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52 Pick-Up
by Elmore Leonard
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (1995-06)
ISBN: 0380654903
EAN: 9780380654901
Dewy Decimal #: 813
Paperback
Edition: 1st
SKU: 11427
Condition: Good
Comments: Binding: Softcover. Condition: Good. Slightly creased spine.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Detroit businessman Harry Mitchell had had only one affair in his twenty-two years of happy matrimony. Unfortunately someone caught his indiscretion on film and now wants Harry to fork over one hundred grand to keep his infidelity a secret. And if Harry doesn't pay up, the blackmailer and his associates plan to press a lot harder -- up to and including homicide, if necessary. But the psychos picked the wrong pigeon for their murderous scam. Because Harry Mitchell doesn't get mad...he gets even.
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Download Description
E-book extras: "Martin Amis Interviews 'The Dickens of Detroit'"; Elmore Leonard's "If It Sounds Like Writing, Rewrite It"; "All By Elmore: The Crime Novels
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Customer Reviews
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Too sleazy for my liking
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-05-22
This is the 19th Elmore Leonard novel that I have read and I would class it among the bottom four of those (along with "The Big Bounce", "Pronto" and "Bandits"). This tale of a businessman who is blackmailed after a brief affair and who then turns the tables on the blackmailers is, in many ways, typical Leonard. It has the dumb bad-guys, intelligent females and double-crosses that show up in all of Leonard's books. However, "52 Pickup" lacks the black humour that is what made me love Leonard's novels in the first place. I also found this novel to be way too sleazy for my liking. A lot of this book takes place in strip clubs, nude model studios and dirty movie cinemas, and by page 50, I just wanted the characters to go some place else. Admittedly, even a bad Elmore Leonard novel is better than most books that are out there, but since better Elmore Leonard novels exist ("Touch", "Out of Sight", "Gold Coast", and "Freaky Deaky" are four of the best), why not read one of those instead?
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Entertaining, but no masterpice!
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-04-19
This novel was definitely entertaining. It served its purpose. It gave me something to read that held my attention. As most Leonard novels, there is plenty of hip lines, drug use, sex, and of course the crime.
I do not generally enjoy Leonard's novels. I enjoy the movies that are made from them. After reading "Unknown Man #89" and being extremely disappointed, it has been a few years since I have even attempted to read one of his novels. I must say that I now know how to read a Leonard novel. Not expecting much!
The story starts off easy enough and runs smoothly. Not a time in the reading did I feel there was anything unnecessary or boring. The plot is not too original, but easy to accept as a possible real situation.
I would suggest this to anyone who is looking for something fun, quick, and easy to read. There is a lot of inappropriate sex and language, so not recommended for anyone under 17.
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Well Written, but the Story Falls Apart in the Second Half
Rating (3)
Date: 2007-03-26
52 PICK UP is, like all of Elmore Leonard's novels, very well written. This book was originally written in the early 1970s, but holds up very well. With a few minor adjustments, it could take place in modern times.
The story essentially deals with a blackmail plot against an adulterous businessman in Detroit. The first half, which is very strong, shows how the businessman is blackmailed, and how he initially responds. The second half, which is far weaker, deals with how the businessman decides to strike back and take justice into his own hands.
The second half of 52-PICK UP is something of a letdown, because it is not particularly believable. Leonard sets up a great, realistic story in the first half, only to resolve the story with an "action movie" type conclusion that requires a major suspension of disbelief.
This novel is further hampered by the absence of any likable characters, with the exception of the wife of the protagonist. Many of the players in this book act in a venal, brutal manner toward one another. I understand that Leonard is trying to be dark and gritty, but the non-stop nastiness does get repetitious and tiresome after a while. This novel lacks the humor of Elmore Leonard's later work.
52 PICK UP is a decent early effort, but I'd recommend trying some of Leonard's later crime books first, or one of his westerns.
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52 Pickup
Rating  (1)
Date: 2006-03-15
0 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Too dark for my tastes. Needlessly exploitive and vulgar. The only redeeming social value was the fact that the protagonist truly suffered the consequences of adultery.
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Box Canyon
Rating (3)
Date: 2004-03-28
This was a 5 star thriller that fell apart at the end. 52 Pickup was written in the early 70s, so you have Leonard just as things are really starting to roll for him. Great dialogue, great characters, with crime, adultery, and porn spicing the stew. It's also one of Leonard's most brutal novels. There is one murder that is just shocking, but there is also the suggestion of sodomized rape as part of a kidnapping. You really hate the bad guys in this one. The hero, Harry Mitchell, is standard flawed good guy stuff. He's doing a slow burn while dealing with his problem -- which is his own doing, a twist for Leonard fans. The ramifications of this problem, Harry's adultery, and how it touches (and ends!)so many lives is the effective subtext of the novel. The exchanges between Harry and Barbara, Mitchell's wife, are a good showcase for those that appreciate Leonard's mastery of dialogue. But what makes them a bit different than other Leonard exchanges, is that the topic is adultery, and how a married couple tries to deal with betrayal and damaged love. The downside: the ending. It's not just that it's something of a disappointing demise for the main bad guy. (You'd like to see Harry do something with drills and blowtorches.) No, the ending is just clumsy and from a writing view point, and not well executed. And, perhaps worse, just not believable. The exchange (or the obviously ironic "pickup" or payoff), is so clunky, that no bad guy, especially a Leonard bad guy, would of been fooled. But maybe that's the point, there is no neat package of an ending, since Harry's "mistake" was the first domino. He will have to live with the damage he has caused, especially to his wife and his deal lover the rest of his life.
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