Djibouti

by Elmore Leonard

Overview

Documentary filmmaker Dara Barr is at the top of her game and looking for bigger challenges. That’s why she’s come to Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, with her right-hand man, six-foot-six, seventy-two-year-old African American seafarer Xavier LeBo, to film modern-day pirates hijacking merchant ships. But almost no one here is who he seems to be. Dijibouti’s most successful, Mercedes-driving pirate seems to be a good guy, while his pal, a cultured Saudi diplomat, has dubious connections. Texas billionaire Billy Wynn plays mysterious roles as the mood strikes him, especially when dealing with his nifty fashion model girlfriend, Helene. And then there’s Jama Raisuli, a black al Qaeda terrorist from Miami, who’s vowed to blow up something big.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061735219
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/18/2011
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	427,554
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

Elmore Leonard wrote more than forty books during his long career, including the bestsellers Raylan, Tishomingo Blues, Be Cool, Get Shorty, and Rum Punch, as well as the acclaimed collection When the Women Come Out to Dance, which was a New York Times Notable Book. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. The short story "Fire in the Hole," and three books, including Raylan, were the basis for the FX hit show Justified. Leonard received the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He died in 2013.

Hometown:

Bloomfield Village, Michigan

Date of Birth:

October 11, 1925

Place of Birth:

New Orleans, Louisiana

Education:

B.Ph., University of Detroit, 1950

Website:

http://www.elmoreleonard.com/

Editorial Reviews

…a book without a powerhouse plot but with plenty of the old familiar crackle…
—The New York Times

Janet Maslin

…an elaborately interlaced web of cons, crosses, goofs and intrigues; Djibouti, for all its travelogue aspects and newsy urgency, is not such a departure from the Leonard template after all. Everyone's an operator, the overall atmosphere is louche verging on alcoholic…and the principals gab, gab, gab in that meta-conscious, pop-savvy way to which Quentin Tarantino owes such a debt…It takes some hanging in there, but Djibouti winds up being a first-rate Leonard offering…
—The New York Times Book Review

David Kamp

In Djibouti, Leonard slyly shows us what the old man can still do.
—The Washington Post

Anna Mundow

Leonard (Road Dogs) goes exotic with this eventually killer story of contemporary piracy set on the horn of Africa. Dara Barr, a documentary filmmaker newly arrived in Djibouti to make a film about pirates as a follow-up to her Oscar-winning Katrina documentary, and Dara's savvy friend and fixer, Xavier, stumble into a thicket of intrigue before the two are on the open water. Rogues they encounter include a "whirlwind Texas entrepreneur" sailing around the world; a crooked diplomat in league with a charismatic pirate, both eyeing a payday; and a pair of kidnapped al-Qaeda operatives, one an American citizen with a bounty on his head. Everyone has an angle or two, and once the plots stumble through an awkward first third, Leonard's hallmark breakneck pacing, crackling dialogue, and scalpel-sharp prose kick in. Seasoned Leonard readers will see some grays poking through--this at times reads like a quite good imitation of an Elmore Leonard novel--but it still beats the pants off of most of the competition. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

In a major departure from his crime novels set in Detroit, Miami, and Los Angeles, octogenarian Grand Master Leonard (www.elmoreleonard.com) here tackles East Africa. Documentary filmmaker Dara Barr travels to Djibouti to make a film about modern-day pirates operating out of Somalia. Cognizant of the dangers involved, she nonetheless stumbles into a deadly plot. As always with Leonard, there are colorful characters—e.g., an elderly New Orleans seaman, a Texas billionaire, and an American al Qaeda terrorist—though Barr herself remains rather vague. More adept at style and mood than plot, Leonard takes too long to get things going. The slack pace, however, is energized by the narration of Tim Cain (I, Alex Cross), who employs a plethora of authentic-sounding multicultural accents. Recommended for Leonard aficionados and those looking for unusual treatments of terrorism. [Leonard "really cooks with gas here," read the review of the New York Times best-selling Morrow hc, LJ Xpress Reviews, 9/16/10.—Ed.]—Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr. Lib.

Library Journal

Leonard's company of stock character types—the veteran law enforcer, the savvy professional woman, the seen-it-all sidekick, the horny billionaire—are so cool that they can confront international terrorism without batting an eyelash.

Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Dara Barr wants to make a new film about Somali pirates. Along with her grizzled factotum Xavier LeBo, she rents a boat and cruises the Horn of Africa looking for seafarers on every side of the law. While she's chatting them up and filming them, the Gold Dust Twins—Ari Ahmed Sheikh Bakar, aka Harry, and American-educated pirate Idris Mohammed—are scouring the area for terrorists, and billionaire Billy Wynn is in the neighborhood test-driving his latest girlfriend to see if Helene is up to the rigors of a topless sea voyage. The cast spends quite a while checking each other out—an extended period that will delight fans of Leonard (Road Dogs, 2009, etc.) and drive everyone else crazy—because they don't know that the catalyst of all the action has yet to make an appearance. He's Jama Raisuli, an American Muslim who together with noted al-Qaeda operative Qasim al Salah is removed from the tanker Aphrodite just after they succeeded in hiding enough phone-activated explosives aboard to blow the ship and its load of natural gas to kingdom come. When Jama escapes from his laughably incompetent Somali jailers, the countdown to Armageddon begins. Jama is determined to wreak enough havoc to make the strategic port of Djibouti a distant memory; Billy, convinced that the Aphrodite is doomed, is bent on destroying it himself well out of the port's range; Dara, realizing that Jama is executing everyone who knows that he was born James Russell, keeps filming while she awaits his inevitable approach; and Helene continues to suck up the salt air so that Billy won't have any excuse to put her ashore and move on to the next lovely spousal candidate.

Not your father's anti-terrorism yarn. Leonard's characters make James Bond look fidgety.

Kirkus Reviews