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Cat Chaser
A gripping, lightning-paced tale of an ex-soldier-turned Florida motel owner whose dangerous affair with the mistress of a Dominican general in exile—a former death squad leader—threatens to have lethal consequences…especially when drugs, double-cross, and murderous mob thugs are added into the mix. A classic thriller from crime fiction master who first brought us U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, currently of TV’s Justified, Cat Chaser proves once more that when the true greats of mystery and suspense are mentioned—John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Robert Parker, et al—Elmore Leonard tops the list.
242 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
477 people are currently reading
884 people want to read
About the author
Elmore Leonard
211 books3,699 followersElmore John Leonard lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before settling in Detroit in 1935. After serving in the navy, he studied English literature at the University of Detroit where he entered a short story competition. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.
Father of Peter Leonard.
Father of Peter Leonard.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 193 reviews
August 4, 2022
In the mid-1960s, George Moran was a young Marine caught up between competing factions in the Dominican Revolution. A young girl tried to kill him and then saved his life. Years later, George owns a marginally successful motel in Florida. He determines to make a sentimental journey back to Santo Domingo to visit the scene of his most memorable youthful experiences.
He also determines to try to find the woman who saved his life. In a twist of fate, though, he discovers instead a woman named Mary de Boya who was a casual acquaintance a few years earlier when George was married and moving in the upper circles of Miami society.
George and Mary begin a torrid affair which is made much more dangerous than the usual, run-of-the-mill torrid affair because Mary's older husband is a multi-millionaire who was once a high-ranking military officer in the Dominican Republic. He has a reputation as a man who tortured and killed countless members of the opposition in the DR before he escaped one step ahead of the lynch mob. Obviously, this is not a guy you want to screw around with.
Inevitably, there are a lot of twists and turns, but as is always the case in an Elmore Leonard novel, the real delight of the book is in the characters he creates and in the dialog that he gives them. This is a fairly early EL book, and even though it's not perhaps one of his best, it's still pretty damned good and one that will appeal to any reader who enjoys his work.
He also determines to try to find the woman who saved his life. In a twist of fate, though, he discovers instead a woman named Mary de Boya who was a casual acquaintance a few years earlier when George was married and moving in the upper circles of Miami society.
George and Mary begin a torrid affair which is made much more dangerous than the usual, run-of-the-mill torrid affair because Mary's older husband is a multi-millionaire who was once a high-ranking military officer in the Dominican Republic. He has a reputation as a man who tortured and killed countless members of the opposition in the DR before he escaped one step ahead of the lynch mob. Obviously, this is not a guy you want to screw around with.
Inevitably, there are a lot of twists and turns, but as is always the case in an Elmore Leonard novel, the real delight of the book is in the characters he creates and in the dialog that he gives them. This is a fairly early EL book, and even though it's not perhaps one of his best, it's still pretty damned good and one that will appeal to any reader who enjoys his work.
February 15, 2020
”CAT CHASER
Is looking for the girl who once
Ran over rooftops and tried to kill
Him. Call the Hotel Embajador.
Room 537.”
George Moran may have gone to Santo Domingo to find a girl, but he finds a woman instead, and it isn’t the girl who tried to kill him. The sixteen year old sniper would be in her thirties by now, but she proves just as elusive as when he was chasing her across the rooftops of the city as a young Marine. On the other hand, his childhood friend Mary de Boya isn’t running away from him. In fact, she is running right into his arms.
I’d forgotten that President Johnson had sent a contingent of Marines into the Dominican Republic in1965. It was a thirty day war fought due to the fear that the Communists were trying to take over that country. Johnson certainly didn’t want another Cuba in the Western hemisphere. Moran could talk about the shrapnel he still has in his leg, but most people would say...you got shot where? They know about Vietnam, but the Dominican Republic was a political football for just the blink of an eye.
This thing he has going with Mary, it has been a long time coming. The fuse had been lit since they were teenagers, but the spool of fuse must have been damp because the spark sputtered and delayed, making its way to the dynamite at a snail’s pace, but now the hotel sheets are on fire, and their passion is about to blow everyone up.
Mary isn’t just married to anyone. She is married to General Andres de Boya, a man who doesn’t dare return to the Dominican Republic because, despite his best efforts, he still left a lot of enemies alive. The sharks, twenty years later, still come to the cliffs, hoping he will feed them more of his enemies; they can’t forget the banquet they used to enjoy, and neither can the people of the Dominican Republic. When you are the wife of such a man, you can’t just walk in and say, I want a divorce.
Elmore Leonard is the master of simple, concise, and sexy dialogue.
”Moran looked at her staring straight ahead at the windshield wipers sweeping, clearing the glass every other moment. He loved her profile. He could see her as a little girl.
‘You’re a good driver.’
‘Thank you.’
‘How’s your mouth? Is it sore?’
‘Not bad.’
‘The way your lower lip sticks out, it’s kinda sexy.’
‘You want to bite it?’
‘I believe I might. Did you hit him back?’
‘I hit him first. It only made him madder.’
‘There you are,’ Moran said. ‘The first rule of street fighting, never throw a punch unless you can finish it.’”
There are people following Mary, and there are people keeping an eye on George. Some are working for the General, and some have plans of their own. George knows the depth of the shit they are in, but now that he finally has Mary again, he will have to figure out a way to play everyone against one another and somehow stay alive.
There are always unexpected moments in Leonard novels, and this is no exception. The plot seems convoluted in the beginning, but as more is revealed, we realize that Leonard is just throwing a little misdirection so that he can give us a few more surprises. The minor characters are actually fascinating case studies of people who become caught up in events well beyond their capabilities. Moran tries his best to convince everyone that none of this is worth dying over, but throw two million dollars into the fray, and no one can see beyond the bricks of green.
Cat Chaser (1989)
Elmore Leonard was involved with the script for the 1989 movie version, and much of the dialogue in the movie is lifted word for word from the novel. The plot follows the book very closely as well. If you have always wondered, what does Kelly McGillis look like completely starkers? For the price of a used DVD copy of the movie, you can find out. The plot of the book is darker than the movie version, which is probably the case with most of Leonard’s books that have been brought to the screen. Peter Weller is an interesting actor, and pairing him with McGillis made this a must see for me. I was a bit annoyed that they are always throwing an artificial band of light across McGillis’s face that highlights her eyes. They use it so much it is actually distracting. I am especially struck by the beautiful, docile tones of McGillis’s voice and her elegant wardrobe. She is no longer the spunky beauty of Top Gun in this movie, but she’s still sexy. Charles Durning is a bit old to play the heavy, Jiggs Scully, but I still find his capacity for brutality vividly believable.
I suggest reading the book, but if you are a Weller or McGillis fan, you’ll have fun watching them caught up in a nefarious Elmore Leonard plot.
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April 11, 2023
A 1983 novel, set a year or two earlier. The lead character, George Moran, is an ex- U.S Marine who owns a motel in Pompano Beach, Florida. In 1965 he had been part of a US military intervention in the Dominican Republic, an event I had not known about. At the beginning of the novel he is planning a trip to the DR to revisit the locations from at that time. He does though, have a series of other (mostly unwelcome) links to the DR via one Andres de Boya, a former secret police chief of the Trujillo regime, now in exile in Florida. De Boya wants to buy Moran’s motel to develop the site, while his wife is an old school friend of Moran’s, and the two have a liking for each other. Meanwhile, De Boya’s sister is using Moran’s motel for regular assignations with her lover, much to her brother’s disapproval. Then things start to get complicated…
This is only the third Elmore Leonard novel I’ve read, but I knew already that he is a grandmaster when it comes to tough-guy dialogue. That was as good in this novel as in the others I’ve read, but personally I found the plot a bit contrived (well, it is a crime novel). It didn’t really engage me as much as I thought. I did identify with Moran a bit, but oddly perhaps, I felt most sympathy with a secondary character called Nolen Tyner, an alcoholic who gets involved with a scheme which takes him out of his depth.
For most of the book I was thinking in terms of a 3-star rating. I thought the denouement was well-done, and I considered bumping the rating up for that, but overall I thought this was decent without being anything special.
This is only the third Elmore Leonard novel I’ve read, but I knew already that he is a grandmaster when it comes to tough-guy dialogue. That was as good in this novel as in the others I’ve read, but personally I found the plot a bit contrived (well, it is a crime novel). It didn’t really engage me as much as I thought. I did identify with Moran a bit, but oddly perhaps, I felt most sympathy with a secondary character called Nolen Tyner, an alcoholic who gets involved with a scheme which takes him out of his depth.
For most of the book I was thinking in terms of a 3-star rating. I thought the denouement was well-done, and I considered bumping the rating up for that, but overall I thought this was decent without being anything special.
November 19, 2023
This one seems to change direction for the better about midway.
A crime novel full of unlikable and unappealing characters. Then the characters and the story began growing on me. Finally the main character, who had seemed somewhat aimless and hapless despite being an ex-marine, rises to the occasion.
The New York Times: “A superior example of gritty writing and violent action.”
A crime novel full of unlikable and unappealing characters. Then the characters and the story began growing on me. Finally the main character, who had seemed somewhat aimless and hapless despite being an ex-marine, rises to the occasion.
The New York Times: “A superior example of gritty writing and violent action.”
October 17, 2019
Novel opens with George Moran, the owner of the modest Coconut Palms Resort Apartments, dealing with Nolen Tyler attempting to check into Moran's motel with only a six-pack of beer.
It’s an Elmore Leonard crime-thriller so the two guys engage in a little bit of back and forth. Moran finally agrees to allow Nolen to rent one of his cottages. Rooms, whatever.
The Coconut Palms has an ocean view and his customers can walk right of their cottages and down to the beach. The only place in Pompano where a lone secretary from up north can stay for thirty bucks with an ocean front view if she doesn’t want to stay in one of the dozen or so high rises that dominate the shoreline.
Moran and Nolen get to know each other a little better later.
Nolen is a part-time private eye working for Marshall Sisco Investigations, Incorporated, Miami only they operate out of Coral Gables. He’s being paid to keep an eye on the couple staying in Number One, using it as a lover’s nest, arriving separately every evening and staying until a little after midnight or so.
When Nolen isn’t being a part-time detective, he’s an actor.
“I was an actor for twenty years. Well, ten years professionally. Some film work in New York, mostly dinner theater down here. You’re trying to act, the audience’s sitting there trying not to break wind out loud. They want to leave, go home, but not any more’n I do. I played either the lead guy’s buddy or the broad’s brother. You know, just a straight asshole type of guy, wrings his hands a lot, opens his eyes real wide: ‘Gee, Scott, I don’t know if I’d do that’
Doesn’t ever know what the fuck’s going on. I start playing the guy as a drunk, give the part a little dimension. Or, I’d play it, give it just a hint the guy’s homosexual. But the asshole directors on that dinner circuit, to get any respect from them you had to be Forrest Tucker … Doug McClure. You know what I mean? That type.”
“I imagine it’s tough,” Moran said, “when you think of all the Doug McClures out there.”
Eventually, Moran notices a bluish tattoo on Nolen's right forearm – a two inch eagle with its wings raised.
Moran has a tattoo on his left forearm –the Marine Corps insignia.
It turns out both guys served in the Marine Corps and were part of the invasion force into The Dominican Republic in 1965.
I like these Elmore Leonard novels when you have two guys, one a straight shooter, the other guy kind of shady, who wind up facing the same sort of trouble from the same source or sources. The question, are these two going to join forces or will one sell the other out?
Then there’s a sub-plot where there’s this very wealthy, very mysterious Hispanic gentleman who Moran knows from way back when he was younger and married into wealth. At the time Moran worked for his father-in-law doing construction work and spending off days at the country club on the golf course. He knows the gentleman from those days.
Now the Hispanic gentleman is trying to buy Moran out and he’s been getting a bit insistent that Moran sell to him.
The wealthy, ominous Hispanic gentleman is named De Boya, a former D. R. general under the dictator Trujillo. There are lots of rumors about him… how he was a master at sadistic interrogation techniques ...how he raided Trujillo’s coffers and made his escape from The Dominican Republic just as Trujillo’s government was falling.
I almost thought Elmore Leonard was going to blow it.
He throws a little too many sub-plots and extraneous characters into the mix.
We get a side trip back to Santo Domingo so Moran can find the beautiful young rebel girl who shot him but then cared for his wound while he was being held prisoner by anti-government forces.
It’s a fun segment but it’s unnecessary except to introduce the reader to the real love interest in this novel.
After his return to Pompano, we meet a garrulous thug named Jiggs who works for General De Boya. The part-time actor/private-eye thinks Jiggs is colorful and amusing but Moran fails to find Jiggs engaging enough to hang out with.
This is the best Elmore Leonard I’ve read since
.
Very entertaining, a bit padded but when the action goes down it’s a genuine page-turner.
Recommended to newcomers to Elmore Leonard as well as long-time fans.
It’s an Elmore Leonard crime-thriller so the two guys engage in a little bit of back and forth. Moran finally agrees to allow Nolen to rent one of his cottages. Rooms, whatever.
The Coconut Palms has an ocean view and his customers can walk right of their cottages and down to the beach. The only place in Pompano where a lone secretary from up north can stay for thirty bucks with an ocean front view if she doesn’t want to stay in one of the dozen or so high rises that dominate the shoreline.
Moran and Nolen get to know each other a little better later.
Nolen is a part-time private eye working for Marshall Sisco Investigations, Incorporated, Miami only they operate out of Coral Gables. He’s being paid to keep an eye on the couple staying in Number One, using it as a lover’s nest, arriving separately every evening and staying until a little after midnight or so.
When Nolen isn’t being a part-time detective, he’s an actor.
“I was an actor for twenty years. Well, ten years professionally. Some film work in New York, mostly dinner theater down here. You’re trying to act, the audience’s sitting there trying not to break wind out loud. They want to leave, go home, but not any more’n I do. I played either the lead guy’s buddy or the broad’s brother. You know, just a straight asshole type of guy, wrings his hands a lot, opens his eyes real wide: ‘Gee, Scott, I don’t know if I’d do that’
Doesn’t ever know what the fuck’s going on. I start playing the guy as a drunk, give the part a little dimension. Or, I’d play it, give it just a hint the guy’s homosexual. But the asshole directors on that dinner circuit, to get any respect from them you had to be Forrest Tucker … Doug McClure. You know what I mean? That type.”
“I imagine it’s tough,” Moran said, “when you think of all the Doug McClures out there.”
Eventually, Moran notices a bluish tattoo on Nolen's right forearm – a two inch eagle with its wings raised.
Moran has a tattoo on his left forearm –the Marine Corps insignia.
It turns out both guys served in the Marine Corps and were part of the invasion force into The Dominican Republic in 1965.
I like these Elmore Leonard novels when you have two guys, one a straight shooter, the other guy kind of shady, who wind up facing the same sort of trouble from the same source or sources. The question, are these two going to join forces or will one sell the other out?
Then there’s a sub-plot where there’s this very wealthy, very mysterious Hispanic gentleman who Moran knows from way back when he was younger and married into wealth. At the time Moran worked for his father-in-law doing construction work and spending off days at the country club on the golf course. He knows the gentleman from those days.
Now the Hispanic gentleman is trying to buy Moran out and he’s been getting a bit insistent that Moran sell to him.
The wealthy, ominous Hispanic gentleman is named De Boya, a former D. R. general under the dictator Trujillo. There are lots of rumors about him… how he was a master at sadistic interrogation techniques ...how he raided Trujillo’s coffers and made his escape from The Dominican Republic just as Trujillo’s government was falling.
I almost thought Elmore Leonard was going to blow it.
He throws a little too many sub-plots and extraneous characters into the mix.
We get a side trip back to Santo Domingo so Moran can find the beautiful young rebel girl who shot him but then cared for his wound while he was being held prisoner by anti-government forces.
It’s a fun segment but it’s unnecessary except to introduce the reader to the real love interest in this novel.
After his return to Pompano, we meet a garrulous thug named Jiggs who works for General De Boya. The part-time actor/private-eye thinks Jiggs is colorful and amusing but Moran fails to find Jiggs engaging enough to hang out with.
This is the best Elmore Leonard I’ve read since
. Very entertaining, a bit padded but when the action goes down it’s a genuine page-turner.
Recommended to newcomers to Elmore Leonard as well as long-time fans.
May 19, 2017
'Cat Chaser' is a fun gun-and-sun romp!
George Moran is in love. It happened suddenly and unexpectedly. An ex-Marine and now business owner, he had decided to let his employee run his Coconut Palms Motel in Coral Gables, Florida, for a couple of weeks while he vacationed in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. He had two intentions for the trip, but falling in love with Mary de Boya, wife of a Miami millionaire was not one of them! Moran actually was looking for a young girl he had fought during an American invasion of the small island country as a Marine. He also was interested in having a real vacation. Instead, he meets and falls in love with Mary! However, there is a dangerous complication. Mary's husband was a Dominican general who tortured people. There is a rumor he left the island with millions in cash. Certainly he is very rich now, and he seems to have pretty tough men working as security for his mansion.
Gentle reader, if you suspect George and Mary will have trouble getting Mary away from her husband, you are correct...game on!
Not one of Leonard's best, but it will do.
George Moran is in love. It happened suddenly and unexpectedly. An ex-Marine and now business owner, he had decided to let his employee run his Coconut Palms Motel in Coral Gables, Florida, for a couple of weeks while he vacationed in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. He had two intentions for the trip, but falling in love with Mary de Boya, wife of a Miami millionaire was not one of them! Moran actually was looking for a young girl he had fought during an American invasion of the small island country as a Marine. He also was interested in having a real vacation. Instead, he meets and falls in love with Mary! However, there is a dangerous complication. Mary's husband was a Dominican general who tortured people. There is a rumor he left the island with millions in cash. Certainly he is very rich now, and he seems to have pretty tough men working as security for his mansion.
Gentle reader, if you suspect George and Mary will have trouble getting Mary away from her husband, you are correct...game on!
Not one of Leonard's best, but it will do.
June 2, 2014
This is my first Elmore Leonard read, and it will not be my last. I was introduced to Leonard through the show "Justified" which is based on his stories, and because of the unwavering devotion I have to the series, I suspected I'd enjoy his works, and I was right. With rich dialogue, unique characters and a twisty plot, Leonard tells a story you just can't put down.
George Moran lives a quiet life as a hotel owner in Miami who through a chain of events faces his past colliding with his present, and his possible future. Reunited with the one that got away, they spend an unexpected weekend in Santa Domingo, kindling a romance that never was and have to find resolutions in the present in order to be together, though their survival is also on the line. Luckily Moran is no slouch so we wait with baited breath to see how it will all turn out in the end. The cast of supporting characters enrich the story and the reader is kept guessing as to who is going to come out on top, not to mention be left standing.
I couldn't help but view this with Justified glasses and saw many parallels between Moran and the protagonist of the show, Raylan Givens. Where Raylan has a dark streak and toes the line between good guy and bad guy, Moran is good to the core.
The study started a little slow, but if was worth it in the end and I'll certainly be reading, and recommending Leonard in the future.
George Moran lives a quiet life as a hotel owner in Miami who through a chain of events faces his past colliding with his present, and his possible future. Reunited with the one that got away, they spend an unexpected weekend in Santa Domingo, kindling a romance that never was and have to find resolutions in the present in order to be together, though their survival is also on the line. Luckily Moran is no slouch so we wait with baited breath to see how it will all turn out in the end. The cast of supporting characters enrich the story and the reader is kept guessing as to who is going to come out on top, not to mention be left standing.
I couldn't help but view this with Justified glasses and saw many parallels between Moran and the protagonist of the show, Raylan Givens. Where Raylan has a dark streak and toes the line between good guy and bad guy, Moran is good to the core.
The study started a little slow, but if was worth it in the end and I'll certainly be reading, and recommending Leonard in the future.
October 16, 2022
Moran and Mary make this a great one.
“I don’t mean it that way,” Moran said. “I guess I mean it isn’t as easy to understand as I thought it would be. Things aren’t black and white, are they?” He shrugged and said, “Maybe it’s me. I see it differently now.”
“I don’t mean it that way,” Moran said. “I guess I mean it isn’t as easy to understand as I thought it would be. Things aren’t black and white, are they?” He shrugged and said, “Maybe it’s me. I see it differently now.”
July 11, 2025
I really enjoyed this summertime read. I like most of what I have read of Elmore Leonard. This book flew by. While the book forces you to suspend belief a bit, the characters are fun, ( lots of drinking 🍸 going on). I had fun and the plot was decent and it's a short novel with a predictable but fun ending. Highly recommended.
December 19, 2022
Elmore Leonard used to be my literary bread and butter. But I didn't enjoy several of the last books he wrote so I kind of drifted away. Lately, I've been trying to go back to read some of his earlier work. I'm glad I did. "Cat Chaser" is a slow burn crime story with a main character who is essentially Magnum P.I., except he's in Florida and owns a small crappy motel.
Leonard does a masterful job of slowly fleshing him out and the story and doesn't rush into the inevitable chaos. This is effective because when things start to pay off, they pay off BIG TIME! I'll keep going back through these older stories. I'm actually excited about reading some of his Westerns too!
Leonard does a masterful job of slowly fleshing him out and the story and doesn't rush into the inevitable chaos. This is effective because when things start to pay off, they pay off BIG TIME! I'll keep going back through these older stories. I'm actually excited about reading some of his Westerns too!
January 27, 2017
Just When I Thought It Wasn't Over
I'm still trying to get used to not having an actual book in my hands when I read, but it is convenient to have my complete library available in my little lightweight Kindle. I liked this book, I liked the characters and I really like the way Elmore Leonard writes. So I didn't think it fair to penalize him because of something the publisher did. This is the second EL book I've read put out by this publishing house and they both have 30% of filler at the end, identical each time, giving short synopses about every book Leonard ever wrote, every book made into a movie, the same interview he gave a guy who's name I've already forgotten, etc. So what's the big deal? I can just flip through all that to the end, right? But when my Kindle tells me I've still got 30% of the book left to read, and then it suddenly ends, it feels like the rug is being yanked out under my feet. I just never feel prepared for it. Maybe it's just me, but I like to know I'm coming to the end because I read it differently then. Do any other readers feel like I do about that? I paid full Kindle ebook price for this novel, so I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I just wish the publisher would either put all this at the front of the book or take it out altogether.
I'm still trying to get used to not having an actual book in my hands when I read, but it is convenient to have my complete library available in my little lightweight Kindle. I liked this book, I liked the characters and I really like the way Elmore Leonard writes. So I didn't think it fair to penalize him because of something the publisher did. This is the second EL book I've read put out by this publishing house and they both have 30% of filler at the end, identical each time, giving short synopses about every book Leonard ever wrote, every book made into a movie, the same interview he gave a guy who's name I've already forgotten, etc. So what's the big deal? I can just flip through all that to the end, right? But when my Kindle tells me I've still got 30% of the book left to read, and then it suddenly ends, it feels like the rug is being yanked out under my feet. I just never feel prepared for it. Maybe it's just me, but I like to know I'm coming to the end because I read it differently then. Do any other readers feel like I do about that? I paid full Kindle ebook price for this novel, so I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I just wish the publisher would either put all this at the front of the book or take it out altogether.
July 6, 2016
I'm not sure if it's me or this is one of Leonard's duds. Hey, even the best can have them. I just never got captured by this. Didn't really like or dislike any of the characters, never cared what would happen to them. When a new Modesitt book arrived, I put this down to read it. I could barely put that down. I kept thinking about picking this up, but never did. Just really didn't want to, so...
July 13, 2024
Who is Nolen Tyner, and why would Moran allow him to stick around? Why would Moran humor Rafi so long? Why doesn't Mary ever confront de Boya about getting a divorce? Whole sections of the novel seemed not only uneventful but implausible, like the Santo Domingo interlude, or the insta-relationship between Mary and Moran. In general, the characters didn't seem real, and the plot never got started.
August 16, 2021
"CAT CHASER is looking for the girl who once ran over rooftops and tried to kill him. Call the Hotel Embajador. Room 537."
George Moran takes a long-awaited vacation in the Dominican Republic, where he was injured as a Marine in 1965 by friendly fire. He is looking for the young female sniper who chased him around Santo Domingo for weeks, who knew him only by his call sign Cat Chaser Four.
Along the way, George begins a sultry affair with Mary de Boya, a beautiful socialite whom he knows from years back when he married into Miami high society. She is the wife of millionaire entrepreneur Andres de Boya, who had been dictator Rafael Trujillo's brutal killer in the DR for decades.
George and Andres already have an uneasy history with one another--first the war, then some crosswise family dealings. Now, it threatens to escalate into a blood feud between George's affair with Mary, a shakedown from an opportunistic former communist rebel, and a murder-robbery orchestrated by a mobbed-up Irish ex-cop.
As the book's tagline says, "He could get himself killed two ways: chasing after the rich man's wife… or the rich man's money."
This novel is rather average by Elmore Leonard standards. As usual, he nails the streetwise dialogue and the atmospheric tension. None of the characters are particularly smart; they all react to events with rarely any forethought or planning. The plot is riddled with implausible coincidences.
It seems like a transitionary novel. Most of it reads like hardboiled noir, but it nudges up against the boundaries of farce a few times. I do not think Leonard wants his readers to take this plot too seriously. It falls somewhere on the spectrum between his gritty urban thrillers of the 1970's, like Fifty-Two Pickup, and his self-aware satirical gems of the 1990's, like Get Shorty, Rum Punch, and Tishimingo Blues.
I listened to the audiobook read by Frank Muller.
George Moran takes a long-awaited vacation in the Dominican Republic, where he was injured as a Marine in 1965 by friendly fire. He is looking for the young female sniper who chased him around Santo Domingo for weeks, who knew him only by his call sign Cat Chaser Four.
Along the way, George begins a sultry affair with Mary de Boya, a beautiful socialite whom he knows from years back when he married into Miami high society. She is the wife of millionaire entrepreneur Andres de Boya, who had been dictator Rafael Trujillo's brutal killer in the DR for decades.
George and Andres already have an uneasy history with one another--first the war, then some crosswise family dealings. Now, it threatens to escalate into a blood feud between George's affair with Mary, a shakedown from an opportunistic former communist rebel, and a murder-robbery orchestrated by a mobbed-up Irish ex-cop.
As the book's tagline says, "He could get himself killed two ways: chasing after the rich man's wife… or the rich man's money."
This novel is rather average by Elmore Leonard standards. As usual, he nails the streetwise dialogue and the atmospheric tension. None of the characters are particularly smart; they all react to events with rarely any forethought or planning. The plot is riddled with implausible coincidences.
It seems like a transitionary novel. Most of it reads like hardboiled noir, but it nudges up against the boundaries of farce a few times. I do not think Leonard wants his readers to take this plot too seriously. It falls somewhere on the spectrum between his gritty urban thrillers of the 1970's, like Fifty-Two Pickup, and his self-aware satirical gems of the 1990's, like Get Shorty, Rum Punch, and Tishimingo Blues.
I listened to the audiobook read by Frank Muller.
December 4, 2018
Frank Mueller's narration is excellent. He does Jiggs Scully's Bronx accent as well as he does all the Dominican characters' Spanish accents. Nolan, the seedy guy, sounds a little like Jack Nicholson, and Moran, the hero, a little like Clint Eastwood.
The more Elmore Leonard I read, the more they all seem to be built on the same basic formula, but the wise guy dialogue is half, or more than half, the fun.
The more Elmore Leonard I read, the more they all seem to be built on the same basic formula, but the wise guy dialogue is half, or more than half, the fun.
October 6, 2020
What to say about this book? It rambles and (like my own novels) starts slow at the beginning before taking off. But dang, Elmore Leonard on an off day is better than most authors on a good day, and this is far from a bad novel. It's more character driven than some of his other books, so the set-up takes a while to get going. But when it does, it moves. Full of Leonard's tight writing, crisp dialogue, and sharp wit. Wherever Leonard decides to go in one of his tales, I'm definitely along for the ride.
July 15, 2021
This was a slow starter for me, however, it quickly became a typical Elmore Leonard thriller. Typical doesn't mean average or not unique. Whenever his characters move, you never know what they're going to do and when they speak, you never know what they're going to say. I enjoyed this immensely and I'm 1 book away from reading every Leonard book in his catalog. I'm sad. But I highly recommend this book. Enjoy it. Dutch will not ne writing any longer, but his legacy lives on here.
December 1, 2020
Solid fast paced believable story by the author who always delivers a variety characters in his stories. That coupled with Frank Muller's narration provides something that you'll want to listen to straight thru.
February 25, 2018
Quite a disappointment. Mainly because of way too wordage wasted with lovey doviness. Yes, terrific characters, yes fabulous dialogue. But the plot was pretty thin and, again, the schmaltz was excessive. I'm a big Elmore Leonard fan (not his Westerns) and I'd never have thought he could drift into Harlequin, but in this story he did. Oh well.
March 22, 2011
This 1982 novel is classic Elmore Leonard, not mind-blowing if you're already familiar with him, but written with a seemingly effortless perfection.
December 16, 2021
This isn't Elmore Leonard's best novel, but it's damn good. Lesser Leonard is better than everyone else's best. God, I miss Elmore Leonard. He was the master.
June 22, 2021
A few years back, I found a reissue copy of "52 Pick-Up" at a local bookstore and decided to give it a try, having never read anything by Elmore Leonard (I'm not usually a crime fiction aficionado). I read it in a day and loved it, and swore that I'd read more of Leonard's work. That was, as I said, a few years back. Now, in 2021, I finally got around to reading my second Elmore Leonard work.
"Cat Chaser" is a heck of a sophomore read for me in the world of Leonard, as it hits so many buttons that made it more enjoyable than I thought it'd be (being "crime fiction"). The main hero, George Moran, is a former Marine who fought in the Dominican Republic in 1965 as part of LBJ's invasion force to try and "contain the forces of Communism." For his troubles, Moran got wounded and kidnapped by the rebels. Sixteen years later, after the end of his marriage, Moran is now the proud owner and boss at a rundown Florida motel best known as a discreet lover's retreat, and he's planning a trip back to the DR to see if he can track down the teenage girl who shot at him and kept him company during his time as a prisoner. He runs into an old flame from his country-club days, and they wind up in bed together. Only problem is, that old flame's husband is the former head of the Dominican secret police and a very jealous man. He also happens to be very rich, which is an enticement not just to Moran but to a collection of shifty grifters who may or may not outwit Moran in his quest to get the girl and perhaps even the money.
I read this in a day, as well, after starting it a couple of days earlier and being distracted by an all-new (and excellent) book about Nixon and Watergate. But this is a fantastic book that makes the case that I was wrong to wait so long to pick up Leonard's work again (in much the same way that, having read "The Man In the High Castle" sometime in 2014, I was sure I'd never read Philip K. Dick again even though I enjoyed that one; six years later, and I've gone on a Dick reading jag, finishing eleven more of his books since 2019). I hope it's not another long number of years before I pick up another book by Elmore Leonard; this one was entertaining as hell and I think it's worth your time even if you wouldn't describe yourself as a crime-novel reader (and I wouldn't describe myself as such).
"Cat Chaser" is a heck of a sophomore read for me in the world of Leonard, as it hits so many buttons that made it more enjoyable than I thought it'd be (being "crime fiction"). The main hero, George Moran, is a former Marine who fought in the Dominican Republic in 1965 as part of LBJ's invasion force to try and "contain the forces of Communism." For his troubles, Moran got wounded and kidnapped by the rebels. Sixteen years later, after the end of his marriage, Moran is now the proud owner and boss at a rundown Florida motel best known as a discreet lover's retreat, and he's planning a trip back to the DR to see if he can track down the teenage girl who shot at him and kept him company during his time as a prisoner. He runs into an old flame from his country-club days, and they wind up in bed together. Only problem is, that old flame's husband is the former head of the Dominican secret police and a very jealous man. He also happens to be very rich, which is an enticement not just to Moran but to a collection of shifty grifters who may or may not outwit Moran in his quest to get the girl and perhaps even the money.
I read this in a day, as well, after starting it a couple of days earlier and being distracted by an all-new (and excellent) book about Nixon and Watergate. But this is a fantastic book that makes the case that I was wrong to wait so long to pick up Leonard's work again (in much the same way that, having read "The Man In the High Castle" sometime in 2014, I was sure I'd never read Philip K. Dick again even though I enjoyed that one; six years later, and I've gone on a Dick reading jag, finishing eleven more of his books since 2019). I hope it's not another long number of years before I pick up another book by Elmore Leonard; this one was entertaining as hell and I think it's worth your time even if you wouldn't describe yourself as a crime-novel reader (and I wouldn't describe myself as such).
February 13, 2020
The first time I read "Cat Chaser" some 20 years ago, I wasn't impressed -- because its twisty plot and quirky characters didn't meet my expectations for how a thriller should be put together. Reading it now as I work my way through Elmore Leonard's Florida books, I can at last appreciate the pace and structure of his plotting as well as the characters.
One thing that helps is knowing that Leonard knew the setting -- a small beach motel surrounded by massive condos -- as well as he knew the layout of his own home. In 1968, about nine years before "Cat Chaser" was published, he bought his mom a Florida motel a lot like the one in the book. Also I realize now that there are connections between this book and others. For instance, the Leucadendra Country Club shows up again in "Stick" (and the name is a sly joke about Florida vegetation -- the place is named for a type of invasive plant). Meanwhile one of the characters works for Marshall Sisco Investigations, which turns up again in "Out of Sight" because the owner is the father of U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco and gives her a lot of advice.
The main characters here are ex-Marine George Moran, a Detroiter who got kicked out of the country club when he and his rich wife divorced, and Mary Delaney, another Detroiter who is married to a former leader of a South American death squad still feared in the Dominican Republic. She wants to be free of him, and bumps into Moran during a visit to the DR. For Moran it's a sentimental journey, as he walks the streets he once patrolled as "Cat Chaser," and where he was once wounded and earned a Purple Heart. Also in the mix: $2 million that Delaney's husband is hiding in their mansion, a Mob thug named Jiggs, a con man named Rafi and an actor-turned-private eye named Nolen whose specialty seems to be finding new ways to spend a whole day drunk.
George, now a small motel owner, is head-over-heels in love with Mary, who loves him back -- yet can't quite find a way to tell her hubby that she's leaving him. Her husband is the weakest character in the book, as Leonard can't quite find a way to get readers inside his head. Otherwise this is a stellar early outing by Leonard, with some evocative descriptions of living life on a Florida beach.
One thing that helps is knowing that Leonard knew the setting -- a small beach motel surrounded by massive condos -- as well as he knew the layout of his own home. In 1968, about nine years before "Cat Chaser" was published, he bought his mom a Florida motel a lot like the one in the book. Also I realize now that there are connections between this book and others. For instance, the Leucadendra Country Club shows up again in "Stick" (and the name is a sly joke about Florida vegetation -- the place is named for a type of invasive plant). Meanwhile one of the characters works for Marshall Sisco Investigations, which turns up again in "Out of Sight" because the owner is the father of U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco and gives her a lot of advice.
The main characters here are ex-Marine George Moran, a Detroiter who got kicked out of the country club when he and his rich wife divorced, and Mary Delaney, another Detroiter who is married to a former leader of a South American death squad still feared in the Dominican Republic. She wants to be free of him, and bumps into Moran during a visit to the DR. For Moran it's a sentimental journey, as he walks the streets he once patrolled as "Cat Chaser," and where he was once wounded and earned a Purple Heart. Also in the mix: $2 million that Delaney's husband is hiding in their mansion, a Mob thug named Jiggs, a con man named Rafi and an actor-turned-private eye named Nolen whose specialty seems to be finding new ways to spend a whole day drunk.
George, now a small motel owner, is head-over-heels in love with Mary, who loves him back -- yet can't quite find a way to tell her hubby that she's leaving him. Her husband is the weakest character in the book, as Leonard can't quite find a way to get readers inside his head. Otherwise this is a stellar early outing by Leonard, with some evocative descriptions of living life on a Florida beach.
July 18, 2022
Another slow burn Elmore Leonard novel that ends up with a heart-thumping climax.
George Moran is a Marine veteran of the Dominican Republic conflict in 1965 who now runs a midlevel motel on the oceanfront in Miami. At the start of the story, one of his bungalows is occupied by the sister of an exiled DR strongman and her new lover, and that draws the attention of the strongman, Andres De Boya, former head of the island nation's secret police.
Thus starts Cat Chaser, named for the unit Moran was a part of in the DR. It percolates along for awhile with Leonard's usual assortment of misfits and eccentrics, until Moran decides to visit the DR and check out the places where his unit fought. There, he encounters the wife of the aforementioned strongman, a Florida beauty who immediately becomes his lover, and from that fateful relationship, everything else in the book ripples outward.
By the time George returns home, he is followed by a DR conman who wants to capitalize on George's search for a woman rebel soldier who shot at him during the conflict but eventually set him free. In the meantime, several people have noticed George's attraction to Mary De Boya, and they have their own plans for how to capitalize on that, just as Mary works to find a way to leave her husband and be with George.
The final chapters are menacing and gallop along, and the only reason I pulled one star from this is that the story ends abruptly, without resolving all the loose ends that the plot has set up (not an unusual occurrence with a Leonard novel).
But, as usual, really well-written and well-paced, and no one can convey the menace of violence committed by dispassionate psychopaths better than Elmore Leonard.
George Moran is a Marine veteran of the Dominican Republic conflict in 1965 who now runs a midlevel motel on the oceanfront in Miami. At the start of the story, one of his bungalows is occupied by the sister of an exiled DR strongman and her new lover, and that draws the attention of the strongman, Andres De Boya, former head of the island nation's secret police.
Thus starts Cat Chaser, named for the unit Moran was a part of in the DR. It percolates along for awhile with Leonard's usual assortment of misfits and eccentrics, until Moran decides to visit the DR and check out the places where his unit fought. There, he encounters the wife of the aforementioned strongman, a Florida beauty who immediately becomes his lover, and from that fateful relationship, everything else in the book ripples outward.
By the time George returns home, he is followed by a DR conman who wants to capitalize on George's search for a woman rebel soldier who shot at him during the conflict but eventually set him free. In the meantime, several people have noticed George's attraction to Mary De Boya, and they have their own plans for how to capitalize on that, just as Mary works to find a way to leave her husband and be with George.
The final chapters are menacing and gallop along, and the only reason I pulled one star from this is that the story ends abruptly, without resolving all the loose ends that the plot has set up (not an unusual occurrence with a Leonard novel).
But, as usual, really well-written and well-paced, and no one can convey the menace of violence committed by dispassionate psychopaths better than Elmore Leonard.
June 11, 2021
Can Wes Anderson please do an adaptation of this book? It has it all; an eccentric cast of characters, killer dialogue, a forbidden love affair, and tons of action… all set in 1980s Miami.
To call Cat Chaser a thriller is like calling a gem a rock; it’s not incorrect, but it hardly encompases the essence of the thing. This novel does in fact have all of the elements of a good pulpy thriller, namely the suspenseful plot and darker themes. But there’s more to this book. The dialogue is just fantastic, with some heated exchanges between characters feeling like fast-paced tennis rallies and other, more calculated dialogue holding as much suspense as a high-stakes poker game. I also really loved that the characters are fully fleshed out individuals, each unique with his or her strengths and weaknesses. In fact, I liked them all, even the worst of the villains and the most minor characters. As in his Western stories, it’s the characters and dialogue that are Leonard’s greatest forte.
I wouldn’t normally feel very drawn to a story about an ex-Marine divorcé who gets mixed up with a Dominican ex-revolutionary and current drug lord, and other shady characters. There are also cheesy love scenes and brutally violent episodes, which I’d normally skim through. But it all works here, perhaps thanks to the characters and the well-paced story arc. I even learned a little something about the Dominican Civil War of 1965.
Frank Muller delivers an incredible performance with his narration of the audio version, bringing all the characters to life and keeping things moving at a snappy pace. For that this was a 5-star “read” for me.
To call Cat Chaser a thriller is like calling a gem a rock; it’s not incorrect, but it hardly encompases the essence of the thing. This novel does in fact have all of the elements of a good pulpy thriller, namely the suspenseful plot and darker themes. But there’s more to this book. The dialogue is just fantastic, with some heated exchanges between characters feeling like fast-paced tennis rallies and other, more calculated dialogue holding as much suspense as a high-stakes poker game. I also really loved that the characters are fully fleshed out individuals, each unique with his or her strengths and weaknesses. In fact, I liked them all, even the worst of the villains and the most minor characters. As in his Western stories, it’s the characters and dialogue that are Leonard’s greatest forte.
I wouldn’t normally feel very drawn to a story about an ex-Marine divorcé who gets mixed up with a Dominican ex-revolutionary and current drug lord, and other shady characters. There are also cheesy love scenes and brutally violent episodes, which I’d normally skim through. But it all works here, perhaps thanks to the characters and the well-paced story arc. I even learned a little something about the Dominican Civil War of 1965.
Frank Muller delivers an incredible performance with his narration of the audio version, bringing all the characters to life and keeping things moving at a snappy pace. For that this was a 5-star “read” for me.
August 24, 2018
I "read" this as an audio book beautifully narrated by Frank Muller. Leonard is the master of dialog and creator of interesting characters and this is no exception. George Moran is an ex marine who was wounded in a US intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965; his unit was code named Cat chaser, hence the name. George in now owner of a small resort in Pompano Beach. He has a history with the wife of an ex general from the DR who was a torturer for Trujillo. A series of events brings him to the attention of the general and some of his thug employees and introduces him to another ex vet from the DR now working as a private eye. There is a LOT going on and we don't have a clue as to who is planning what for whom but it is fast paced action and the usual fast paced dialog. Great fun.
August 7, 2020
This is not Elmore's best novel but his genius still shines through. The way he puts everything in place for that final, cinematic scene. The guy was fucking ace. He would still write the ass off pretty much every crime writer today.
April 28, 2015
3.5 stars.
Balancing the tension between cynicism and romanticism has sort of been the story of my life. My default position is to be skeptical and automatically assume the worst. Most of the time I figure the world (globally, locally, personally) is teetering on the brink of some catastrophe, and it’s not unusual for me to assume that I play a major role in the disaster (literal or metaphorical) to come. I often can’t escape my tendency to question the motives of others, but because self-loathing is the bedrock on which my personality is built, I always figure it’s because of something I’ve done. And when the concerns are bigger than me or are things in which I don’t play a direct role … well, in those cases the glass is never empty enough.
That would be a horrible, horrible way to live if I didn’t also feel a strong undercurrent of optimism and joy. It’s in the way I’m uplifted by music and books and film, in my unwavering belief in the importance of education, and in the way I can be moved to tears by simple acts of kindness and commercials about neglected animals. And of course I feel it every single day because I happen to be married to a woman whose generosity, enthusiasm, and good humor knows no bounds. And this is why, as much as I respond to art that is, as Nigel Tufnel would say, none more black, I really connect with work that manages to be both bleak and hopeful.
I figured this out as I was reading Elmore Leonard’s Cat Chaser. In past reviews I’ve focused on Leonard’s whip-smart dialogue and strategic use of violence, the long cons and borderline nihilism, but what I’d never actually realized until reading Cat Chaser – a satisfyingly straightforward book that’s as much romance as crime novel – is that all his male protagonists are love-struck doofuses who are, above all else, unrepentant romantics. His main characters are often men, but careful readers will notice that his women are where it’s at. The men are the actors, but they’re usually acting at the explicit or implicit behest of the women they’ve gone goofy for.
In all Leonard’s books I’ve read – a dozen or so at this point – this is no more obvious than it is in Cat Chaser. Moran runs a down-on-its-luck hotel in Miami, Florida, and he connects – and connects in a big way – with Mary, the wife of Andres, a deposed Dominican general who’s remade himself as an American gangster. Most of the first half of the book is the story of how Moran and Mary meet, quickly fall in love, and realize she needs to extricate herself from her hugely unsatisfying marriage. Running parallel with the central love story is a typically Leonardian con: Jiggs Scully, a small-time enforcer and debt collector who’s worked for Andres in the past, tries to talk Moran into swiping the money he knows Andres must have squirreled away in case his Dominican past catches up to him and he needs to flee.
The most fascinating thing about the way the story plays out is how Leonard manages to paint Moran as both protagonist and bystander. He ostensibly agrees to Scully’s plan, but he’s never particularly interested in it, and he definitely doesn’t want to get in trouble. He mainly wants to help Mary get out of her marriage – and to that end, his biggest role in the heist is to make sure his relationship with Mary isn’t collateral damage in Scully’s plot to get rich quick. As a result, most of the crime elements in Cat Chaser – minus an absolutely virtuoso scene at the book’s climax – take place without Moran. Scully tries to manipulate Andres into fleeing by sabotaging and vandalizing his mansion – actions he wants Andres to read as increasingly violent political statements perpetrated by Dominican immigrants with an ax to grind. When Andres flees, or so the story goes, Scully will be there to catch him.
Despite all that, Leonard keeps the focus firmly on Moran and Mary, and this gives the danger presented by Scully’s plan real emotional heft. This couldn’t have been accomplished without the lengthy section in the book’s first half where Moran and Mary fall in love in the Dominican Republic, and this of course is further testament to Leonard’s craft. He trusts his readers to understand that without any emotional stakes in play the danger to Moran is strictly physical. It’s the emotional danger that sticks.
In the end, Moran makes a sacrifice that’s somehow satisfying, frustrating, and hopeful, all at the same time. That’s no easy feat. And I now see that it’s Leonard’s facility for this kind of thing that keeps this cynical romantic coming back for more.
(A word about that title. As with many of Leonard’s other books, the title Cat Chaser is more stylistic than meaningful. At the beginning of the book, Moran travels to the Dominican Republic. He saw combat there as a Marine in the 1960s, and was given the nickname “Cat Chaser” by Luci Palma, a 16-year-old female sniper he tangled with. Moran had always felt a connection with Palma, and his trip to the Domincan Republic was initially to track down Palma. He found Mary instead, and the rest is literary history.)
Read all my reviews at goldstarforrobotboy.net
Balancing the tension between cynicism and romanticism has sort of been the story of my life. My default position is to be skeptical and automatically assume the worst. Most of the time I figure the world (globally, locally, personally) is teetering on the brink of some catastrophe, and it’s not unusual for me to assume that I play a major role in the disaster (literal or metaphorical) to come. I often can’t escape my tendency to question the motives of others, but because self-loathing is the bedrock on which my personality is built, I always figure it’s because of something I’ve done. And when the concerns are bigger than me or are things in which I don’t play a direct role … well, in those cases the glass is never empty enough.
That would be a horrible, horrible way to live if I didn’t also feel a strong undercurrent of optimism and joy. It’s in the way I’m uplifted by music and books and film, in my unwavering belief in the importance of education, and in the way I can be moved to tears by simple acts of kindness and commercials about neglected animals. And of course I feel it every single day because I happen to be married to a woman whose generosity, enthusiasm, and good humor knows no bounds. And this is why, as much as I respond to art that is, as Nigel Tufnel would say, none more black, I really connect with work that manages to be both bleak and hopeful.
I figured this out as I was reading Elmore Leonard’s Cat Chaser. In past reviews I’ve focused on Leonard’s whip-smart dialogue and strategic use of violence, the long cons and borderline nihilism, but what I’d never actually realized until reading Cat Chaser – a satisfyingly straightforward book that’s as much romance as crime novel – is that all his male protagonists are love-struck doofuses who are, above all else, unrepentant romantics. His main characters are often men, but careful readers will notice that his women are where it’s at. The men are the actors, but they’re usually acting at the explicit or implicit behest of the women they’ve gone goofy for.
In all Leonard’s books I’ve read – a dozen or so at this point – this is no more obvious than it is in Cat Chaser. Moran runs a down-on-its-luck hotel in Miami, Florida, and he connects – and connects in a big way – with Mary, the wife of Andres, a deposed Dominican general who’s remade himself as an American gangster. Most of the first half of the book is the story of how Moran and Mary meet, quickly fall in love, and realize she needs to extricate herself from her hugely unsatisfying marriage. Running parallel with the central love story is a typically Leonardian con: Jiggs Scully, a small-time enforcer and debt collector who’s worked for Andres in the past, tries to talk Moran into swiping the money he knows Andres must have squirreled away in case his Dominican past catches up to him and he needs to flee.
The most fascinating thing about the way the story plays out is how Leonard manages to paint Moran as both protagonist and bystander. He ostensibly agrees to Scully’s plan, but he’s never particularly interested in it, and he definitely doesn’t want to get in trouble. He mainly wants to help Mary get out of her marriage – and to that end, his biggest role in the heist is to make sure his relationship with Mary isn’t collateral damage in Scully’s plot to get rich quick. As a result, most of the crime elements in Cat Chaser – minus an absolutely virtuoso scene at the book’s climax – take place without Moran. Scully tries to manipulate Andres into fleeing by sabotaging and vandalizing his mansion – actions he wants Andres to read as increasingly violent political statements perpetrated by Dominican immigrants with an ax to grind. When Andres flees, or so the story goes, Scully will be there to catch him.
Despite all that, Leonard keeps the focus firmly on Moran and Mary, and this gives the danger presented by Scully’s plan real emotional heft. This couldn’t have been accomplished without the lengthy section in the book’s first half where Moran and Mary fall in love in the Dominican Republic, and this of course is further testament to Leonard’s craft. He trusts his readers to understand that without any emotional stakes in play the danger to Moran is strictly physical. It’s the emotional danger that sticks.
In the end, Moran makes a sacrifice that’s somehow satisfying, frustrating, and hopeful, all at the same time. That’s no easy feat. And I now see that it’s Leonard’s facility for this kind of thing that keeps this cynical romantic coming back for more.
(A word about that title. As with many of Leonard’s other books, the title Cat Chaser is more stylistic than meaningful. At the beginning of the book, Moran travels to the Dominican Republic. He saw combat there as a Marine in the 1960s, and was given the nickname “Cat Chaser” by Luci Palma, a 16-year-old female sniper he tangled with. Moran had always felt a connection with Palma, and his trip to the Domincan Republic was initially to track down Palma. He found Mary instead, and the rest is literary history.)
Read all my reviews at goldstarforrobotboy.net
October 27, 2020
My first Leonard novel. Taut and fun.
August 20, 2021
Tight, macho prose, this novel winds away trying to keep you guessing who's double crossing who until it culminates in a finale so calm and violent that it seems almost nonchalant.
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