Maximum Bob

In Palm Beach County, Florida, someone places a live ten-foot alligator in the backyard of the bigoted, redneck judge Bob Biggs--known to all as Maximum Bob--and his wife, Leanne, a former Weeki Wachee mermaid.

Devil_Monkey said Better than average crime fiction. Elmore Leonard is one of the greatest living writers of crime fiction - perhaps even THE greatest living writer - so the reader goes in expecting good stuff. This one is good, better than average, but not an exceptional Elmore Leonard novel.The story is fun, sometimes a little silly, at times even slightly sinister, yet it never quite comes together in a cohesive unit. It's good, but it's less accessible than many of Mr. Leonard's greatest works. Part of it might be due to a slight supernatural element that is underdeveloped (and seems out of place), or the character of Maximum Bob himself who never really comes in. "Mixed effort" according to The Captain. I'm a big Leonard fan. Let's start with that disclaimer. Maximum Bob is something of an oddity for me, in that, on one hand, it is classic Leonard narrative style, that flowing, loose, close-to-character's inner workings stuff George V. Higgins kicked off and Leonard refined. In this respect, Elmore is Elmore again and I'm glad to see it. The problem for me (and what stops me short of 5 star rating) is that the story itself seems to have been stretched too far with the character Leanne. Her presence, as an alligator-paranoid semi-psychic seems forced, as if she were shoe-horned in there in the effort to save and el. Leonard or Hiaasen? Throughout this book I could swear I was reading Carl Hiaasen, not Elmore Leonard. That's not a bad thing, I like Hiaasen, just unexpected.Crackling dialog. Outlandish characters. A touch dark. Very quick read.One note about the Kindle copy. It is very poorly done. There is no line spacing or other break between scenes, its all condensed. So often when the action shifts, it takes a bit to figure out what happened.