Sweet Dreams

In this overly ambitious crime novel from Leonard (Unknown Remains), Kate McGraw, a deputy U.S. marshal known as “Quick Draw” for her prowess with firearms, pursues a bank robber who has hit six Detroit banks in two month. The police have dubbed the culprit “the Shooter” for his “propensity to fire his weapon to gain control of the situation once he’s inside the bank.” McGraw gets an improbable break when her father, Frank Galvin, who abandoned her at the age of six, reappears. Galvin reveals that he has just been released from prison after serving 18 years for armed robbery—and that he knows the Shooter’s identity. Galvin claims his daughter’s quarry is Ray Skinner, with whom he carried out robberies before his incarceration. While the search for Skinner and an accomplice continues, McGraw must safeguard a federal judge who’s the target of white supremacists, a plot that only dilutes the suspense of the main plot. Underdeveloped characters and uninspired prose are other negatives. Leonard has a ways to go before he’s out of the shadow cast by his father, the legendary crime writer Elmore Leonard. Agent: Jeffrey Posternak, Wylie Agency. (Sept.)