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What with the recent proliferation of movies based on Elmore Leonard books (Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, and that new one with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez - the name has escaped me for the moment - to name a few), I thought it might be an idea to actually read something by the man himself. And, when Cat Chaser floated across the table at the recent church rummage sale, I knew that my opportunity had come. Cat Chaser is the tale of a former U.S. Marine, George Moran by name, who travels to the site of a war in which he participated in order to track down the then young enemy sniper who had saved his life. He succeeds, however, in finding Mary de Boya, a former quasi-flame now married to a very rich, and very dangerous, man. When this little troika is joined by a vicious con-man interested in ripping off Mary's husband, things start to get really really hairy.
If you are not already an Elmore Leonard fan, Cat Chaser is unlikely to send you sprinting to the store to load up on his works. To be honest, it's easy to see why this is not one of his better-known novels. Although it's enjoyable, Cat Chaser does take some time to get moving, and the plot-line concerning the mysterious sniper turns out to be disappointingly secondary - odd, since the title of the book derives from that sub-plot. However, this is not to say that Cat Chaser is a bad book; it has its moments, and the climactic scene is actually fairly exciting. If you can come up with a bargain-bin copy of this book, do so, otherwise check out some of Leonard's other work.
Reviewed by Patrick Conway on Saturday, July 18, 1998.