Thursday, November 4, 2010

Recent Reading: Elmore Leonard's Tale of Oklahoma Crime, 'The Hot Kid'

AltTulsa likes to read on topics of all stripes, including novels (see, the novel isn't dead).

Our latest fictional diversion was an Elmore Leonard crime story, The Hot Kid, set in and around Tulsa in the 1930s. Like all Leonard novels, it's a wild ride, a cops and robbers story complete with tough guys, oil millionaires, gun molls, speakeasies and much more.

In short, it's a hoot. 

For T-town readers, there's also the joy of familiar names and places. Leonard sets the action in places like the Mayo Hotel, Tulsa's ritzy Maple Ridge neighborhood, as well as the Cookson Hills, Sapulpa, Sallisaw, Okmulgee, and so on.

Finally, we feel obligated to praise Leonard's colorful characters, especially young Carl Webster, the hot kid himself, who manages to be both fearless and polite, a perfect Oklahoma hero.

1 comment:

TedTheCat said...

I liked it, too. Page turner. Lots of local color. I seem to remember that Leonard had a couple of people researching Tulsa history.

I think the protagonist had an address near 13th & Carson.