The New Black Mask Quarterly (No 2)

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It has been commonplace to read confessional reviews of Elmore Leonard’s novels in which a prominent critic admits he is late to sing Leonard’s praises. Glitz has ended that. If it is not the most successful mystery novel of 1985, it is certainly among the most celebrated.

Glitz is Leonard’s twenty-fourth novel. He began his literary career in 1953 writing westerns in the mornings before he reported to work as an advertising copywriter. Eight years and five novels later, he published Hombre, which has since been designated one of the twenty-five best westerns of all time by the Western Writers of America. When the 1967 movie of Hombre (starring Paul Newman) freed Leonard to write fiction full-time, he found that the market for westerns had dried up, so he turned to mysteries, which many readers feel is the genre in which he excels. His reputation as a skilled storyteller and a master at characterization has been building with each successive novel. Herbert Mitgang has observed that the lives of Leonard’s characters “add up to social commentary.”

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