LoveReading Says
The legendary 85 year old American Crime writer has created an absolute stand out novel with this tale of documentary film maker Dara Barr, Somalian pirates and the race to stop a tanker being blown up by any number of extraordinary characters.
Reviewed by Sarah BroadhurstSarah Broadhurst spent her early working life in the book trade in both retail and wholesale until the arrival of children forced her to look for freelance work she could do from…
More reviews by Sarah Broadhurst About Djibouti
Dara Barr, documentary filmmaker, is at the top of her game. She's covered Bosnian women and post-Katrina New Orleans, but now she's looking for a bigger challenge. So she and her right-hand-man, Xavier head to Djibouti on the Horn of Africa to tackle modern-day pirates.
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Djibouti Synopsis
Dara Barr, documentary filmmaker, is at the top of her game. She's covered Bosnian women and post-Katrina New Orleans, but now she's looking for a bigger challenge. So she and her right-hand-man, Xavier head to Djibouti on the Horn of Africa to tackle modern-day pirates.
But once they start filming, they find a whole lot more than they bargained for, and quickly learn that almost no one in Djibouti is what he seems. A mob of colourful characters patrols the seas, including a pirate chief with a taste in fine cars, and an Oxford-educated sheikh with scams of his own. And then there's the gun-toting playboy Billy Wynn: Texan billionaire, collector of supermodels, and law unto himself.
But even he hasn't reckoned on an appearance from James Russell, an American al Qaeda convert who wants to blow up something big. As hijacked tankers line up like floating bombs, Dara and Xavier know it's time for a showdown...
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780753829059 |
| Publication date: |
13th October 2011 |
| Author: |
Elmore Leonard |
| Publisher: |
Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) an imprint of Orion Publishing Co |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
279 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Crime and Mystery
|
| Recommendations: |
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About Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard wrote more than forty books during his phenomenal career. Many have been made into successful movies, including Get Shorty with John Travolta, Out of Sight with George Clooney and Rum Punch, which became Tarantino's Jackie Brown. He died in August 2013.
Click here, or the picture to download and read about Elmore Leonard's 10 rules for writing.
Below is a tribute to Elmore Leonard from Sophie Buchan, Commissioning Editor for Weidenfeld & Nicolson...
"Reading Elmore Leonard is the closest you can get to watching a movie without going to the cinema. He could sum up a character in a sentence, wrote some of the smartest dialogue ever committed to the pages of a novel and, to paraphrase his own 10 Rules of Writing, left out the bits that readers tend to skip. He famously once wrote ‘if it sounds like writing, rewrite it’. And you don’t read an Elmore Leonard novel; you live it.
Leonard’s novels will pick up you from your living room or train carriage and plonk you down in a smoke-filled backroom full of the slick-talking charlatans, plotting femmes fatales, and some of the wittiest baddies you’re likely to meet.
Publishing his novels was a joy not only because he was consistently brilliant but also because he was tremendously good fun, both on the page and in person. He surprised us constantly. At the age of 84, he delivered a novel that not only dealt with the – then – very topical Somali pirate crisis but also referenced Lady Gaga’s meat dress. I’d be lying if I said I’d expected that.
What has been unusual about the response to his death isn’t just the sheer depth of feeling but the range of people who have spoken of their admiration for this work. As tributes pour in authors including Ian Rankin, Martin Amis and Jackie Collins, I’d advise you – whatever you usually read – to discover Elmore Leonard."
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