American author Elmore "Dutch" Leonard is often mentioned in the same class as Ross Macdonald and Dashiell Hammett as a writer whose work exceeds the expectations of suspense novels. However, though Leonard is praised as a master of the crime novel—with his fast-moving action, hard-boiled characters, and detailed but not flowery descriptions—his writing style does not fall neatly into the crime or detective genre. Many critics, in fact, decline to peg him as a genre writer due to his skillful craftsmanship. Leonard's realistic, contemporary dialogue reads practically effortlessly, and his story lines often interject social commentary without distraction. Often dubbed the "Dickens of Detroit," Leonard began his literary career writing Westerns in the 1950s and has been writing fiction full time since 1967. He chugged along relatively unnoticed until his works LaBrava (1983) and Glitz (1985) established him as an accomplished novelist. Though at that...