Career criminal Clement Mansell killed a crooked judge and the only witness to the crime, the judge's girlfriend. Now, detective Raymond Cruz is trying to pin the crime on Clement but Clement is the slipperiest of worms. Cruz and Clement are heading for a showdown that only one of them will walk away from...As of this writing, I've read 15 Elmore Leonard novels. Many of them have the same sort of rhythm. The bad guys are slick, the good guys are slicker, and you wind up liking most of them to so...

Clement Mansell styles himself as the "Oklahoma Wildman," and he openly boasts of having killed at least nine people. Prosecutors had him dead to rights for a triple murder, but his clever attorney, Carolyn Wilder, managed to get him off on a technicality. Now Mansell has killed a judge that pretty much everybody hated after an incident of road rage. He's also killed the judge's girlfriend, but there's no concrete evidence to tie him to the killings.Veteran Detroit homicide detective Raymond Cru...

"Fight, bleep, or hold the flashlight" - Elmore Leonard, "Impressions of a Murder" This novel was tight as a futtock shroud, smooth as Mai Noi silk, sharp as the turns on Col de Braus, and hard as a boiled egg. I finish reading Elmore Leonard and I want to be him, just for a second. Now look: Chandler, Cain and Hammett are absolutely the Holy Trinity of crime; the Father, Son and Holy Ghosts of Noir. Leonard, however, is both the Word and death's echo. He is the ultimate end, the great inevitabl...

A Western In DetroitThe American novelist Elmore Leonard (1925 -- 2013) began his career as a writer of genre westerns but achieved greater renown as a writer of crime fiction. Leonard's crime novels have many different settings but none more so than Detroit, his beloved home. Leonard's is a poet of Detroit streets in much that same way that the noir writer David Goodis has become known as the poet of the underside of Philadelphia.Leonard's 17th novel, "City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit" (1980...

I first fell in love with Elmore Leonard's writing while reading his early Westerns. The settings were so vivid it was as if he had transported himself to the location and was describing every dust mote and atmospheric shift. The characters had such authentic voices; there was never any confusion about who was speaking, and he had an uncanny ear for patois.Leonard displays these same features in this book. Here is Detroit, viewed from the 25th floor of a luxury condo: “The Detroit River looked

Please allow me to consider this novel a test-run for a proto-Raylan Givens character.The lead character in this novel is named Raymond Cruz, told often enough by other characters throughout that he resembles Gregory Peck in the classic Western THE GUNFIGHTER.Cruz sports a mustache and when we first meet him (page 11), he's being interviewed by a young female newspaper reporter for a feature that is never referenced again. Cruz will contrast other young women he encounters throughout the book wi...

This was such a great read.Elmore Leonard at his very best.Nobody does dialogue driven plots better than Leonard.Clement Mansell shoots a Judge for no reason other than the judge got in Mansell’s way. Mansell, who was on his way to commit a crime, got so ticked off when the judge wouldn’t let Mansell pass in his car he decided the judge and his female passenger needed to die. So he shot them both dead. Mansell is such a complete and utter psychopath no one will testify against him. So he just ke...

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of a good salary and a smart house, must be in want of a bonkfest from someone in the law enforcement business.And she duly gets one around the halfway point in this novel, so we have a couple of paragraphs featuring words like arching and thrusting and gasps and so forth.It’s another universal truth that authors believe to their very soul that the hero and the bad guy have to have a one on one showdown. Elmore Leonard alm...

Like the Detroit in which it takes place, City Primeval has a slick, modern surface and an undercurrent that's more, well, primeval: this is a novel about sophisticated legal defense maneuvers, patient police investigation, honor bound by blood, and Old West shootouts.Professional dirtbag Clement Mansell, always one or two steps ahead of where people expect him to be (among other things, the Oklahoma accent throws them off), has a lethal blend of practicality, ingenuity, and impulsiveness that c...

A friend heard I'd never read a book by Elmore Leonard. He knew I'd been reading the Parker series by Donald Westlake, who wrote them under the name Richard Stark. I was up to number nine in the Parker series, when a package arrived in the mail -- two cheap paperbacks of Leonard novels, the sort of slim volumes that fit easily in the back pocket of a pair of jeans -- sent by my Leonard-liking friend. I dove immediately into City Primeval, which is subtitled High Noon in Detroit. I'm only really

#2016-usa-geography-challenge: MICHIGANI hereby declare that Elmore Leonard was a great crime novelist. Oh, you already knew that? Yes, I am new to his novels, but better late than never, right? In Elmore's first book set in Detroit, rotten and despicable Recorder's Court Judge Alvin B. Guy is gunned down in his big Lincoln and acting police lieutenant Raymond Cruz and the homicide squad wonder which of the long list of his enemies might have had him killed, especially after he declared he could...

I picked this book up at a library sale I attended about a month ago. I had never heard of this book by Leonard. It was published in 1980 and only has 221 pages. This is a gritty crime novel set in Detroit. This is classic Elmore Leoanard. Tough, hardboiled crime drama with lots of quirky off beat characters and dialogue. I think this may have been one of Leonard's first forays into writing crime and his later novels are really a lot better, but this was a fascinating read.A crafty criminal,Clem...

I got interested in reading Elmore Leonard because he is one of 20 writers for the 6-season FX series “Justified” (2010-2015) Don and I love. The main character U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is based on the character originally appearing in Leonard’s novels “Pronto” and “Riding the Rap.” Later, Leonard wrote the short story “Fire in the Hole,” that’s the inspiration for the “Justified” series.I found “City Primeval” (1980) just sitting, unread, on my bookshelves along with another four Leonard titl...

One of the best crime novels ever. Some of Leonard's best dialogue - and that's saying a lot, because Leonard has probably never written dialogue that isn't damn great, but here he outdoes himself. The sheer amount of authentic detail, right down to the repeated racist slurs, misogyny and bigotry is impressive - few authors today would dare to keep that much, I think. Yet it's all in service to the authenticity of the characters and you never once mistake the characters' bias for the author's, s...

Thumbs up. From that late 70’s-early 80’s era of Elmore’s I love so much. Raymond Cruz in a lot of ways seems like a proto-Bryan Hurd yet this story takes very different turns. Love the ending. Plus the bit with the Armenians. It gets where you think it’s going but not how you think it’s going to get there. Will probably move even higher up the list on re-read.

As telegraphed by the title, City Primeval is an urbanized, big city western. Detroit police detective Raymond Cruz, a street-wise, plain spoken and analytical lawman becomes entangled in an intricate dance of violence with Clement Mansell, a “Billy the Kid” character who loves the game of cops and robbers and is so good at it that he’s managed to escape every murder rap that he has ever faced,--and several murders that he hasn’t had to face—a total of nine in all. Clement ultimately offers Cruz...

Of course the reason why I started reading City Primeval was because there’s going to be a new Justified mini series, and it’s based on this book. Elmore Leonard created the characters that were later adapted to Justified, and even though this book has nothing to do with those characters, it’s still Elmore Leonard in the Elmore Leonard world.Now, a confession: I have never read an Elmore Leonard novel. I know I should. I like crime novels, I like dark novels, and apparently I like his writing st...

City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit is from that dark period of Elmore's career when his novels contained more menace than humor. The realities on City Primeval are harsh, and the view is unblinking and succinctly delivered. No word is wasted, and every sentence is rich in narrative drive, essential information and characterization—this goes double for the dialogue.Learning writers are drawn to Elmore Leonard because his prose has so much to teach. Lesson number one: Make sure the reader is grat...

It is funny, there's some sex and some action so even though it turns into a predictable thriller towards the end, it is still very enjoyable reading right until the final showdown. Without giving away too much, let's just say I didn't choose the word showdown as a metaphor. I will admit I didn't see it coming in spite of warning signs (Gregory Peck) so both the ending and the final twist were surprising. But unfortunately I was just surprised how bad maestro has finished the novel.More here (re...

I’ve got to hand it to him, Elmore Leonard knows his trade: crime fiction. He keeps the suspense high & the dialogue crisp in this ‘High Noon in Detroit’ gunslinging cop-story showdown. It’s set in the 1970’s, so there’s a kind of double time-warp aspect to it, not just the throwback to old-timey Wild West notions of justice and honor, but also to Motown cool and Detroit cars. The two main characters are flip sides of the same coin—a killer and a lawman—and both embody their time & place. Racism...

There's something so perfectly satisfying about his books - you don't always know where he's going, but you know he'll get there the right way and not let you down. This book is, in almost every way, more a western than a procedural. At the same time, it is exactly a procedural. The blend of the two makes so much sense I'm surprised it's the first one I've read of its kind. At the same time, who could do it more perfect justice than Leonard?

Even though this is, in a fashion, a novel of today's Detroit's "Cops & robbers"...this is as much a "western" as any of Elmore Leonard's "westerns"...good guy cop Raymond Cruz is out to stop the murderous, amoral, smart aleck bad guy Clement Mansell...eventually the showdown not in the street at "high Noon," but in an apartment...solid Leonard!

It speaks to Leonard's strength as a writer that this book, which is about as old as I am, still feels fresh and taut today. He doesn't stint on the development of good or bad guys, which is a welcome relief from the many writers who skip this crucial step.

Excellent. I'll give it 4 & 1/2, but from the 5 side.

Leonard’s novels have a snap. Nothing happens until it happens, but it happens all the time.

This is an old Elmore Leonard. 1980. Subtitled High Noon in Detroit, City Primeval treats the urban cops and robbers drama as a combination of modern law enforcement and frontier justice. I’m sure Leonard must have used the police detective-protagonist, Raymond Cruz, in other novels, though this is the first time I’ve seen him. He’s unique. Hard-boiled, taciturn, yet conflicted and vulnerable. He gets involved with an equally interesting and complex criminal defense attorney who, three years bef...

This may be one of Elmore Leonard's lesser-known works, but not one of his lesser ones.I came to this book in a roundabout fashion. I am a fan of Justified, and in one of the special features for the final season, the writers and producers specified this novel as an inspiration, not for a situation or character, but for the tone of one particular confrontation. Odd, that, but I liked said confrontation enough that, when I received my next Audible credit, well...Now, this book is an oddity for Le...

If everyone did their job half as well as Elmore Leonard does, this would be a better world. What Elmore Leonard does is write crime fiction mostly about little shit-heel, two-bit criminals who aren’t as smart as they often think they are, like in the case of Clement Mansell. Throw in a tireless police detective determined to bring Mansell down for murdering a judge, a beautiful defense attorney in over her head, and various other oddballs and sidekicks and you have a fun read as are all of his

Statistically likely that I'd have read some Elmore Leonard by now, but this was somehow my first. Crime fiction isn't really my thing but I was swayed by the Detroit setting. Decided to listen to the audio version based on other Audible listeners' obsession with this reader, Frank Muller. As advertised, engrossing and masterfully written, with a memorable ending, and Muller is a perfect match for the noir tone.

Clean, crisp dialog, excellent character development, and engrossing plot served to us by an accomplished author. Elmore Leonard knows westerns, suspense, and the grittiness of Detroit. References to Carl's Chop House and Coney Island hot dogs took me back to I a place I lived in years ago.