Swag: Jack Ryan Series, Book 2
(Libby/OverDrive eBook)

Even though one of Leonard's more memorable characters, Ernest Stickley Jr. is introduced in Swag and continues his adventures in Stick, and there's a world of difference between the two. In Swag, "Stick" meets Frank, a Detroit used car salesman who has decided that armed robbery is an easy way to make a living. Between dull jobs that seem impossibly easy, our pair seduce equally bored women. Finally, the big job comes, and they violate the rules with predictable results. Stick continues Stick's adventures after prison and changes the locale to Florida's gold coast, where Stick tries to go straight. He chauffeurs for a hotshot stock broker who juggles a wife, a mistress, and an attractive investment analyst. Stick gets involved with all three while crossing the paths of some big-time drug dealers who try to get rid of him. At the same time, he's mastering a new career. Stick manages to play his adversaries against one another. Here's the skinny: Leonard misses the mark with Swag but is right on target with Stick. Narrator Frank Muller, perhaps inspired by the material, does far better with Stick as well. Skip Swag and put your money on Stick if you want to please the action-adventure crowd.‘James Dudley, Copiague, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Teaming up as business partners are car salesman Frank Ryan and Ernest Stickley, Jr., the unemployed cement-truck driver who had the gall to rip him off right on the lot. Their new venture--armed robbery--proves to be ""a pretty interesting way to make a living"" for a while. Knocking off liquor stores and supermarkets leaves them plenty of free time to mix with the chicks in their swingles building. However hitting Detroit's biggest department store turns out to be a different matter altogether. . . especially since Frank enlists some black helpers, thereby violating a number of his own ""roles for success and happiness."" Flat and familiar--a Fifty-Two Pickup letdown. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.