Readers who come to Rum Punch after having seen Quentin Tarantino's 1997 film adaptation, Jackie Brown, are in for a few surprises. Mainly, Jackie Burke is a 44-year-old white woman (but just as hard-boiled as Pam Grier), bail bondsman Max Cherry has a much more prominent role in the proceedings, and the novel takes place in Miami--not Los Angeles. The core of the story, however, remains the same: when the cops try to use Jackie to get at Ordell Robbie, the gunrunner she's been bringing cash into the country for, she hatches a plan--with help from Max--to keep the money for herself. It all comes together in the traditional Elmore Leonard style, where the conversations are as crisply written and suspenseful as the action scenes. --Ron Hogan


From Publishers Weekly
Chances offered, taken and passed up are the leitmotif in Leonard's latest bittersweet evocation of petty criminals on the periphery, a five-week PW bestseller and a BOMC featured alternate selection in cloth. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Elmore Leonard has developed a well-deserved reputation for snappy dialogue, explosive plots and black humor. His books never rely on unreasonable plot twists to bring the stories to logical conclusions. Joe Mantegna is nothing short of brilliant. He delineates the various characters with subtle, yet unforgettable, nuances. After the first few minutes, you know exactly which character is speaking at any given moment. The only flaw is in the music--trying for a "Miami Vice" effect, short bits of rock music play in the background for the violent scenes. As this device is not supported by visuals, the music seems contrived and artificial. R.A.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Kirkus Reviews
Leonard's 30th novel--a thicket of sting and countersting- -finds him in fine fettle, his piquant characters aging along with him but losing none of their edge as they look for that one big score before death shuts them down. Here, it's $500,000 in illegal arms-dealing profits that has everyone running in circles. The trouble is, it's stuck in the Bahamas, and slick, middle-aged gun-runner Robbie Ordell can't figure out how to get it back to Miami, even with the help of his old ex-con pal Louis Gara. Robbie had been using stewardess Jackie Burke, 44, to bring in the cash at $10,000 a flight, but now Jackie's been nabbed by two cops who are trying to lever her against him. And Jackie has designs of her own on the money, designs that depend on the aid of Bogart-like bail-bondsman Max Cherry, an ex-cop who's finding that, at age 57, ``writing paper'' on sleazy cons just doesn't kick like it used to--especially after the mob has muscled in on his business, and after Robbie has blown away a punk he'd had Max bail out of jail. An attempted theft by Robbie, his blowzy moll, and Louis of the arms cache of a local neo-Nazi offers a cathartically bloody interlude, but the story surfs primarily on a tide of tension arising from Jackie's tricky plan to work both sides of the law to get the cash--persuading both Robbie and the cops to let her bring in the money in one last run, while claiming loyalty to both. Meanwhile, Max falls hard for Jackie; but as her sting--a complicated shuffling of money-laden and empty bags--nears, will he decide to toss away a lifetime of law-enforcement, even for a prize as rich as the sexy-cool stewardess and her promised loot? Leonard's control of this complex scenario and its brilliantly realized actors is breathtaking. Like the title says, it's a heady brew. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


The New York Times Book Review
The greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever!


Review
"Expertly blended. . .potent Dutch"--Chicago Sun-Times.

"Rum Punch  is Leonard's best work! He brilliantly reaffirms his right to the title of America's finest crime-fiction writer."--People


From the Hardcover edition.


Book Description
Ordell "Whitebread" Robbie makes a fine living selling illegal high-powered weaponry to the wrong people. Jackie Burke couriers Ordell's profits from Freeport to Miami. But the feds are on to Jackie -- and now the aging, but still hot, flight attendant will have to do prison time or play ball, which makes her a prime "loose end" that Ordell needs to tie up permanently. Jackie, however, has other options. And with the help of Max Cherry -- an honest but disgruntled bail bondsman looking to get out -- she could even end up with a serious nest egg in the process.


Download Description
E-book extras: "Martin Amis Interviews 'The Dickens of Detroit'"; Elmore Leonard's "If It Sounds Like Writing, Rewrite It"; "All By Elmore: The Crime Novels


The publisher, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
"Unputdownable! Beneath its fast moving surface, Rum Punch is a novel about growing old, about the way that time changes us, about the old dream of starting over again and its cost." -- The Washington Post Book World.

Pretty working-girl Jackie Burke is in a tight spot. She's just been picked up at Palm Beach International with fifty grand and some blow stashed in her flight bag. Lucky for her, the Feds want something Jackie's got: the inside track to Ordell Robbie, the notoriusly slick arms dealer. And they're ready to deal -- Ordell in exchange for her freedom. But Jacki's got another ace up her sleeve... Enter Max Cherry, bail bondsman. Big, tough, basically decent Max is on the verge of divorce and tired of the same old grind. That's where Jackie comes in. The fifty big ones are peanuts compared to what Ordell's got locked away in Freeport. But when a blond blowhead and a none-too-bright ex con try to muscle in on the action, it's time to pull and old bait and switch -- where the good guys are played off against the bad guys -- and where Jackie and Max hope to walk off into the Florida sunset with a hot half million in cold cash.

"Expertly blended...potent Dutch" -- Chicago Sun Times.

"Rum Punch is Leonard's best work! He brilliantly reaffirms his right to the title of America's finest crime-fiction writer." --People.

ANNOTATION

The inimitable Elmore Leonard follows up his bestseller Maximum Bob with a punch -- Rum Punch -- where a gun dealer, a flight attendant, and a bail bondsman make interesting bedfellows. When Jackie gets caught smuggling her boss's gun money on the airline she works for, she hatches a plan with her bail bondsman to walk off with the money.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Jackie Burke's future looks grim. She's been a flight attendant for twenty years and she's down to working for an island-hopping airline the day she lands in Palm Beach International with fifty grand and is taken into custody. The Feds know Jackie works for a man who sells machine guns to bad guys, but they don't know his name. Jackie looks at her options. She can tell what she knows about Ordell Robbie, the gun dealer, and get off--except that if Ordell suspects you're talking about him, you're dead. Or she can keep her mouth shut and do five years. Then she meets Max Cherry--late fifties, recently separated, and just starting to think that maybe there's more to life than being a bail bondsman--and sees she has more options than she thought.

Max is hooked on Jackie from the first time he sees her. But when he meets Ordell, he has quite a different reaction. Nineteen years a bail bondsman, Max knows trouble when he sees it.

Jackie comes up with a plan to play the Feds off against the bad guys and walk off with Ordell's money, but she needs Max's help. Max allows himself to be drawn in just to stay near Jackie, yet he can't help but wonder if he's being used. As for Ordell, he's making it now after years of busted deals. No one is going to stand in the way of his million-dollar payoff...

SYNOPSIS

E-book extras: "Martin Amis Interviews 'The Dickens of Detroit'"; Elmore Leonard's "If It Sounds Like Writing, Rewrite It"; "All By Elmore: The Crime Novels & The Westerns"; Selected Filmography

Ordell "Whitebread" Robbie makes a fine living selling illegal high-powered weaponry to the wrong people.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Chances offered, taken and passed up are the leitmotif in Leonard's latest bittersweet evocation of petty criminals on the periphery, a five-week PW bestseller and a Book of the Month Club featured alternate selection in cloth.

Kirkus Reviews

Leonard's 30th novel—a thicket of sting and countersting—finds him in fine fettle, his piquant characters aging along with him but losing none of their edge as they look for that one big score before death shuts them down. Here, it's $500,000 in illegal arms-dealing profits that has everyone running in circles. The trouble is, it's stuck in the Bahamas, and slick, middle-aged gun-runner Robbie Ordell can't figure out how to get it back to Miami, even with the help of his old ex-con pal Louis Gara. Robbie had been using stewardess Jackie Burke, 44, to bring in the cash at $10,000 a flight, but now Jackie's been nabbed by two cops who are trying to lever her against him. And Jackie has designs of her own on the money, designs that depend on the aid of Bogart-like bail-bondsman Max Cherry, an ex-cop who's finding that, at age 57, "writing paper" on sleazy cons just doesn't kick like it used to—especially after the mob has muscled in on his business, and after Robbie has blown away a punk he'd had Max bail out of jail. An attempted theft by Robbie, his blowzy moll, and Louis of the arms cache of a local neo-Nazi offers a cathartically bloody interlude, but the story surfs primarily on a tide of tension arising from Jackie's tricky plan to work both sides of the law to get the cash—persuading both Robbie and the cops to let her bring in the money in one last run, while claiming loyalty to both. Meanwhile, Max falls hard for Jackie; but as her sting—a complicated shuffling of money-laden and empty bags—nears, will he decide to toss away a lifetime of law-enforcement, even for a prize as rich as the sexy-cool stewardess and her promised loot? Leonard's control ofthis complex scenario and its brilliantly realized actors is breathtaking. Like the title says, it's a heady brew.