Raylan

A Novel

By: Elmore Leonard

Narrated by: Brian D'Arcy James

Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

With the closing of the Harlan County, Kentucky, coalmines, marijuana has become the biggest cash crop in the state. A hundred pounds of it can gross three-hundred thousand dollars, but that’s chump change compared to the quarter million a human body can get you - especially when it’s sold off piece-by-piece.

So when Dickie and Coover Crowe, dope-dealing brothers known for sampling their own supply, decide to branch out into the body business, it’s up to U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens to stop them. But by the time Raylan finds out who’s making the cuts, he’s lying naked in a bathtub, with Layla the cool transplant nurse about to go for his kidneys.

Dark and droll, Raylan is pure Elmore Leonard - a pause-resister filled with sparkling dialogue and sly suspense that are the hallmarks of this modern master.

©2012 Elmore Leonard, Inc. (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishers

Strange characters

Strange characters who ring true in any street you live. Easy to see how the writer gave material for the series Justified

excellent

Classic Elmore Leonard. Great story and cool characters. Superb narrating performance. Very hard to put down with everything I want in a book.

Better if you never saw the show.

Just OK. Story is a mix of parts that never quite seem to come together.

Felt Like I was watching the tv show!

Felt like I was right there with them! Cant wait to get my next audio book

As good if not better than Justified

I buy and listen to several books a week and this one is a winner. I waited for it to come out and usually save my Elemore leonard's to read hardrcopies BUT hardcopies were not where to be found.
Loved the book buy it and enjoy

Coming from the show only… it was just ok for me

Nothing bad, just not the Raylan I know from the TV show. Not bad at all, just not what I expected.

Good Leonard is better than great... whoever.

It's fun to see Raylan Givens again and as I'm a big fan of "Justified" it's nice to see him in a familiar context. Namely, Harlan County, Kentucky. In fact, most of the characters in this book come right out of seasons 2 and 3 of the series, but with some significant changes. Characters that died on the show are alive, and sometimes with slightly altered names that fit Elmore Leonard's greater continuity.

That's part of what's fun here: the melding of the two universes, and it works just fine. My problem with the book is that it seems fairly lightweight for Elmore Leonard. He's such an entertaining writer with a mind that shoots sparks out like a catherine wheel, but this one seemed a little... tired, maybe. I don't think he wrote it just to make a buck, but maybe Raylan and Elmore are slowing down a bit.

It's not that the book isn't fun- it is. Lots of fun. But it it's not FREAKY DEAKY fun, or PRONTO fun (the story that introduced Raylan Givens to us). Raylan seems to be a hybrid of the character from the earlier books and the television character, which is fine- I saw Timothy Olyphant as I listened to this book- but I was taken out of the story a couple times while I tried to figure out the continuity differences.

That said, it's always nice to read some good Elmore Leonard characters- and this book has a lot of 'em. Some we kind of know, and some we're introduced to here for the first time. And nobody writes dialogue like Elmore Leonard. And there is some nice growth for Raylan as well and an ending that will make fans of the television show stop and go, "whuh?!!"

The narrator does a nice job with the book too. He reads the offbeat dialogue with a clear understanding of the inflections and rhythms, something I often screw up the first time I read a sentence. Very well done in that department.

RAYLAN is not the best Elmore Leonard book I've read/heard, though I know opinions vary and there's no accounting for taste (most people liked TISHOMINGO BLUES more than me too...). It's prettygood though, and like I said in the headline: Good Elmore Leonard is better than many writers at the top of their game. Give it a try.

Contra Alex

Where does Raylan rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is first rate Leonard. The book compares interestingly with the use of these stories in the TV series.

Too sporadic

Like 8 episodes of the show rolled up into a book. Great voice actor. Good story. Just no payoff at the end.

Great listen

If you could sum up Raylan in three words, what would they be?

Chivalrous, cool, and witty!

Any additional comments?

I've really enjoyed all the books in this series. Raylan is by far one of the coolest marshalls since Wyatt Earp. Im a huge fan of the tv show and have loved exploring the character from the authors perspective. I do wish they had just stuck with one narrator though.