Elmore Leonard

Capo di tutti capi of crime novelists

Dutch Leonard was the master of cool. Years ago an editor at the Miami Herald contrived a serial thriller for which 13 writers with Florida connections each did a chapter, independent of the others. The result was a chaotic little novel called Naked Came the Manatee. The publishers sent me, Dutch and Dave Barry on a mini media tour in New York City. We were doing the Today show with Katie Couric when Dave and I began to suspect that Dutch hadn't read a word of the book except for his own chapter. Finally, in the back of a town car,...

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