Just as musicians say Vivaldi wrote the same concerto 400 times, some critics argue that each Leonard novel is much the same as the last, that only the names change.

Readin' a Hap and Leonard novel.

I'd pictured a bit of time off, maybe a trip someplace cheap, where I could lounge in the sun and read the latest Elmore Leonard novel while sipping on a rum drink with a paper umbrella stuck in a piece of fruit.

So we've come a ways from earlier Leonard novels like "Stick" and "Labrava," where the heroes were macho men who slept with every woman who fell their way.

In fact, Judge Cohn was the winning bidder in a Michigan Opera Theater charity auction for the privilege of having his name used in a Leonard novel.

Mr. Frank says the Leonard novels seem, on the surface, easy to adapt because the dialogue is so colorful.

This film version lacks the brisk style of a Leonard novel and of the better film versions (including "Get Shorty").

Like "Get Shorty," this story has been adapted from a Leonard novel by Scott Frank, who knows exactly how to capture the writer's shrewd, hard-boiled style on screen.

Mr. Kidd jokes that the Leonard novel was picked by Coke for its title: "Be Cool."

A Leonard novel rarely unfolds in a straight dramatic line.