The stories in CHARLIE MARTZ AND OTHER STORIES, produced early in Elmore Leonard’s career, reveal a writer in transition. Here, he explores new voices and locations --- from the bars of small-town New Mexico and Michigan to a film set in Hollywood, a hotel in Southern Spain, even a military base in Kuala Lumpur. They also introduce us to classic Leonard characters, some of whom recur throughout the collection, such as aging lawman Charlie Martz and weary former matador Eladio Montoya.

Dangerously eccentric characters, razor-sharp black humor, brilliant dialog, and suspense all rolled into one tight package—that’s The Switch, Elmore Leonard’s classic tale of a kidnapping gone wrong…or terribly right, depending on how you look at it. 

U.S. Marshal Raylan Leonard, a dedicated, if somewhat trigger-happy lawman, finds himself in Harlan County, Kentucky, where the drug-dealing Crowe brothers are branching out into the human body parts business. 

In search of bigger challenges, documentary filmmaker Dara Barr arrives in Djibouti with her right-hand man, six-foot-six, 72-year-old African American seafarer Xavier LeBo, to film modern-day pirates hijacking merchant ships. But almost no one here is who he claims to be.