Swag

By: Elmore Leonard

Narrated by: Frank Muller

This "brilliant caper" (New York Times) from bestselling author Elmore Leonard is a rollicking tale of modern urban crime featuring a cast of small-time criminals with big-time dreams.

Ernest Stickley Jr. figures his luck's about to change when Detroit used-car salesman Frank Ryan catches him trying to boost a ride from Ryan's lot. Frank's got some surefire schemes for getting rich quick—all of them involving guns—and all Stickley has to do is follow "Ryan's Rules" to share the wealth.

But sometimes rules need to be bent, maybe even broken to succeed in the world of crime, especially when the "brains" of the operation knows less than nothing.

Hang in there

I almost bailed after a few chapters, the beginning third or so is over-long, not edited to contemporary standards, but it’s in keeping with the decade it was written in, which sort of contributes something to the charm. It does gain momentum and get more interesting later on. Character development is great and the narrator does a great job in my opinion. Recommended, especially if you’ve ever harbored fantasies of quoting your day job and becoming a career criminal. Enjoy!

Not the top Leonard, but Muller still rocks.

Swag is the story of Ernest Stickley, Stick, and Frank Ryan. Yes, that's right, Frank and Ernest. These two guys rob 32 stores in three months, and think it's easy. Then they get together with a hustler named Sportree and his sidekick Leon Woody, and the four of them plus a guy named Bobby Ruiz, and they plan a robbery of J.L. Hudson, one of the largest department stores in Detroit. The robbery goes badly wrong, with a witness and Bobby Ruiz dying. The noose begins to tighten on Frank and Ernest. Both of them have been romancing several "career girls" in the apartment complex they live in. They party hearty. Stolen money and booze fuels a lifestyle which they love, but Stick wants out, knowing that the ride has to stop sometime. Leonard is not at his absolute best here, but, again, the combination of the two of these guys, Leonard and Muller, is just plain fun. Along the way Stick has to kill four guys, which is clearly not what he has intended at all. Stick is a recurring character, with a book named after him, and we know that he is not a killer, actually just a lost man who gets pulled in very easily. Once again the pace quickens as only Leonard and Muller can rev it up. I won't spoil the end. If you listen to the book, you'll love it. Leonard always leaves you wanting more.

Riveting: Quinten Tarantino before there was Quentin Tarantino

This is an excellent novel that builds a lot of tension, character plot, dialogue and has a great use of social realism.

Elmore Leonard has ver multi layered characters and he knows how to create stories with really good endings that doesn’t seem very cliché and predictable.

The story never feels like it drags, sometimes I have to read sections over and over to make sure I understand it and I was happy that I was able to make time to finish this great novel. I do think for people who want to study dialogue, pacing and how to write characters that are very deep with very minimal description, this is a great book to study.

This is a great novel about morality, friendship, living life on the edge, human desire of wanting to trust people and live and break your own rules. It very well captures adult relationships and betrayals very well while its subject matter is more of a body and a heist story, it still has very emotional impact.

Frank Mueller is extremely excellent in his narration and he does it in a way that is very realistic, he does not put in his own creative touch to a point where it’s obnoxious like when I read the narration for the invisible man by a different reader. I do think that he knows how to read very well and match the pacing of the story and match the actions in the book, an excellent articulator of the Elmore Leonard stories. A buying point for any Audible Elmore Leonard book is Frank Mueller’s reading of it.

This story was really good!

Simple story, colorfully told about characters you don't necessarily love or hate, but you like them all enough that you want to know where to send their Birthday Cards, whether it's prison or some remote town in Mexico.

Frank Muller is fantastic.

Enjoy a different lifestyle

If you want to live the life of a small time criminal, read Swag. The ending was slightly disappointing but all the preceding story and dialogue seemed believable. Worth a read.