The revered "New York Times" bestselling author, recognized as "America's greatest crime writer" ("Newsweek"), brings back U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, the mesmerizing hero of "Pronto," "Riding the Rap," and the hit FX series "Justified."

With the closing of the Harlan County, Kentucky, coal mines, marijuana has become the biggest cash crop in the state. A hundred pounds of it can gross $300,000, 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 Raylan isn't your average marshal; he's the laconic, Stetson-wearing, fast-drawing lawman who juggles dozens of cases at a time and always shoots to kill. 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.

The bad guys are mostly gals this time around: Layla, the nurse who collects kidneys and sells them for ten grand a piece; Carol Conlan, a hard-charging coal-mine executive not above ordering a cohort to shoot point-blank a man who's standing in her way; and Jackie Nevada, a beautiful sometime college student who can outplay anyone at the poker table and who suddenly finds herself being tracked by a handsome U.S. marshal.

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

Reviews

The continued commercial success of the FX television series Justified has created a large fan base for Leonard's gritty crime stories featuring U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. Given audiences' strong attachment to the actor who portrays Givens on television, narrator Brian D'Arcy James faces an uphill battle in this audio edition. However, James proves more than equal to the task, creating convincing Southern accents and distinct character voices. In Harlan County, Ky., the Crowe brothers are career drug dealers who've moved up to selling human organs for transplant on the black market. Naturally, the only man who can stop them is Givens. James's performance is not to be missed: his range of dialects and personalities is so impressive that listeners may think this audio features a full cast. A HarperCollins paperback. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.