Raylan

This is the first Elmore Leonard book I've ever read? Adult mystery/Westerns or whatever this is aren't my normal jam, BUT I do love the show Justified so I thought I'd pick this up. I didn't realize that it was #3 in the Raylan series but I felt pretty up to speed from watching the show. Actually, more than up to speed, since elements of this book were turned into episodes of the show, which I'd already seen?

It's rare that I would say this, but I'd definitely recommend just watching the show and not reading the book. Everything comes across so much more clever in the show. The book has a lot more vague racism and sexism. (I'm SO mad about Rachel's sudden “The Help” backstory??? ughhh)

Also, I know this was Elmore Leonard's last book before he died, but it kind of felt like he wrote it all on his death bed and no one edited it. There are some BONKERS sentences in this. Like, for example, “Jackie Nevada had walked out of the police station knowing her best bet was to get out of town. Borrow a backpack and stuff it with T-shirts and shorts; sleep a few hours, put on jeans and hitch a ride to Shelbyville: start out playing Texas hold ‘em at the Indian casino with farmers and truck drivers who'd been up all night to build up her stack.” WHAT? I need an English teacher to diagram that, please.

Also, this felt more like 3 novellas (or, uh, rough drafts for TV episode scripts) than it did one cohesive novel.

Also did I already say that Raylan came across as way more of a perv in this than he does on the show??? Ughhh.

Honestly this would be a 1-star read for me but it gained an additional 1 star of enjoyment for all the straight-up weird sentences that I sent out to Caroline as I read. I probably emailed her 50 times as I read this. If you are tempted to read this book, let me know, and I will forward you all of those emails. This will be a huge time-saver.

*Rating possibly influenced by picturing Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens...