When I finished the last page, I started to shut the book, but – out of curiosity – turned to the copyright page. I couldn’t believe it.

1969.

If not for a reference to the price of a house in Detroit and Tigers’ pitcher Denny McLain the story could have been written this week. Well… more than likely there were other references, but certainly nothing jarring. I remembered McLain on the mound back in the day so that stuck out as a little dated. There are plenty of books that don’t hold up so well over time.

The Big Bounce was filmed in 2004 and hopefully Elmore Leonard got a vacation out of it. His novel was set in his longtime hometown of Detroit but they set the movie in Hawaii. Probably a party-set thing for actors Morgan Freeman and Owen Wilson. There were a number of other areas that departed from the book and I’m guessing that’s why the film has a 16%-positive rating on a review website.

I thought the novel was pretty good.

In the shop here, you’ll have to look in three separate locations to find all the titles by Elmore Leonard, but – in this particular case – it isn’t due to my disorganization. It’s more a reflection on the diversity of Mr. Leonard’s writing.

Many of his stories are recognizable as successful films. (26 of his works have been adapted for movies and television.) Most of his works are in the mystery section. 3:10 to Yuma and others like it are over among the Westerns. That title has been filmed twice, with the latest version starring Russell Crowe pulling over 80% on the critics rating scale (on Rotten Tomatoes site). They stuck pretty close to the Leonard version.

For a guy actively writing for more than half-a-century, Mr. Leonard never lost his sense of urgency. At age 84, he was working on a new novel that would have incorporated the main character of the F/X network program Justified. The show is based on a couple of Elmore Leonard stories, so he would have been borrowing his own character back.

His son Peter says Mr Leonard never recovered from a stroke suffered a little over three weeks ago and lost his battle earlier today.

With titles like Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, and Freaky Deaky, the prolific author will live on – a timeless legacy of the Dickens of Detroit.

RIP.