Published in 2005, Elmore Leonard recreates the 20’s and 30’s crime underworld of Kansas City in The Hot Kid. Mixing fictional characters with such legends as John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, and Machine Gun Kelly, the novel tracks the rise of U.S. Marshal Carl Webster, as he seeks out to become the most famous lawman in America. His chief foe is Jack Belmont, a sociopathic scion of an oil family turned bank robber. Manipulating both is Tony Antonelli, a writer for a lurid True Detective type scandal sheet who’s following their exploits. The characters are larger than life, and Leonard complements them with a seedily atmospheric look into the whorehouses and speakeasies where the big fish reigned, invoking such jazz legends like Louis Armstrong and Count Basie. I am a sucker for crime novels set against historical backdrops, and I hope to successfully write that type of novel myself. Elmore Leonard shows the prospective writer how to do this, with meticulous attention to detail, and characters who walk and talk like legends, but have all too human vulnerabilities that they must protect from the world they live in.