When Elmore Leonard's "Fifty-Two Pickup" appeared in 1974, it had some critics talking in terms of Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald. "Swag" in 1974 indicated that Leonard's first book was no mere accident. A new and important writer of mystery fiction had arrived. Now comes "Unknown Man No. 89," and it maintains the high standard Leonard has set for himself.

But it really is wrong to talk of this writer in terms of Chandler and Macdonald. He has little in common with those two. They are "clean" writers; there is no profanity to speak of in Chandler, and Macdonald has never been an exponent of the verísmo school of speech. Leonard is.

The real influence on Leonard is George V. Higgins, whose "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" came out about five years ago and marked a breakthrough into the kind of language previously encountered only in paperback books with green...