if this is the last we see of the character in print. But as literary “add-on content,” it entertains and preserves our interest.

7.5/10