The Hot Kid Audiobook By Elmore Leonard cover art

The Hot Kid

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Hot Kid

By: Elmore Leonard
Narrated by: Arliss Howard
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $22.49

Buy for $22.49

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel
Carl Webster, the hot kid of the marshals service, is polite, respects his elders, and can shoot a man driving away in an Essex at 400 yards. Carl works out of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, federal courthouse during the 1930s, the period of America's most notorious bank robbers: Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson...those guys.

Carl wants to be America's most famous lawman. He shot his first felon when he was 15-years-old. With a Winchester.

Louly Brown loves Carl but wants the world to think she is Pretty Boy Floyd's girlfriend.

Tony Antonelli of True Detective magazine wants to write like Richard Harding Davis and wishes cute little Elodie wasn't a whore. She and Heidi and the girls work at Teddy's in Kansas City, where anything goes and the girls wear, what else, teddies.

Jack Belmont wants to rob banks, become public enemy number one, and show his dad, an oil millionaire, he can make it on his own.

With tommy guns, hot cars, speakeasies, cops and robbers, and a former lawman who believes in vigilante justice, all played out against the flapper period of gun molls and Prohibition, The Hot Kid is Elmore Leonard, a true master, at his best.

©2005 Elmore Leonard (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Crime Crime Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Hard-Boiled Historical Mystery Vigilante Justice Westerns Western For Kids

Critic reviews

  • 2005 Audie Award Nominee, Mystery

"The writing is pitch-perfect throughout....It's all pure Leonard, and that means it's pure terrific." (Publishers Weekly)
"As always, Leonard's prose seems effortless, his dialogue is perfect, and his humor is as dry as a moonshine martini....A terrific pleasure." (Booklist)
Engaging Characters • Historical Authenticity • Authentic Southern Accent • Colorful Dialogue • Masterful Storytelling
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
Elmore Leonard always writes interesting stories but it is the narration by Arliss Howard that makes this book. It is perfect!

Good story, Great narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I thought the story and performance dead on. Mr. Howard captures the Oklahoma accent and feel of the period. Well done.

it's hard to beat Leonard for colorful characters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

no

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator read the book in a flat monotone that left me looking for any excuse to stop listening and do something else. And, once I stopped I looked for any excuse not to get back to it. That's not typical of the way I listen to a good book. His style reminded me of Kevin Costner's emotionless and boring style of delivery. I think the story likely is a good one but it's hurt by the way it was read. I think I'd like the book more if I read the actual printed book.

Painfully dull narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
terrific characters in flawless pacing make this one of the best 30s gangster stories I've ever read. The only thing I would say is the interlude music is totally wrong, brassy 1950s style Big band. clearly the editor of this didn't know anything about music or history

excellent! 1930s story from a master

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story had some leaps in the plot that you just had to go along with. Its the first Elmore Leonard story I've encountered that wasn't set in contemporary Florida or Detroit. His focus on the details of dust-bowl Oklahoma sound real, with references to historic characters mixed with those in the story.

The protagonist was one dimensional. The narrator did a good job with different voices for the characters. His voice for the dim-witted antagonist sounded to me like a George W impersonation.

I'd recommend for a long drive -- where you won't focus on some of the leaps in the plot.

Popcorn for the Ears

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I've read the other reviews and a couple seem to be complaining about the reader's voice being 'boring'. I found the reader's style anything but boring! The characters are well developed and the story is skillfully crafted. What appear to be small details become important as the book moves along. Besides being a good story, it's an excellent period piece as well. This is the first book I've read by this author, but it won't be the last!

A Great Listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well written, good characterization and setting, well plotted story. The rather flat narration took awhile to get used to, but it matched the laconic nature of the story's protagonist, Carl Webster, the "Hot Kid" of the title.

Entertaining

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The main character in this audiobook is Carl Webster, the son of Virgil Webster, who just happens to be a supporting character in Elmore Leonard's other book, Cuba Libre. This is sort-of a sequel to that book, and it's written in the same style as that one. Some say it is simple and easy and some even say boring. But I like to think it is in the same pace of life as back in the early 1900's. More easy-going and simpler. But certainly not more innocent. Leonard is really great at getting inside characters of the lawful and the unlawful kind. Instead of mobsters and jaded cops, we have the US Marshalls against the infamous bank-robbers of the Roaring 20's, like John Dillenger, and Pretty Boy Floyd.
These books are really dialog-driven and if you give them a chance, you will really fall for these characters. You will root for Carl, who's a little bit of a show-off, who knows how to stare down a bad guy by looking directly in their eye and never turning his back, and who has a thing for 'gun molls'. As he extolls the virtues of staying in Tulsa with him, he seals the deal with the promise to Louly of "I'll take you out dancing". As she falls for him, you will also be smitten with these people and their 'easier' and 'simplier' time period.

one of my favorite audiobooks

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have either read or listened to many Elmore Leonard books. His terse, direct dialog driven narrative has always appealed to me on several levels. "The Hot Kid" impressed me more than any of Leonard's novels in recent memory. I think it's due to the set of characters being more rounded than often. All the primary ones have back stories, plus historical events and characters frequently move across the stage. Plus, there are one liners such as, "you can't live on oil," interspersed throughout the tale.

Additionally, the protagonist, Carl, could be seen as a prototype for Raylan Givens, both being unflappable US Marshals.

The narration fits the story perfectly. I really enjoyed this one.

Outstanding.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved the reader. I thought he gave an authentic interruption of the main character's personality and the times...slow and easy. I was fascinated by the easy acceptance of women engaged in prostitution as if it was just a temporary career choice until something better came along.

The Hot Kid (Unabridged)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews