SOURCE: "Crime/Mystery; On the Lam in Rapallo," in New York Times, Vol. 98, October 17, 1993, p. 39.

In the following review, Carpenter offers a mixed assessment of Pronto.

Somewhere along the line, it became fashionable to discuss Elmore Leonard in terms formerly reserved for the likes of Flaubert, an excess of flattery that must certainly cause the man embarrassment. Mr. Leonard writes crime fiction. It is not so important that his books make insightful observations on contemporary culture—which they often do—or whether they contain sharply drawn portraits of characters on the fringe of society—which they invariably do. The bottom line is are they fun?

Pronto, the author's 31st novel, is fun—relatively speaking. It doesn't have the bite of Get Shorty or the full-tilt looniness of Maximum Bob. But there is a payoff in Opus 31, and that is the glee with which Mr. Leonard sends up the...