Amazon.com
When Jack Foley, a career bank robber, surfaces after tunneling out of a medium-security penitentiary in Florida, he comes face to face with Karen Sisco, a beautiful federal marshal. Though the barrel of her shotgun is pointed right at his face, she doesn't shoot, and Foley's accomplice, Buddy, overpowers her and puts her in the trunk of a car. Foley gets in with her and the car takes off, the escapee seemingly home free. In the cramped darkness of the trunk, the criminal and marshal find they have much in common and by the time the car reaches its destination, the two have become infatuated with each other. After Karen manages to escape, she and Foley try to reconnect outside the confining roles of kidnapper and victim.
From Publishers Weekly
Meanwhile, three other Leonard books, Last Stand at Saber River, Touch and Pronto, are in film or TV production.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA. This novel stands out for two reasons: one is Deputy U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco and the other is the sense of untarnished justice. A 29-year-old Florida native, Karen wears Chanel suits and carries a Sig Sauer .38 pistol as her "evening-wear piece." She also carts around leg irons, handcuffs, and a pump-action shotgun in the trunk of her car. She will use the weapons if necessary, and fearlessly, but its her brain that is her primary weapon. While waiting to serve a summons at Florida's Glades Prison, she meets Jack Foley, bank robber, escaping from a tunnel. He and his ex-con friend, Buddy, who is waiting for him, toss her in the trunk of her car. Foley climbs in with her and the story begins. Jack is attracted to Karen; admires her wit, courage, and knowledge of old movies; and wonders what might have happened if they had met under "different circumstances." Karen finds herself unaccountably attracted to him, as well, but she always sees him for exactly what he is. Nevertheless, she escapes, Foley and Buddy go on to become involved in a crime beyond their control, and Karen relentlessly tracks their movements. YAs will enjoy this fast-paced novel that features a heroine who is a delightful stereotype breaker.?Carol DeAngelo, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VACopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Leonard, still basking in the success of the movie version of his novel Get Shorty (Delacorte, 1990), here tells of a bank robber and the federal marshal who pursues him.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
New York Times, Ralph Lombreglia
[Leonard] has a page-to-page delivery that any fiction writer should study.
From Booklist
If it's Elmore Leonard, there's bound to be an edge: comedy threatening to turn tragic as characters try to scratch itches they can't quite reach. This time there's so much scratching, you'd think the story was set in a swamp. Actually, it begins in one, as legendary bank robber Jack Foley escapes from prison in Florida's Everglades only to find himself in the trunk of a car alongside federal marshall Karen Sisco, an involuntary participant. Jack has been in prison a long time so the idea of being squashed up against an attractive female, even in less than ideal circumstances, has its merits, while Karen, who's always had a fondness for courting danger, feels a little frisson herself. Both escape the trunk without damage, leaving Karen to track Jack on the road to Detroit, ostensibly to apprehend him but maybe to get to know him better. Jack is even more smitten, so much so that while he's supposed to be helping a couple of con cronies plan a quick score in the Detroit suburbs, he's actually daydreaming about what it would have been like if he'd met Karen in a more conventional way. There's the edge that drives this exhilarating if melancholy tragicomedy: the yearning to be somebody else, to be able to do it a different way. Jack reminds Karen of Harry Dean Stanton in Repo Man: "both real guys who seemed tired of who they were, but couldn't do anything about it." You don't have to be a bank robber to feel that way, of course, which is why an Elmore Leonard edge cuts in several directions. A modern master still cruising at the top of his form. Bill Ott
From Kirkus Reviews
Leonard's criminal farces tend to get derailed when his hero is a lady (Maximum Bob, 1991, etc.), and it happens again in his 33rd novel, a sweetly meandering fantasy spun out of the cutest meeting on record. Legendary bank robber Jack Foley has worked out an ingenious prison break. He'll blow the whistle on Jos‚ Chirino's crowd tunneling under the perimeter fence, promote a guard's uniform, go through the tunnel himself, and head straight for his old pal Buddy Bragg, waiting with a getaway car. But Buddy's brought along car thief Glenn Michaels, and deputy US marshal Karen Sisco, who knows Glenn by sight, also happens to be on the scene. She pulls a shotgun on Foley, who loses his heart to her after Buddy disarms her and he's stashed in the trunk with her for the getaway. Before they part, he gallantly tells her to ``have your clothes cleaned and send me the bill.'' Karen can't believe the nerve of this guy, but then--after she gets a slot on the task force that has tracked Foley to Detroit, where he and his increasingly violent playmates plan to kidnap moneyed ex-con inside trader Richard Ripley--she starts to fall for him, too. Leonard has a lot of lazy fun setting up a cockeyed array of good guys (like Karen's p.i. father Marshall, who worries that her stakeouts with Florida state cop Ray Nicolet are too much like dates) and bad (such as the homicidal Maurice ``Snoopy'' Miller and his brother Kenneth, who likes to tussle with females). But for all the hip, loco dialogue he scatters as Karen and Foley improve their relationship while plotting against each other like Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, he never really seems to have his heart in this caper. A master coasting is still a master, but nobody will take this for top-drawer Leonard. (Film rights to Universal; author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
The New York Times Book Review
The greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever!
The Detroit News
An absolute master.
Review
"Taut Suspense" -- Los Angeles Times
"Out of Sight is Out of Sight" -- The Orlando Sentinel
"Breathtaking...Elmore Leonard may be the last hope for the written word." -- New York Observer
From the Paperback edition.
Book Description
Jack Foley was busting out of Florida's Glades Prison when he ran head-on into Karen Sisco with a shotgun. Suddenly the world-class gentleman felon was sharing a cramped car trunk with a disarmed federal marshal -- whose Chanel suit cost more than the take from Foley's last bank job -- and the chemistry was working overtime. Here's a lady Jack could fall for in a big way, if she weren't a dedicated representative of the law that he breaks for a living. And as soon as she escapes, he's already missing her. But there are some seriously bad men and a major score waiting for Jack in Motown. And there's a good chance that when his path crosses Karen's again, she's going to be there for business, not pleasure.
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
From the Publisher
In his latest work, the unrivaled master of the crime novel once againbreaks all the rules as he redefines the standards of the art. Out ofSight crackles with originality and wicked brilliance, displaying all therazor-sharp dialogue, inimitable wit, and memorable characters who have becomethe signature of "our greatest crime novelist...the best in the business"(The Washington Post).
Deputy U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco is just stopping off to serve a summons andcomplaint on Florida's Glades Prison. She's all decked out in her black Chanelsuit and heels, but ready with her pump-action shotgun when the breakoutbegins, minutes after she pulls into the prison parking lot. But she's notready for Jack Foley, the celebrity con who disarms her, invites her to climbinto the trunk of her own car, and then joins her as his pal Buddy guns theblue Caprice onto the highway, heading for freedom. Squeezed into a trunklittered with handcuffs and tactical gear, the escapee bank robber is a perfectgentleman who shares her passion for movies and wonders if it would bedifferent if they'd met in a bar.
Karen escapes and they do meet again. Only this time she's part of the federaltask force hunting the escapees. This time she's sitting in the bar of theDetroit Westin, nursing a sour mash and watching a blizzard outside. This timeFoley finds her. First some cocktails and conversation. Then Time Out. InKaren's suite. "You like taking risks," she says. "So do I."
Next morning Foley's gone and Karen's out to get him. She cruises Detroit'smean street and boxing hangouts looking for Foley, Buddy, and a hardcase namedMaurice, one step behind them as they plot the biggest heist of theircareers--and a double cross that will leave only one man holding the goods.This time Karen means business as she races toward a hair-raising climax thatcareens pell-mell into suspense-writing history.
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