“Fire in the Hole” by Elmore Leonard – Crime as Entertainment

Elmore Leonard is perhaps one of the most widely-recognized authors to specialize in criminal fiction and thrillers. His stories are generally fast, brutal and grizzly, with the ugliness of this world being shown just as it is.

With Fire in the Hole Elmore Leonard brings to us nine different stories, each one revolving around lowlifes, a specific crime they commit, and how they try to escape justice, though it should be mentioned they only prevail very rarely.


Though the stories themselves aren’t related to each other, there are thematic connections between them, such as shotguns, rampant drinking, and human trash far beyond the consideration of redemption. Also, I feel like I should mention that one of the stories serves as the introduction to Rayland Givens, U.S. Marshal, and on it the hit television series Justified was based.

As far as the stories themselves go, I believe that their short length was a boon rather than a burden, especially considering that Elmore Leonard himself was the author.

As a result, each and every one of them is fast-paced and feels rather brutal, as if attempting to disillusion someone who believes life to be like a fairy tale… you can almost feel the pessimism and cynicism emanating from the book.

Many of the scenes are described concisely with a decent amount of details, and all of them flow very smoothly with each other, with there being no questionable transitions (that I have noticed at least).

I would go as far as saying that Leonard paid lots of importance to the visualization that comes whenever we indulge ourselves in a book, creating a book with an original visual style, one that would translate seamlessly to the silver screen.

No, I don’t believe that there are many lessons, morals or philosophies to be learned from these stories, though it is true that finding some is really a question of trying hard enough. Leonard doesn’t beat around the bush, he just wants to give us exciting stories, and that is what we get.

The characters are memorable and will make you pay attention to them, the environments are described in a way such as to make you feel present on the spot, and the tales themselves have some pretty shocking twists and turns that will keep you guessing right up until the end.

With everything said and done, if you are searching for solid detective stories which focus on the development of the mystery more than anything else and don’t beat around the bush, Fire in the Hole will certainly be right up your alley.

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Elmore Leonard (October 11, 1925 – August 20, 2013) Personal site Elmore Leonard was an American screenwriter and novelist. Though he began his career with Westerns, he eventually turned to crime fiction and suspense thrillers, and those include Get Shorty, Mr. Majestyk, and Justified , which has been made into a television series.