A widely praised and esteemed crime writer has passed away in his home in Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Elmore Leonard was 87 years of age when he passed away from a complications following a stroke. With 45 books, most of them crime novels, and numerous screenplays under his belt, Mr. Leonard was a very prolific and stylistic author.

Mr. Leonard’s last novel, Road Dogs, had a connection to Costa Rica. Just like the fictional town of El Rey in Mexico, a paradise for criminals that is part of the Quentin Tarantino universe, Mr. Leonard gave hope to one of his aging criminals by writing up a possible retirement to Costa Rica.

If there is one thing that Mr. Leonard learned from writing about the complex lives of the career criminals who came to life on the pages of this colorful novels, is that idle hands are truly the devil’s workshop. A few of his novels featured the suave and multifaceted bank robber Jack Foley, brought to the silver screen by acclaimed film director Steven Soderbergh and played by George Clooney. Jack Foley could not be inactive for long, he was always chasing that last score that will set him free from the criminal path, which was wearing him down as he got older.

Mr. Leonard never got worn down from writing. Road Dogs was published in 2009; here’s an excerpt from a synopsis by Robert Croan of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

In “Road Dogs,” he brings back Jack Foley, the celebrated bank robber who was played by George Clooney in the movie version of “Out of Sight.” Foley is back in prison after the incidents in that book.

Fellow inmate Cundo Rey (from “La Brava”), a Cuban murderer and con man who arranges to have Foley’s sentence reduced to three weeks…

…Foley, at least, starts out with good intentions. He would like to retire to Costa Rica, but is indebted to Rey to the tune of $30,000, for hiring the lawyer who had his sentence reduced.

Does Jack Foley make it down to Costa Rica to leave crime behind and settle in a small home near Playa Nosara? You’ll have to pick up Road Dogs and find out. There is a character from Costa Rica that Mr. Leonard created as well: Vincente Sandoval:

Twenty-one years of age, five-ten, one-sixty, eyes brown, looking devilish in his do-rag, one earring, gang tattoos from his youth. The Hardcore Gang Division brought him up four times on suspicion of felony homicide, one conviction; did three years for first-degree manslaughter, still in his serious teens.“In the L.A. area he’s known as Tico,” Deneweth said. “It’s not on his sheet where he’s from originally. I think Nicaragua, but I could be wrong. I’m thinking he has a green card or we’d of sent him back.”“What’s he do as a gang intervention worker?” 

Mr. Leonard always injected plenty of humanity to his characters, and in the case of Los Angeles police officers in Road Dogs, they are not the brightest bunch. Later we learn more about Tico Sandoval:

“Tico said, “You know my place of birth is Costa Rica? No, you didn’t, did you? You know my mother was born in the state of Arkansas? I think you knew it and forgot. It makes me also a citizen of the United States. I have a passport.”

Tico Sandoval and Jack Foley strike up a friendship in Road Dogs. Foley peppers Tico with questions about Costa Rica, and he gets some interesting advice about not investing in property, but rather squatting and taking advantage of the murky agrarian law and setting up a milpa (corn field) to cut down on trips to Auto Mercado for groceries. Foley is also concerned about volcanoes erupting, to which Tico answers:

“There lot of gringos living in Costa Rica, man. Live on a beach, live up in the mountains if you want. You like to go there?” “I’m thinking about it. Move there when I retire.” “When you stop robbing banks?”

“I’ve been reading up on Costa Rica. They don’t have revolutions anymore, they don’t even have an army. It’s the Switzerland of Central America.”

That is all that the Costa Rica Star will give you about Road Dogs. Could Mr. Leonard’s next novel could have taken place in Costa Rica, featuring a disillusioned Jack Foley trying to pull that elusive last score so that the can have some more money to continue living in one of the most expensive countries in Latin America? Sadly, we will never know. Mr. Leonard, R.I.P, is now in a place that is much nicer than Costa Rica or El Rey.