Riding the Rap, by Elmore Leonard (Penguin, £5.99 in UK)

It begins innocuously enough with a fugitive arrested by accident on a drinks driving charge. But isn't that how he gets you hooked that, deceptively simple opening a single image, a casual conversation? And then, before you know it, the fugitive's federal escort's girlfriend's alcoholic ex-boyfriend has been kidnapped and is being held to ransom by a guy who's supposed to owe him money and, and, and Elmore Leonard, is a class act. Who else would, create a villain called Louis Lewis, a stop at nothing thug who nevertheless disapproves of microwave dinners and who, even as his colleague is dragging a body down the stairs, leaving a trail of bloodstains on the carpet, is explaining that he acquired a taste for okra and butter beans while learning to be African American "it's part of our culture"? Who else could spin a yarn as smooth as silk while dropping bombshells one after another into the narrative? Well here he is doing it again.