City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit

This is early EL crime fiction: 1980. Set in his home city of Detroit, it concerns an Oklahoma lowlife named Clement Mansell and the police detective, Ray Cruz, who is out to end Mansell's career, literally. As the subtitle suggests, this is high noon in Detroit, not the beginning of a protracted court battle and an endless series of appeals.The story begins with Mansell's killing a corrupt, highly unpopular local judge. Unfortunately, the gun which he uses is the same gun attached to some earlier murders. Clement instructs his girl friend to dispose of it, but the ditz--Sandy Stanton--hands it off to another lowlife for safe keeping, a decision that will come back to bite Clement in the posterior.If EL's crime fiction can be superficially divided into the comic (Get Shorty, e.g.) and the serious (Killshot, e.g.), this is more serious, though Sandy is a character who could inhabit either of EL's universes.The plot is complex but not unnecessarily convoluted and we have a host of interesting side characters, including some very tough Albanians (who Clement keeps describing as undertakers, because of their black suits). The dialogue is excellent if not yet the exquisite instrument that it will become. There are still some lovely one liners, nonce words and laugh-out-loud sentences, blissfully free of adverbs.We read EL because he is a master of crime fiction and, quite simply, a master of fiction. He should be treated as a major figure in American letters. He was clearly influenced by Hemingway, as was a whole generation and beyond, but his total output, the variety within that output (he is a great writer of westerns), his stunning percentage of movie sales, many of which resulted in good films, put him among the principal writers of the American pantheon. R.I.P. and thanks for the legacy.For an excellent example of the master at the beginning of his crime writing career, City Primeval is superb.

It's a full great crime novel set in De-troit. that keeps you guessing. A superb ending too.

Absolutely the best book Elmore Leonard ever wrote. The first 2 chapters are the best opening chapters I have ever read and I've read alot. In the matter of Judge Alvin Guy draws you right in. All of the characters are believable.The opening 2 chapters are so true and they show the racism of blacks and whites together. However the story is not about racism. It is about investigating a murder and a scam and how the Detective, in this case Cruz, has a grudge he has been carrying for the criminal for sometime and how that leads to forcing a showdown.Cruz is well developed and the scene where he is being interviewed is so believable it makes you cringe and yet laugh too. Every guy who has been accused of not being sensitive or open and communicative by their wife or girlfriend will recognize it in a minute. The bad guy from Oklahoma is spot on a perfect character developed to the extreme. The opening chapters should be used in every writer's workshop in the USA.-It grabs you with real characters and real true to life scenes.Cruz was introduced before Raylan but they both are very similar. I think Leonard used attributes that Cruz had and carried them over to create Raylan Givens. Cruz was too good of a character to kill off altogether so voila he created Raylan Givens. The dialouge is perfect and the story moves right along. Loved this book. Others that you should read are Split Images, 52 pick up and Swag. All have great characters and stories-but City Primeval is the best ever. Anyone aspiring to be a writer should read this book and especially the opening 2 chapters.

This book came out in 1980, but aside from a few odds and ends (no cell phones or Glocks), it might as well have been written yesterday (In fact, it may be MORE realistic in some ways than what can make it into print today. Leonard’s lowlifes use racial epithets casually in their speech, because, surprise, surprise, they’re criminal lowlifes). The hero, lawman Raymond Cruz, is a little bit of a puzzle, even to himself, but I think his essence is certainly clear by the end of the book. The other star of the novel, arguably stealing the show from Cruz, is Clement Mansell, a moral monster whose natural inclination toward sociopathy has only been reinforced by his previous encounters with the court system. There’s also Mansell’s girlfriend Sandy, a sort of moral drifter, who, even as she finds herself being squeezed by the police, is still not crazy enough to ever even THINK of testifying against Mansell. And there’s an interesting community of Albanian immigrants who apparently aren’t people to be trifled with either.I think the subtitle of this book, “High Noon In Detroit,” may be slightly misleading, because in High Noon,” Gary Cooper had to stand up against Miller and his gang after everybody else in the town basically chickened out, and that’s not really the case here. It IS personal between Cruz and Mansell – oh, yeah – but that’s because of who they are; the civilian population of Detroit is largely irrelevant. (That’s not to say there isn’t a strong element of “High Noon” in the book – there absolutely is, in terms of the personal confrontation between two men – just that in terms of the plot, it’s not a recapitulation of the classic western.)

I purchased this book because of its reviews--it was ranked as one of the best murder mysteries written by Elmore Leonard. I found his prose to be exceptional, with descriptions and dialogue that made me feel like I was right there, experiencing the events described while they were unfolding.However, there were too many coincidences and circumstances shaping the plot that I did not find to be plausible.

Kill when he feels like it and has the upper hand. Despite all his bluster he was afraid that if it came down to a fight of any kind he might loose. Currently watching Justified Primeval Dinner. It is not the original Justified but hopes are high for a good ending. Leonard’s books are always worth reading.

Excellent crime thriller from the master.

It feels a bit dated, but in this case it’s a good thing. It just gives it a grittiness and a 1970s jive that you don’t often see in books. Of course it features Leonards great writing so that’s awesome to, cool characters, great dialogue

If you can get your hands on the news piece Elmore Leonard did as research for this, get it. It's about five pages of him riding around with the Detroit Police Murder squad and it gives you snapshot of a time and place that must have inspired this book. It's not an era you'd want to hang around in but it's sure fun to visit. City Primeval marks the shift that Leonard made when moving into gritty crime fiction and it's dynamite. Of course, you have to like this type of story-telling. It's a character driven, dialogue soaked swagger through Detroit. When people talk, you believe it. When people kill someone it rings true. It's not a thriller and it's not plot driven by plans to take over the world. Nobody is a green beret ex-ninja assassin and there are no nuclear bombs to diffuse. Leonard creates believable people and then let's them loose. We get to watch.It's lean and mean writing. A switchblade in your boot and a 38 special in the glove compartment. Trouble awaits.

Mr. Leonard’s transition from the Western genre is both full of clichés and surprises. Raymond Cruz is your cowboy like tough independent cop who seeks his own justice when the system’s justice fails. His nemesis, Clement Mansell, is an unrepentant killer who feeds on the innocence of young women, intimidates and exploits the fears of the upstanding citizen and seeks vengeance who do him the most inconsequential offence. He must be stopped and Raymond Cruz is the perfect man for the job.

Terse detail - real dialogue- engaging actionWords ! Talk ! Plot !