La Brava

SUMMARY: LaBrava is vintage Leonard: a blend of the true-to-life and the totally make-believe, the cinematic and the suspenseful, the world we know and a whole lot of worlds we're glad we don't. Only Leonard can concoct such a potent cocktail: one part raw humanity, one part pure insanity, a dash of lethal action, and his irresistible, eccentric spice.Joe La Brava is an ex-Secret Service agent who gets mixed up in a South Miami Beach scam involving a redneck former cop, a Cuban hit man who moonlights as a go-go dancer, and a one-time movie queen whose world is part make-believe, part deadly dangerous. This is vintage Leonard: fast-moving, pitch-perfect, and utterly, authentically irresistible. A vintage title by Elmore Leonard - The New York Times bestselling author of Be Cool and Get Shorty Photographer Joe LaBrava specialises in capturing the soul of Miami's street life - and since he used to do dirty jobs for the Government, he understands his subject very well. So when his friend Maury enlists his help to sort out a problem with an ex-film star Joe fell for when he was twelve, the low-grade hustlers behind a ransom scam would need to be a lot smarter than they seem to pull it off. But there's a surprise in the bag for Joe - some people really are smarter than they seem. Joe LaBrava, ex-secret service agent turned photographer, meets a former movie star who he admired in a Miami crisis center. She is being terrorized by thugs, giving him a chance to play the hero.