Djibouti »

After 30 years writing westerns and crime novels, Elmore Leonard finally started to get somewhere. "Author Discovered After 23 Books," The New York Times said in 1983, referring to his Edgar Award-winning novel LaBrava. Since then, Leonard's tack-sharp dialogue and comic underworld characters have been drawing accolades and an ever growing base of fans.

New York Times bestselling author Elmore Leonard brings his trademark wit and inimitable style to this twisting, gripping—and sometimes playful—tale of modern-day piracy

Dara Barr, documentary filmmaker, is at the top of her game. Looking for a bigger challenge, Dara and her right-hand-man, Xavier LeBo, head to Djibouti to film modern-day pirates hijacking merchant ships.

They learn soon enough that almost no one in the Middle East is who he seems to be. The most successful pirate, driving his Mercedes around Djibouti, appears to be a good guy, but his pal, a cultured Saudi diplomat, has dubious connections. Billy Wynn, a Texas billionaire, plays mysterious roles as the mood strikes him. And there's Jama Raisuli, a black al Qaeda terrorist from Miami, who's vowed to blow up something big. What Dara and Xavier have to decide, besides the best way to stay alive: Should they shoot the action as a documentary or turn it into a Hollywood feature film?

The New York Times Book Review - David Kamp

…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…