UNKNOWN MAN #89
by Elmore Leonard
Like G. V. Higgins and R. B. Parker, Leonard shadows the urban crime scene (his city's Detroit—the pits) while looking over his talented shoulder at Ross Macdonald and Raymond Chandler. Nowadays Frank (or Jack) Ryan's mostly a process server, but willing to take on a special, profitable trace job: find Bob Leary, Jr.—all he's given is the name—for slimy Louisiana operator Perez, who tracks down stockholders who don't know they're stockholders and offers them the stock info in exchange for a big cut. Leary turns out to be a dangerous man to look for, a black psycho-killer with many enemies and an alcoholic blonde-beautiful wife. Dangerous—and elusive; he's dead before Ryan finds him, and now Mrs. Leary—Lee—is the stockholder and, inevitably, Ryan's new grand passion. Ryan tries for it all: drying Lee out with help from AA, getting her ail of the stock, double-crossing Perez. Bullet-holes and body-blows abound (Perez has some brutal, good ol' boy muscle; Ryan enlists Leary's murderer), but they're a convincingly integral part of the landscape, as are the drained faces, the sleeping hotel clerks, and the bars and streets where Leonard's highly watchable, not-so-dumb shows take place.