Killshot - Softcover

“[Leonard has] written so many first-rate crime stories that it would be fatuous to say Killshot is his best, but it probably is anyway.”
—Newsweek

The New York Times bestselling author the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette once called, “the Alexander the Great of crime fiction,” Elmore Leonard is responsible for creating some of the sharpest dialogue, most compelling characters (including U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens of TV’s Justified fame), and, quite simply, some of the very best suspense novels written over the past century. Killshot is prime Leonard—a riveting story of a husband and wife caught in the crossfire when they foil a criminal act and are forced to defend themselves when the legal system fails them from the murderous wrath of a pair of vengeful killers. When it comes to cops and criminals stories, Killshot and Leonard are as good as it gets—further proof why “the King Daddy of crime writers” (Seattle Times) deserves his current place among John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and the other legendary greats of the noir fiction genre.

Ironworker Wayne Colson has come to the real estate office where his wife, Carmen, works—at the worst possible time for both of them. Armand Degas, an Ojibway Indian hit man, and loose cannon Richie Nix are here to shake down Carmen's boss. And Wayne steps in the way.

He sends the two off bleeding, and now the shooter for hire and Richie the ex-con have sworn to get the Colsons. There's little the state police and local law enforcement can do to help them, and the best the Feds can offer is the Witness Security Program. It comes down to Wayne and Carmen—and finally Carmen on her surprising own—to deal with the rough-trade misfits.