When the Women Come to Dance
By Elmore Leonard

     This is an excellent collection of some of the works of Elmore Leonard. It consists of nine stories; some never-before published and the first time all have appeared in one place. There are very short pieces and two novellas.

     The subjects range from a wife who hires a Colombian maid for her underworld connections, to a stuntman who believes he is a curse to all women, to a washed-out baseball player.

     The scenes are set in the present crime world with the exception of one selection, which is set in the Old West.

     All stories are jewels. The characters are complex, developed in depth, giving both the good guys and the bad guys equal treatment. The dialogue is crisp. The settings are real. All stories are well-plotted with the actions and the characters believable.

     The anthology is evidence of why Leonard's works have uniformly received critical acclaim.