LaBrava
Ratings7
Average rating3.9
Joe LaBrava first fell in love with femme fatale movie queen Jean Shaw in a darkened theater when he was twelve. Now he's finally meeting his dream woman in the flesh, albeit in a rundown Miami crisis center. Cleaned up and sober, though, she still makes LaBrava's heart race. And now that Jean's being terrorized by redneck thug Richard Nobles and his slimy Marielito partner Cundo Rey, Joe has a golden opportunity to play the hero. Or he could wind up the patsy—or dead—in the final reel.
Series
Featured Series
2 primary books#1 in Cundo Rey
Cundo Rey is a 2-book series with 2 released primary works first released in 1983 with contributions by Elmore Leonard.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
A fun hardboiled tale. I found the exposition a little odd. The reader isn't omniscient but the book reveals info in kind of a haphazard way - sometimes in a slow reveal and at other points with a dump of information.
But Leonard clearly loves writing dialogue and it is a highlight throughout.
I also really enjoyed the imagery of Miami as a decaying city caught between the pounding ocean and the backwaters of rural Florida. It seems no coincidence that one villain comes from Cuba on a boat and the other is a hick from some swamp who winds his way down to the big city.
