Only Way Out by Tod Goldberg

 

This looked like a novel I'd enjoy yeading, and it most definitely was. The blurb by Stephen Graham Jones was a mixed thing--I dig Jones, but Leonard devolved into self-parody his last decade or more. Fortunately, this is a good novel, and while it's clear Goldberg has consumed rather a lot of Elmore Leonard's prose, the voice here feels natural. It also sparkles and dances and sings and growls and screams, as needed; Goldberg has some chops. The dialogue feels distinctive from the narrative voice, and the characters--some of them, at least--actually talk differently from each other. The story feels at first as though it's going to be a heist-gone-wrong thing, but it turns out to be more than that, with layers of blackmail and revenge and something like a love story burbling to the surface the last few chapters. I'll have to remember the name and look for some of his other novels, I'd even consider reading something in a series, which probably says enough about my feelings for this book.