The Switch by Elmore Leonard

JetBlackDragonfly
Sep 9
2 min read

Elmore Leonard is a master at heists and cons. This rollicking 1978 caper has a deep vibe of foxy ladies, a little weed, and green leisure suits. Leonard carried the criminals from this into another novel, Rum Punch, filmed by Quentin Tarantino as Jackie Brown, starring quintessential '70s badass Pam Grier.

Mickey Dawson is a frustrated country club housewife tired of her husband Frank, a shady Detroit real estate developer who cares more about his golf scores and white Mark V (washed daily). Drunk and angry as usual, he leaves on business to Grand Bahama Island, dropping their teenage son to her parents in Fort Lauderdale.

Louis and Ordell are two conniving tricksters who met in jail. Cruising around in Ordell's custom van with swivel captain's chairs, listening to electrofunk and smoking weed, they hatch a plan. Ordell met Frank when he sold him stolen appliances for the rundown apartments he rents to pimps and prostitutes with income off the books, and knows Frank has been socking away $50,000 a month in a Freeport bank. He could easily afford a million-dollar ransom for his wife. While she is alone, they kidnap Mickey and hold her in the home of a friend, an unbalanced security guard with a collection of revolvers, shotguns and Nazi memorabilia. The problem? Frank filed for divorce before he left and is living high in the Bahamas with his girlfriend, Melanie. He doesn't want Mickey back.

Ordell goes to the Bahamas and works with Melanie to get something out of Frank, while Louis befriends Mickey, who knows Frank won't pay. The easiest thing is to let her go—but this is the best thing that's happened in a long while. She is tired of playing nicey-nice; she doesn't want to go home.

Double-crosses and plot twists abound in this comic thriller. The fast pace and groovy vibe does become introspectively slower in the last 50 pages as Mickey ruminates on marriage and her future. Now that she knows of the Bahamian money, she can plot a scheme of her own.

Set in the late '70s, there is casual racist language (and sexist if you count whores in hot pants), but this has the funky tint of grime you are looking for.

This was updated in the 2013 film Life of Crime starring Jennifer Aniston. It was once set with Diane Keaton, but at the time, the plot was too similar to Ruthless People.

Recommended for those who love classic capers.

1978 / Paperback / 216 pages