Four Novels of the 1970s: Fifty-Two Pickup / Swag / Unknown Man No. 89 / The Switch

"Inventor of a fast, funny, sharp, and tough style uniquely his own, Elmore Leonard is widely considered America's greatest modern crime writer. With this volume collecting the four Detroit novels that established his reputation, The Library of America inaugurates a three-volume edition of Leonard's greatest work, selected in consultation with the author shortly before his death. Fifty-Two Pickup is an insidiously brutal book about an adulterous businessman who runs afoul of a crew of murderous blackmailers. Swag finds Leonard moving for the first time into the more comic mode that would become his signature. Unknown Man No. 89 spins a complex pattern of crisscrossing rip-offs and con games. In The Switch, one of Leonard's funniest books, Mickey Dawson, a discontented housewife held for ransom, manages to turn the tables on her kidnappers while exacting overdue revenge on her scheming husband. This volume also contains a newly researched chronology of Leonard's life, prepared with exclusive access to materials in his personal archive."--Publisher's description.… (more)