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Elmore Leonard
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City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit (G. K. Hall (Large Print)) Hardcover – January 1, 1986

by Elmore Leonard (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,307 ratings
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Book by Elmore Leonard
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Previous page
  1. Part of series
    Elmore Leonard Library
  2. Print length
    350 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    G. K. Hall
  5. Publication date
    January 1, 1986
  6. ISBN-10
    0816139482
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0816139484
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ G. K. Hall; Large Print edition (January 1, 1986)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 350 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0816139482
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0816139484
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.7 ounces
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,307 ratings

About the author

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Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard

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Elmore Leonard wrote forty-five novels and nearly as many western and crime short stories across his highly successful career that spanned more than six decades. Some of his bestsellers include Road Dogs, Up in Honey’s Room, The Hot Kid, Mr. Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, and the critically acclaimed collection of short stories Fire in the Hole. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty, Out of Sight, and Rum Punch, which became Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. Justified, the hit series from FX, is based on Leonard’s character Raylan Givens, who appears in Riding the Rap, Pronto, Raylan and the short story “Fire in the Hole”. He was a recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA, and the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America. He was known to many as the ‘Dickens of Detroit’ and was a long-time resident of the Detroit area.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
1,307 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Glenn Linsinbigler
5.0 out of 5 stars City Primeval--the best Leonard ever wrote.An Absolute must read
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2016
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Absolutely the best book Elmore Leonard ever wrote. The first 2 chapters are the best opening chapters I have ever read and I've read alot. In the matter of Judge Alvin Guy draws you right in. All of the characters are believable.The opening 2 chapters are so true and they show the racism of blacks and whites together. However the story is not about racism. It is about investigating a murder and a scam and how the Detective, in this case Cruz, has a grudge he has been carrying for the criminal for sometime and how that leads to forcing a showdown.
Cruz is well developed and the scene where he is being interviewed is so believable it makes you cringe and yet laugh too. Every guy who has been accused of not being sensitive or open and communicative by their wife or girlfriend will recognize it in a minute. The bad guy from Oklahoma is spot on a perfect character developed to the extreme. The opening chapters should be used in every writer's workshop in the USA.-It grabs you with real characters and real true to life scenes.Cruz was introduced before Raylan but they both are very similar. I think Leonard used attributes that Cruz had and carried them over to create Raylan Givens. Cruz was too good of a character to kill off altogether so voila he created Raylan Givens. The dialouge is perfect and the story moves right along. Loved this book. Others that you should read are Split Images, 52 pick up and Swag. All have great characters and stories-but City Primeval is the best ever. Anyone aspiring to be a writer should read this book and especially the opening 2 chapters.
39 people found this helpful
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Richard Weter
4.0 out of 5 stars Primeval coward
Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2023
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Kill when he feels like it and has the upper hand. Despite all his bluster he was afraid that if it came down to a fight of any kind he might loose. Currently watching Justified Primeval Dinner. It is not the original Justified but hopes are high for a good ending. Leonard’s books are always worth reading.
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Richard B. Schwartz
5.0 out of 5 stars The Touch of the Master
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2015
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This is early EL crime fiction: 1980. Set in his home city of Detroit, it concerns an Oklahoma lowlife named Clement Mansell and the police detective, Ray Cruz, who is out to end Mansell's career, literally. As the subtitle suggests, this is high noon in Detroit, not the beginning of a protracted court battle and an endless series of appeals.

The story begins with Mansell's killing a corrupt, highly unpopular local judge. Unfortunately, the gun which he uses is the same gun attached to some earlier murders. Clement instructs his girl friend to dispose of it, but the ditz--Sandy Stanton--hands it off to another lowlife for safe keeping, a decision that will come back to bite Clement in the posterior.

If EL's crime fiction can be superficially divided into the comic (Get Shorty, e.g.) and the serious (Killshot, e.g.), this is more serious, though Sandy is a character who could inhabit either of EL's universes.

The plot is complex but not unnecessarily convoluted and we have a host of interesting side characters, including some very tough Albanians (who Clement keeps describing as undertakers, because of their black suits). The dialogue is excellent if not yet the exquisite instrument that it will become. There are still some lovely one liners, nonce words and laugh-out-loud sentences, blissfully free of adverbs.

We read EL because he is a master of crime fiction and, quite simply, a master of fiction. He should be treated as a major figure in American letters. He was clearly influenced by Hemingway, as was a whole generation and beyond, but his total output, the variety within that output (he is a great writer of westerns), his stunning percentage of movie sales, many of which resulted in good films, put him among the principal writers of the American pantheon. R.I.P. and thanks for the legacy.

For an excellent example of the master at the beginning of his crime writing career, City Primeval is superb.
30 people found this helpful
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David Knapp
5.0 out of 5 stars Unbeatable
Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2023
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One of Leonard's best. No other crime writer comes close: John Sandford can see his dust in the distance, all others are out of sight. Every character is real, every zig and zag in the plot inevitable and still surprising. Great literary novelists write about the human predicament; Elmore Leonard writes about specific people and the jams they get themselves into, and nobody has done it better.
11 people found this helpful
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Ricia
3.0 out of 5 stars It's Okay
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2013
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I purchased this book because of its reviews--it was ranked as one of the best murder mysteries written by Elmore Leonard. I found his prose to be exceptional, with descriptions and dialogue that made me feel like I was right there, experiencing the events described while they were unfolding.

However, there were too many coincidences and circumstances shaping the plot that I did not find to be plausible.
4 people found this helpful
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Fivethirtytwo
4.0 out of 5 stars cracking dialogue
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2023
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I liked the Detroit locale, many of the streets and buildings are familiar. It was a very fast read, the story moves very quickly.
One person found this helpful
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Graggy
5.0 out of 5 stars City Primeval
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2023
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great read. I purchased this after seeing the tv show, Justified, City Primeval.
wanted to see the comparisons.
It had many similarities, and differences, but I found I liked them both as they were written and done.
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars City Primeval.
Reviewed in Canada on April 18, 2024
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Excellent crime thriller from the master.
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Mark H
4.0 out of 5 stars Classic
Reviewed in Canada on May 3, 2020
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It feels a bit dated, but in this case it’s a good thing. It just gives it a grittiness and a 1970s jive that you don’t often see in books. Of course it features Leonards great writing so that’s awesome to, cool characters, great dialogue
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Stogies
5.0 out of 5 stars Mean streets, Mean People and Mean Writing.
Reviewed in Canada on November 21, 2013
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If you can get your hands on the news piece Elmore Leonard did as research for this, get it. It's about five pages of him riding around with the Detroit Police Murder squad and it gives you snapshot of a time and place that must have inspired this book. It's not an era you'd want to hang around in but it's sure fun to visit. City Primeval marks the shift that Leonard made when moving into gritty crime fiction and it's dynamite. Of course, you have to like this type of story-telling. It's a character driven, dialogue soaked swagger through Detroit. When people talk, you believe it. When people kill someone it rings true. It's not a thriller and it's not plot driven by plans to take over the world. Nobody is a green beret ex-ninja assassin and there are no nuclear bombs to diffuse. Leonard creates believable people and then let's them loose. We get to watch.

It's lean and mean writing. A switchblade in your boot and a 38 special in the glove compartment. Trouble awaits.
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Len
4.0 out of 5 stars A fun read full of cliches and surprises.
Reviewed in Canada on September 6, 2014
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Mr. Leonard’s transition from the Western genre is both full of clichés and surprises. Raymond Cruz is your cowboy like tough independent cop who seeks his own justice when the system’s justice fails. His nemesis, Clement Mansell, is an unrepentant killer who feeds on the innocence of young women, intimidates and exploits the fears of the upstanding citizen and seeks vengeance who do him the most inconsequential offence. He must be stopped and Raymond Cruz is the perfect man for the job.
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William Backman
5.0 out of 5 stars Leonard is the best
Reviewed in Canada on April 5, 2022
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Terse detail - real dialogue- engaging action
Words ! Talk ! Plot !
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