Pronto Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B0045XSVHW | Format: PDF
Pronto Description
The feds want Miami bookmaker Harry Arno to squeal on his wiseguy boss. So they're putting word out on the street that Arno's skimming profits from "Jimmy Cap" Capotorto - which he is, but everybody does it. He was planning to retire to Italy someday anyway, so Harry figures now's a good time to get lost.
U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens knows Harry's tricky - the bookie ditched him once in an airport while in the marshal's custody - but not careful. So Raylan's determined to find the fugitive's Italian hideaway before a cold-blooded Sicilian "Zip" does and whacks Arno for fun. After all, it's a "pride thing"...and it might even put Raylan in good stead with Harry's sexy ex-stripper girlfriend Joyce.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 5 hours and 57 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Audible.com Release Date: October 5, 2010
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B0045XSVHW
PRONTO by Elmore Leonard is a joyride of a story about Harry Arno, an over the hills Miami bookmaker. Harry plans to retire in Italy on money he skimmed from his corpulent mob boss, Jimmy "Cap" Capotorto. The feds want Jimmy Cap so they set up Harry to give information about Cap's activities by putting out the word about his skimming activities. An assassin is sent to get Harry but he's faster with a gun. In a final jab at the law, before he skips town, Harry gives the slip to U. S. Marshal Raylan Givens for the second time since they first met six years ago. In addition, "Zip", another mob affiliate, wants to take over Harry's action, so he tells Cap that he'll take out Harry in Italy. Consequently, Harry has so many people following him that the small village of Rapallo, Italy, becomes inundated with U. S. mobsters and federal agents plus Harry's old girlfriend, ex-stripper, Joyce. During all of these events, the sixty-six year old Harry starts drinking seriously again which causes the situation to deteriorate fast. Harry is in real danger of losing his life, as are several of the other players.
Leonard wrote twenty-three books before being discovered by the bestseller market in l983, the year LA BRAVA was published and won the Edgar Award. In l953, his first novel, THE BOUNTY HUNTERS, was published, but the market for westerns began to dry up. Leonard is best known for his crime novels.
All of the characters in PRONTO are drawn with clarity and colors so vivid the reader would know each one if he or she ran into them on the street. U. S. Marshal Raylan Givens is a fast-draw cowboy of the Old West variety. His cream cowboy hat bobbing aloft alerts readers to his entry in any combat zone.
Harry Arno, a bookie in Miami, quietly lives the good life with a sometime girlfriend, Joyce Patton. He's skimmed money from the top of his operation without the knowledge of his boss, Jimmy "Cap" Capotorto, for years and has managed to salt away nearly a cool million toward his retirement. If everything had gone the way Harry had wanted, he would have retired and moved to Rapallo, Italy, where he once saw and briefly talked to the poet, Ezra Pound. Harry was in the army at the time, and Pound was incarcerated. That was also the first time Harry killed a man. Things go sour for Harry when the Justice Department sets him up by having a snitch tell Jimmy Cap that Harry has been skimming. Everybody knows bookies skim, but nobody's supposed to be able to prove it. The Justice Department figures that Jimmy Cap will try to have Harry killed, which will force Harry to ask for witness protection and turn evidence against Jimmy Cap. Harry remains optimistic about working things out-until he has to kill a gunman sent by Jimmy Cap. United States Marshal Raylan Givens is sent to protect Harry and try to get him to come in. Raylan has a past with Harry: six years ago Raylan was escorting Harry to a court date in Chicago when Harry gave him the slip in the Atlanta airport. Raylan is an old West kind of marshal, the kind who always gets his man, so bringing Harry in this time is kind of a point of honor thing and an attempt to clean his blemished record. So when Harry gives Raylan the slip again and disappears off to Rapallo, Italy, the marshal feels compelled to go after him-even if it means stepping into the line of fire of Tommy Bitonti, Jimmy Cap's main enforcer. Tommy Bitonti-also called Tommy Bucks and the Zip-has his own axe to grind.
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