Trust Me

by Peter Leonard

Peter Leonard showed remarkable maturity for a first-time novelist in his debut novel Quiver . In Trust Me , he reaches for new heights as he crafts a classic noir thriller loaded with double- and triple-crosses.The first mistake Karen Delaney made was entrusting $300,000 to her boyfriend, Samir, the head of an illegal bookmaking operation. The second was breaking up with him---because Samir holds a $300,000 grudge. A few months later, Karen sees a way to get her money back when two thieves break into her house in the middle of the night. She proposes a scheme to steal Samir’s safe, but Karen soon realizes she’s in way over her head as things begin to spin out of control.Trust Me moves at breakneck speed through the affluent suburbs of Detroit and Chicago as Karen is pursued by O’Clair, an ex-con/ex-cop who works for Samir and wants the money for his own retirement; by Ricky, Samir’s nephew, who sees the money as a way to pay off his own escalating gambling debts; by the thieves who’ve been double-crossed; and by two ruthless hit men who view the money as their stake in the American dream.With relentless suspense, striking characters, and plot twists that will leave you white-knuckled, Trust Me marks the continuation of a powerful new voice in crime fiction and more than delivers on the promise of Peter Leonard’s talent.

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2009

About the author

Son of Elmore Leonard.

Peter Leonard lives in Birmingham, Michigan with his wife and four children. He is a partner in the ad agency Leonard, Mayer & Tocco, Inc.

Reviews

[Ashlei A.K.A Chyna Doll]

Pg 309
A woman carrying packages ran down the stairs yelling " He's got a gun! He's gonna kill somebody"!!!
Why did I think of the woman from the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the one that says "somebody should do something"! When Johnny Depp is smashing the coconuts on the red convertible!!
(I must have laughed for a good 25mins!!!! I thought this was so funny!!! Don't ask me why I thought this was so funny.. It just was... )

This was such a cool read... I laughed, cringed at violent descriptions, and held my breath for the suspenseful parts)HALF THE DAMN BOOK!!!)
It was a fast-paced action crime story.. With the background being the city/state very near and dear to my heart!! This was like a tourist brochure for all the hot-spots for the Metro-Detroit area!! You had Eastern Market, (a farmers market that's been going strong for over 100years) Garden City, Troy, Summer set Mall Collection, Northland Shopping Center, Dearborn (the largest concentrated populations of Arabs in the world outside of the Middle East!!) Ferndale, Royal Oak and my favorite reference the 1 and only Noir Leather!!!!
Had ALOT of

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Leonard has his father Elmore's gift of writing criminal dialogue and putting you inside the mind of criminals. The story revolves around Karen Delaney's plan to get back the $300,000 stolen from her by Samir, a loan shark criminal. She recruits 4 men to help her steal the money and then steals it from them. The rest of the book revolves around the all of these people trying to find her and the money.
I do have one complaint. One of the people murdered is killed with a crowbar, p.106. On p.141, the author has a news reporter reporting that this man was killed by a gunshot wound, linked to another murder. There is never any followup explaining why the reporter got it wrong. I don't ever remember a lapse of continuity in any of Elmore Leonard's books.
I give it 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.

[Darren Vincent · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I just couldn't get past the fact that nobody was truly likable and deserving to come out on top. It is easy to present twist after twist when nobody is trustworthy; you expect backstabbing, but you can only expect it so many times and have it still carry any impact or surprise. After the story was fully under way, it became one big chase sequence where everyone kept crossing everyone else's path so many times that it became unbelievable. All of the characters were painted with very broad strokes and there did not seem to be a normal looking character in the entire book. You had either beautiful, conniving and bad, old, overweight and bad, or dumb, redneck and worse. I was expecting this book to be a little smarter than it turned out being

[Dan Downing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poor Peter. He wants to be a writer. His problem is that his father was named 'Elmore'. Talk about being in a shadow. And every reviewer---as I am doing---is going to mention it.
But don't shed tears. This is his second outing, and while one can see some stylistic similarily, Peter is not trying to imitate his father and is doing quite well on his own, thank you very much.
What we have here is a twisting, running, driven, simply terrific tale of a heist and its aftermath, complete with femme fatales, ex-cop heavy with a heart of at least silver, and some mean if not too bright bad guys. And bodies. We're not playing around. As crime romps go, this is top notch.
Recommended

[Geoff Battle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trust Me is similar in narrative style to Hiassen, however it's definitely imitation not enhancement. The plot involves plenty of revenge, hapless criminals and immense bad luck. Crime and humour are well blended by Leonard, although rarely expertly enough to produce a grin. The plot is a little to linear too and becomes a little repetitive, although Trust Me is only a short read. The pace throughout the novel is frenetic and the characters are well presented, although the central anti-hero doesn't really offer enough reasons to hope she succeeds. An entertaining although forgettable read.

[Yvette Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's the male equivalent of Chicklit? Dudelit? I'll call this Dudelit. Every character is a criminal. There's a lot of "trust me" and doublecrossing. The plot was actually not bad, but the writing was poor, and there were so many characters that it was hard to distinguish between them all. This could be a good movie in the right hands.

[Lou Drendel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real "can't put it down thriller!"

Elmore has to be smiling. His legacy is safe with Peter at the word processor. Loved every page, and the ending too.

[Ashfaq Anwer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing is so very tight.
Book is just amazing. Story line is captivating. All the characters on the run.
Beautifully written.

[Natalie Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally finished and can pass it on. Not the best but not the worst book I’ve ever read.

[Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I don't care what happens to any of these people."

There's an idea about books (and other story mediums) that an otherwise good story can be brought down when the characters are so unlikable, you just really don't care if any of them succeed. Karen Delaney is essentially a gold digger who dates rich older men for the lifestyle and money (she is actually a model who apparently makes a good living, but clearly doesn't have the money to live the lifestyle dating the men she's involved with affords her, and seems mostly interested in them for that reason alone) and cares little about anyone else except maybe her family. There is really nothing likable about her, at least, not that we see from this story.

By the way, Karen is the story's protagonist. The other major characters get worse from there. This leads to the big problem of Trust Me. While the story, which starts with a plot where Karen attempts a heist of one of her rich ex-boyfriends for money he won't give her back, but then she decides to take more of his money too, and things rapidly unravel from there, definitely has interesting moments and action, you very quickly reach the point you just don't care about any of them because all of them are detestable people. This could have been done well, but in the end, it just feels hollow.

Mild spoiler about the above point: It would've been better in the end if there'd been a twist that no one got the money. It would've been a nice twist and made the story with an unlikable cast a lot more palatable. But of course, somebody does end up getting away with it.

I first read this back when it was still a fairly new release. This is a reread, though it's been long enough I'd forgotten most of the book beyond the major plot outline. The reread didn't really change my opinion much. It might be worth a read for the interesting plot.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karen Delaney has found the perfect way to retrieve $300, 000 dollars from her ex-boyfriend, Samir Fakir. When Karen and Samir were dating back than, she lent him the $300, 000 to invest but than they broke up a few months later and he never returned the money to her. Karen and her current boyfriend’s house is broken into by two men by the names of Robert “Bobby” Gal and Lloyd Diehl. They demand the usual…money and jewels. Karen has a plan in mind. She proposes to Bobby and Lloyd that if they will break into her ex’s place and fletches the money than she will split the money with them.

Things don’t go as smoothly but this bumbling gang gets the job done. Karen pulls a sneak attack and makes off with the money. The question is can she hold on to it or will she and her Benjamin’s be parted?

Trust Me is the second novel by talented author Peter Leonard. I have been anxiously awaiting to read Mr. Leonard’s next novel, ever since I read Quiver. I have to say that I was happily surprised by this book. The cast of characters were so bad that they were good. It was a wonder that Bobby, Lloyd and the rest of the bad guys kept locating Karen. I still believe it was pure luck. They were so clueless. On the other hand, Karen may play the airhead but she has smarts about her. This book was a pleasure to read and so refreshing. Mr. Leonard can Trust Me to read his next novel.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

When two robbers decide to break into Karen and Lou's house they get more than they bargained for. Karen's former partner just happens to be a prominent mob boss who took her life savings - somehow she manages to talk the would be robbers into cutting a deal for part of her savings if they retrieve the stolen cash. What follows is break neck action and non stop thrills as hit men, dirty cops and gangsters seek a slice of the action. 'Trust Me' shows there is no such thing honor amongst thieves with back stabbings aplenty and double crosses you wont see coming. Karen is formidable in her quest to take back whats rightful hers (and a little bit more) and the ensemble cast each brings something to the table and were all equally enjoyable. More noir than Quiver and equally as good - 4 stars.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karen's ex-boyfriend stole her life savings, so she comes up with a plan to steal it back. She quickly learns that getting away with it is a lot harder than she thought.

There are a lot of characters in this book, and sometimes it's hard to tell them apart, but almost all of them are chasing Karen. As soon as she gets out of one mess, she's in another one.

This keeps the book moving very quickly, and the action is non-stop. I wish the characters were a bit more well developed but the pace doesn't allow for it.

Overall a fun read and something a little different where the main character is a woman and also a little bit of an anti-hero. (Not too much though. Karen is the only character worth rooting for most of the book)

[Rein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of quite a lot of books aimed that way, this comes possibly closest to being the equivalent of earlier Tarantino in narrative fiction. Leonard sketches his characters with a few bold strokes, but they are all both credible and individual, and remarkably human. Action is, of course, fast-paced and yet not entirely predictable, while the multiple storylines intersect plausibly and without creating too much confusion. None of the characters is someone you would identify with. Nonetheless, I picked up two from the first chapters that I thought I'd prefer to survive the havoc, and precisely these two were the ones that did.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book of Peter Leonard I have read. This one was pretty good. There were a lot of characters in this book. It's about Karen Delaney getting back her money, stolen by her ex-boyfriend and how she proceeds to get it back. There are a lot of twists and turns in this book. I found it a little funny that some of the characters who are basically henchmen who make a career out of getting people to pay kept letting Karen slip away. Basically everyone is after the money for their own reasons.

[Annie · Rating 1 out of 5]

How do I get rid of this book on the 'read' shelf - can anyone tell me? I've a new shelf 'gave up on' and that's where I put it, but can't get it off the 'read' list. Maybe I just have to leave it, and the next one I toss I'll just put on my 'gave up on' shelf.

[Susanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good one for a day spent sick in bed. Quite well done for its type. Peter Leonard is the son of Elmore Leonard.

[Alex Lewis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sort of a Perils of Pauline storyline. The underlying premise made little sense, still, I did finish it.

[Tony Conner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it . This was a nice ride. Waiting to read one of his other books.

[Mikk Kard · Rating 1 out of 5]

loodetavasti keegi teine ei raiska oma aega sellele. väga punnitatud värk.

[Crt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picked this book at a fete ... It was OK, in some ways a comedy of errors.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed it