I’m embrassingly late in joining the Elmore Leonard fan club.

To be fair, his body of work isn’t quite the cultural phenomena it was in the ‘80’s or ‘90s, which is a damn shame, because when it comes to no-bullshit, bone-dry, minimalist prose, Leonard stands almost bar-none. A third grader could enjoy his work just as thoroughly as an Ivy League professor. And that’s the beauty of it.

Check out his “ten rules for writing”, which should give you an idea of his style:

Never open a book with weather.
Avoid prologues.
Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said"…he admonished gravely.
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

Not sure if no. 9 makes sense 100% of the time… but I’m sure you get the picture.

Basically, he carved an entire legacy out of extricating the glib, the subcutaneous matter, anything that wasn’t 100% vital to the “heartbeat” of his stories, which typically involve some shotgun-wielding Miami loan shark, maybe a boozed-out private investigator or two, usually some Tony Montana-type anti-villain for good measure. Think Raymond Chandler meets Miami Vice with a slight touch of No Country For Old Men-era Cormac McCarthy.

Around 40 films and tv shows have been made from his stories, 95% of which are unfortunately skippable (see: Danny Devito and John Travolta in Get Shorty), but every once in a while someone nails it. (see: Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, adapted from Rum Punch)

Here are three of our favorite titles from the true king of the crime genre. Pick your poison.

Rum Punch

This story about a cash-smuggling flight attendant on the run from her gun-running boss formed the plot basis for Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. Better than the movie.