Available Formats
City Primeval
By (Author) Elmore Leonard
Penguin Books Ltd
Penguin Classics
28th January 2026
2nd October 2025
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Classic fiction: literary and general
Paperback
256
Width 130mm, Height 197mm, Spine 15mm
191g
'As gritty and hard-driving a thriller as you'll find . . . The action never stops, the language sings and stings' Washington Post Clement Mansell knows how easy it is to get away with murder. The crazed killer is back on the Detroit streets - thanks to some nifty courtroom moves by his lawyer - and this time he's feeling invincible enough to execute a crooked Motown judge. Homicide Detective Raymond Cruz thinks the 'Oklahoma Wildman' crossed the line long before this latest outrage, and he's determined to see that the psycho does not slip through the legal system's loopholes a second time. But that means a good cop is going to have to play somewhat fast and loose with the rules - in order to manoeuvre Mansell into a showdown that he won't be walking away from.
Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) began his long and extraordinary career as a writer of Westerns, most famously a story which was made into the film 3-10 To Yuma. He then became known for his remarkable sequence of crime novels, generally set in Michigan or Florida. A master of funny and threatening dialogue, his influence has been incalculable. Leonard received the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN US and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America.