He was supposed to be a car dealer. Except he hated cars—he liked to read, and was discovering that he might be a good writer. Maybe there was a career in that? Elmore Leonard (1925–2013) became one of the most respected and popular writers of crime fiction, particularly pulps and Westerns. Known for his bare-bones writing style and pitch-perfect dialogue, he influenced generations of writers who came after him. In this new biography, Kushins (who’s also written books about Warren Zevon and John Bonham) draws on previously published sources, new interviews, and unpublished material including letters, excerpts from an unfinished novel, and snippets from a memoir-in-progress. Kushins isn’t the first to give Leonard the biographical treatment—see, for example, Paul Challen’s Get Dutch! (2000) —but he may be the first to really get inside the author’s mind, to show us not just who Elmore Leonard was but how he got that way. For Leonard’s legion of fans the book is a must-read, but you don’t need to be a Leonard fan to enjoy this beautifully crafted life story. David Pitt
Cooler than Cool: The Life and Work of Elmore Leonard by C.M. Kushins will be published in the English language by Mariner in June 2025.
C. M. Kushins is the author of Nothing’s Bad Luck: The Lives of Warren Zevon and Beast: John Bonham and the Rise of Led Zeppelin. He has been a freelance journalist for over fifteen years and his work has appeared in High Times and The Daily Beast, among others.