The author’s 43rd novel brings back bank robber Jack Foley, who was portrayed by George Clooney in ‘Out of Sight.’ Cowboy movies and Hemingway made Leonard a writer.  Screenplays made him rich.

1. Visualize Harry Dean Stanton.

Head north out of Detroit on I-75 past 8 Mile Road and you get to Bloomfield Hills, the wealthy suburb where Elmore Leonard lives. Although he was born in New Orleans in 1925, the 83-year-old novelist grew up in Detroit and has lived in the area all his life. In several of his novels, Bloomfield Hills is the scene of home invasions, shootouts and kidnappings.

Leonard writes at an oak table in an airy ground-floor sitting room. The table has a few neat piles of research paper, the yellow legal pads he uses to write longhand and a big ashtray. He and his second wife, Joan, bought this house in 1987. She died of cancer in 1993, and now Leonard lives here with his third wife, Christine. He has four grown children from his first marriage, a dozen grandkids and three great-grandchildren.

Every one of Leonard‘s books is still in print. Virtually every novel he has written has been sold to Hollywood. This month, he’s publishing his 43rd novel, “Road Dogs” (William Morrow: 262 pp.).

“Road Dogs” is a sequel of sorts to “Out of Sight,” which was made into a movie by Steven Soderbergh, starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. In this new book, bank robber Jack Foley (Clooney’s character) has been sprung from prison and is living in Venice, Calif., where his life (more…)

(Publisher’s Weekly, Feb. 2)

Leonard launches three characters from previous novels on a collision course in this seemingly effortless performance. After prison buddy Cundo Rey (last seen in LaBrava) drops a bundle on a shark attorney, celebrity bank robber Jack Foley (from Out of Sight) gets his 30-year prison sentence reduced to 30 months. Jack’s quickly back in the world, living large in one of Cundo’s two multimillion-dollar houses in Venice, Calif., juggling a fast seduction with fortune-teller (from Riding the Rap) Dawn Navarro (who is now Cundo’s lady) and the untoward attention of rogue FBI agent Lou Adams, who’s waiting for Foley to rob another bank. While Dawn tries to enlist Foley in a scheme to steal Cundo’s off-the-books fortune, Cundo surprises them with an early release. Betrayal simmers while Foley considers going semi-straight—with the help of a widowed starlet—Dawn hatches a plan that could get her rich and rid her of all her problems, and Cundo’s associates and neighborhood toughs get sucked into the fray. The plot isn’t as tight as it could be, but Leonard’s singular way with words is reason enough to read it. (May)

Order your signed copy of Elmore Leonard’s Road Dogs from www.vjbooks.com