The Hunted

Elmore Leonard is a guilty pleasure of mine. I read far more of his works than I note on this blog, but the simple matter is: I should note them. In The Hunted we find Al Rosen living the good life in Israel, where the State Department relocated him in the witness protection program. Rosen wore a wire to snare two other baddies, but the grand jury didn’t indict them. Al knew those guys were going to come after him, so he convinced them to send him to live in Israel under a new name (Al Rosen… he was Jimmy Ross before).

Rosen still has his large mortgage firm in the States; twice a year, he receives stacks of cash shipped to him and delivered by a US Marine from the embassy, Dave Davis, who becomes an important character, along with two other locals, Talia and Mati.

He sets up home base at The King David in Jerusalem, but hops from city to city from tourist hotel to tourist hotel, taking in the local sights and meeting women on tours, with whom he has quick flings. On one such occasion, the hotel burns down, and he manages to escape with his lady friend. They are standing outside the rubble hours later, as the sun comes up, when a wire photographer snaps a photo showing him. It never appears in the J. Post, but it does get wide distribution stateside. He is spotted by Valenzuela, Cass, Rashad, and another head honcho of the baddies. They head to Israel, and the page-turning is fairly rapid, as it tends to be in all Leonard novels.

As always, each character has his or her idiosyncrasies, ways of talking. The dialogue always crackles, and any single line could reveal a vital clue regarding motive or plot line.

There are some unseen twists at the end. I leave those there.

This is the first Leonard story I recall set outside the US. Cuba Libre is another.