Detroit crime city

Peter Leonard, son of Elmore, writes crime novels that will remind you of his father's. His Trust Me is a briskly paced crime novel populated with a wealth of Detroit low lifes and strivers. The central character is Karen Delaney. She is shacked up with a Greek restaurant owner but harbors plans for revenge against a ex-lover. She gave him her life savings to invest which he kept when he kicked her out of the house. When a pair of dim witted criminals try to rob her current beau she hatches a plan to get back her money, and then a bit more.

Things of course go awry and then many people find themselves after the money. There are many characters, sometimes confusingly so, and most of them are in some sort of desperate situation. The level of violence, often quite casual, is greater than in the Elmore Leonard books, at least as I recall. The elder has his hard core killers, but this book features intelligence-challenged fools making a series of bad mistakes that tend to get them dead or badly hurt.

The Detroit in the book is a bleak place. While a few people live well (and in fear of crime) the majority live on the edge of ruin and seem to spend their time in casinos. Like the city, the characters are a damaged bunch. Don't read this if you like to have characters with whom you can completely sympathize. Do pick it up if you want a fast bracing crime story.