and silver eucalyptus trees.
âBless me, Fatha, for I have sin. It has been two months from the last time I come to Confession. Since then I am fornicating with a woman from Gisenyi three times only and this is all I have done.â
They would seem to fill their mouths with the English words pro-nounc-ing each one carefully, with an accent Terry believed was heard only in Africa. He gave fornicators ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys, murmured what passed for an absolution while the penitent said the Act of Contrition, and dismissed them with a reminder to love God and sin no more.
âFire in the Holeâ (2001)
In Elmore Leonardâs first original e-book, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (featured in Pronto and Riding the Rap ) returns to the eastern Kentucky coal-mining country of his youth. When Boyd Crowder, a mail-order-ordained minister who doesnât believe in paying his income taxes, decides to blow up the IRS building in Cincinnati, Givens is asked by the local marshal to intervene. This setsup an inevitable confrontation between two men on opposite sides of the law who still have a lingering respect for each other. Throw into the mix Boydâs sister-in-law, Ava, who carries a torch for Raylan along with a deer rifle, and youâve got a funny, adrenaline-charged story only Elmore Leonard could have written.
Book Page : ââFire in the Hole,â is classic Leonard, even if the medium is not.â
From the story:
They had dug coal together as young men and then lost touch over the years. Now it looked like theyâd be meeting again, this time as lawman and felon, Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder.
Boyd did six years in a federal penitentiary for refusing to pay his income tax, came out and found religion. He received his ordination by mail order from a Bible college in South Carolina and formed a sect he called Christian Aggression. The next thing he did, Boyd formed the East Kentucky Militia with a cadre of neo-Nazi skinheads, a bunch of boys wearing Doc Martens and swastika tattoos. They were all natural-born racists and haters of authority, but still had to be taught what Boyd called âthe laws of White Supremacyas laid down by the Lord,â which he took from Christian Identity doctrines. Next thing, he trained these boys in the use of explosives and automatic weapons. He told them they were now members of Crowderâs Commandos, sworn to take up the fight for freedom against the coming Mongrel World Order and the govermintâs illegal tax laws.
Tishomingo Blues (2002)
Daredevil Dennis Lenahan has brought his act to the Tishomingo Lodge & Casino in Tunica, Mississippi â diving off an eighty-foot ladder into nine feet of water for the amusement of gamblers, gangsters, and luscious belles. His riskiest feat, however, was witnessing a Dixie-style mob execution while atop his diving platform. Robert Taylor saw the hit also. A blues-loving Detroit hustler touring the Southland in a black Jaguar, Taylorâs got his own secret agenda re the âCornbread Cosa Nostra,â and he wants Dennis in on the game. But thereâs a lot more in Robert Taylorâs pocket than a photo of his lynched great-grandfather. And high-diver Dennis could be about to take a long, fatal fall â right into a mess of hoop skirts, Civil War playacting . . . and more trouble than he ever dreamed possible.
Entertainment Weekly : âGod bless Elmore Leonard. Grade A.â
Detroit Free Press : âElmore Leonard is back at his sly, finger-popping best.â
Los Angeles Times Book Review : â Tishomingo Blues is typical Elmore Leonard. Who could ask for anything more?
From the novel:
Newton Hoon sat in his trailer with a jelly glass of bourbon watching the news: that little TV girl with the two last names in the woods showing where James Rein and Eugene Dean had shot each other, saying both men were from Tunica but nothing about Rose.
There she was now in the