海角大神

All right, you鈥檙e looking at Harlan County, Ky., and there goes Boyd Crowder, a shady character if ever there was one.

Boyd has a knack for finding the kind of work that requires a rap sheet instead of a r茅sum茅.

Now he鈥檚 working for a company notorious for strip-mining mountaintops in the Appalachians, assigned to a dubious department known as Disagreements. His boss, the cruel and calculating Carol Conlan, swoops in and decides to make Boyd her personal chauffeur during her visit. Just one problem: Carol shoots a local resident who happens to be a victim of the mine company鈥檚 pollution, then pins the act on Boyd, claiming he had saved her from an unprovoked attack.

All of which explains why Boyd and Carol are getting testy, arguing as Boyd drives her through Kentucky. Carol threatens to fire Boyd and he recalls an earlier part of their conversation.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淵ou know you ended a sentence with a preposition? You said, 鈥楽he鈥檚 here in a nursing home we鈥檙e payin for.鈥� 鈥�

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淐aught being ungrammatical.鈥� Carol staring at his serious face.

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淗ow should I have said it?鈥�

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淪he鈥檚 here in a nursing home,鈥� Boyd said, 鈥渇or which we鈥檙e payin the costs.鈥�

Welcome to the wonderful world of Elmore Leonard. The scene above comes from his latest book, 鈥淩aylan鈥� (Morrow, $26.99, 272 pages). Raylan, of course, is Raylan Givens, a sharpshooting modern-day deputy US marshal with a penchant for intermittent bouts of moral ambiguity and a consistent case of walk-off zingers.

A prime example: Raylan, soon after a suspect in the Kentucky mountains hands him a jar of moonshine, later tells his boss what became of it.

鈥淚t was good. The peach didn鈥檛 mess it up any. I had a couple of pulls and gave it to an old coot on the street. It brought tears to his eyes.鈥�

As for old coots, Leonard, 86, is anything but. He keeps turning out smooth, hip novels that may be found in the mystery section but are, in fact, slices of street-wise patois and pop-culture observation, with healthy splashes of crime and violence. Good guys and bad guys alike are quirky, with plenty of ambivalence on both sides. All are prone to impromptu pronouncements on subjects various and sundry, such as Raylan鈥檚 off-hand observation in the new novel that Ole Miss 鈥渉as the best-looking girls of any college in the country. Even Vanderbilt. Ole Miss, the girl鈥檚 an eight-plus, she doesn鈥檛 have to pass her SATs.鈥�

In 鈥淩aylan,鈥� Leonard riffs on everything from a bungled scheme to trade in stolen kidneys to backwoods poverty rife with drug dealers and marijuana crops.

Leonard introduced Givens in earlier short stories and novels, but is writing about him now for the first time since cable network FX made the character the centerpiece of the critically acclaimed "Justified" series. Timothy Olyphant plays the role to perfection, capturing Leonard鈥檚 wise-guy charm and steely, shoot-em-up bravado. The novel arrives just as "Justified" begins its third season Jan. 17.

Leonard recently discussed the TV show, the book and what comes next during a telephone interview from his home in Michigan. Following are edited excerpts from that conversation.

On why he wrote "Raylan": I figured I should do something since they were paying me as an executive producer [for the show]. I can鈥檛 just sit here, I鈥檝e got to do something. But I didn鈥檛 ask them what they were doing and try to tie in with it, I just wrote my own things. It worked out so they could use a little bit here and there.

On how his approach changes because of the TV show: That didn鈥檛 bother me because as soon as I met [Raylan] in earlier books, I liked him a lot. He just seemed to work. He seemed easygoing, but serious, too.

But seeing him now [as a TV character] just reinforces my feeling about it. That he鈥檚 the guy. [Timothy Olyphant] is probably the best one to do one of my characters. [The late actor] Richard Boone would recite the lines exactly the way I heard them, he was in a couple of movies [based on Leonard works], but this guy鈥檚 perfect. He鈥檚 the good guy. Richard Boone was always the bad guy.

On whether portions of the book will be used in the show: It already has. There were some references in the second year. They were minor scenes, but they were from the book. I don鈥檛 think they did enough with my character who works for the mining company. She was in last year 鈥� they may bring her back. I hope they do.

On the novel鈥檚 villains, including the murderous mining executive and crooks trading in excised body organs: Well, I don鈥檛 know why I decided to do three girls there [as criminals], but then the third girl, who played poker, wasn鈥檛 that menacing at all. She wasn鈥檛 that bad. So then I added this guy who is dressed like a girl when Raylan shoots him. I have a good time but I take it seriously. Nobody鈥檚 laughing or clowning around.

On why he likes Raylan: The fact that he鈥檚 not shady, but there is some question about him. The way he disposes, for example, of moonshine. Things that he says about the laws. He鈥檚 not 100 percent on the good side.

He does his job and he鈥檚 very good at it. And he always has that last line when the bad guy says something, he comes back with a line. It may take me weeks to think of that line, but I go back and stick it in. That鈥檚 the beauty of being able to write it in a book. You鈥檝e got time to get everybody鈥檚 character the way you want.

On his characters鈥� tendency to relate to each other no matter which side they鈥檙e on: I want the reader to know what鈥檚 going on. So there鈥檚 never a mystery in my books. You鈥檒l meet the bad guys, I鈥檒l spend enough time with the bad guys because they鈥檙e interesting. A friend of mine who is in the publishing business knew I was writing a book and he said, 鈥淗ave you said anything yet about the good guy? Because I know you spend so much time with the bad guys.鈥�

Because they鈥檙e fun. So then you have to make the good guy fun, in order to compete. That鈥檚 the challenge.

On why he chose Kentucky for the setting: Because I used moonshine as the industry going on there. They produce more moonshine than, I think, any state, with the exception of California and Hawaii. All those miners out of work are growing marijuana, trying to make a living.

On plot elements inspired by his researcher: Gregg Sutter, he sends me material all the time. Constantly. And he arranges things for me. He鈥檚 in L.A., but he does everything for me. I couldn鈥檛 get along without him. He鈥檚 far advanced on all the electronic stuff. He鈥檚 got everything. He comes to see me and he shows me things I can鈥檛 believe. Stacks of material I need for my research.

On his approach: I鈥檝e always tried to use as much dialogue as possible to keep the thing going. So you know the state of mind of all the people. I don鈥檛 have to just sit and describe it. If I get them into a conversation, it鈥檚 a lot easier. That鈥檚 why I use so much dialogue. Maybe I鈥檓 getting lazy, but it seems to me I鈥檓 using more dialogue than ever before. You get what they鈥檙e thinking out loud.

On finding ideas: It is [harder], because [after] 45 books, I鈥檝e used just about everything. When I get an idea for a book, something appeals to me, it鈥檚 usually a character. I鈥檒l see a picture of a female marshal in front of the courthouse in Miami and she鈥檚 got a shotgun on her hip and it goes up on an angle. And she鈥檚 good-looking. And I say, 鈥淚鈥檝e got to use her.鈥�

On Raylan as a contemporary Old West hero: The critics have been calling Raylan a cowboy with his hat. The hat came unexpectedly [with the show]. I had described kind of a businessman鈥檚 Stetson, a smaller Stetson. The one all the cops were wearing when Jack Ruby shot [Lee Harvey Oswald].

But evidently he found his own hat and design. It鈥檚 perfect. I don鈥檛 see him bareheaded. He seems to need a hat to define who he is.聽

On the quality of the show: It鈥檚 got great writers. I鈥檓 amazed at the writing. They鈥檙e all so real and the accents are so good. They sound like those people

On his next book: I鈥檓 writing a book called "Sweetmary." Sweetmary is a privately run prison in Arizona. There are three Apache Indian boys who are 20 and one of them is a bull rider and he wins, he stays on three bulls for eight seconds each in the Indian rodeo and wins $4,000. And he and his two friends, who are bull handlers, all go out to celebrate. They鈥檙e having a good time drinking tequila and beer-chasers and the guy at the next table is with immigration enforcement.

He takes exception to these boys and they mouth off at him and he throws them in jail. They don鈥檛 have identification. He鈥檚 the bad guy.

But I want to bring Raylan in. I need Raylan in this one.

Erik Spanberg is a regular contributor to the Monitor's book section.

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