REVIEW // `Rum Punch' is diluted // Leonard, but still fun

DATE                  08/09/92
NEWSPAPER             THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SECTION               SHOW
EDITION               MORNING
PAGE                  H15
STORY LENGTH          21 INCHES
HEADLINE               REVIEW // `Rum Punch' is diluted // Leonard, but still 
                         fun
BYLINE/CREDIT         Dan Froomkin:The Orange County Register
SUBJECT TERMS         BOOKS
  KEYWORD-HIT.
    When a new Elmore Leonard novel comes out, fans know they're in for
  another gripping and fast-paced look at the tough-talking seedy
  backside of society.
     The only question is, is it worth buying it in hardback, or can
  it wait until it comes out in paperback?
     "Rum Punch" (Bantam Doubleday Dell, $21) can wait; it's
  watered-down Leonard.
     Even when he misses, Leonard's dialogue and plots crackle better
  than most. But much as "Freaky Deaky" was no "Glitz," "Rum Punch"
  is not up to the standards of even "Maximum Bob," Leonard's
  previous novel.
     "Maximum Bob" was written after Leonard became enamored of a
  tough criminal-court judge and the worlds he had insight into.
  Similarly, "Rum Punch" introduces us into the world as seen by a
  hard-nosed bail-bondsman operating out of the cruddiest part of
  Palm Beach County, Fla.
     Maybe that's the problem. Bail-bondsmen aren't exactly the most
  exciting people around, even when they're bailing out gun-running
  homicidal drug-dealers. Bondsman Max Cherry is far from dull -- in
  fact, like many Leonard heroes, he is terrifically likable. Max is
  a poetry-loving ex-cop separated from his wife and working for a
  bunch of crooks. He comes complete with a sympathetic past and
  plenty of bravado.
     But Leonard fails at draping a plot around Max that is worth,
  well, $21.
     Some of the ingredients are there, however.
     The antagonists of the novel are two failed kidnappers, together
  again after one has finally gotten out of jail. Ordell Robbie is
  making a fortune with his gun-running scheme, but needs an
  associate, having just whacked his last one. Louis Gara, his
  three-time loser buddy, fits the bill.
     What brings these characters and Max Cherry together is a woman:
  Jackie Burke, herself a three-time loser -- but with husbands, not
  felonies.
     An aging flight attendant, Burke gets busted bringing in some of
  Ordell's loot from the Bahamas. Max bails her out, falls in love
  and the vastly complicated plot take off from there.
     "Rum Punch" has neither the big start nor the big finish of
  some of Leonard's best. Max Cherry is not his most compelling hero.
  That most of the protagonists are middle-age is a nice change, but
  it does slow things a bit.
     Yet Leonard's prose is never flat. So many other thriller
  writers throw long, wordy, soft descriptive passages into their
  stories that you're more than entitled to skip over them.
     That would be a mistake with Elmore.
     His writing is so fresh, his thinking so creative, that even
  minor characters, such as a burglar named Zorro whom Max is
  constantly bailing out, are people you've never seen before,
  complete with details that seem almost too bizarre to be made up.
     Zorro, for instance, hangs swords on the wall of his house. His
  kitchen is populated by knife-wielding women, and there are four
  televisions in his living room.
     And Leonard's ear for dialogue is, as always, dazzling.
     Talking about Zorro's latest bust, for burglary:
     Max: "You did what, about three months?"
     Zorro: "A little more."
     Max: "You're lucky, you know it? How many burglaries have you
  done?"
     Zorro: "I don't know. Maybe two hundred."
     Max: "I would think you'd be tired."
     "Rum Punch" is Leonard's 29th novel. Having sleepwalked through
  this one, maybe he'll be rested enough to make No. 30 another
  classic.

  `Rum Punch'
   Author: Elmore Leonard
   Info: Delacorte Press, 297 pages, $21