SOURCE: "Bad, Bad Buddies," in Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 11, 1993, p. 7.

In the following review, Abrams offers a favorable assessment of Save Me, Joe Louis.

When two guys with criminal tendencies go skidding across the country like a souped-up car with bad brakes and a bald set of tires, bad things are bound to happen. Talk about that American pastime, random violence—Save Me, Joe Louis has got it: shotgun killings, baseball-bat mayhem and what may be the only armed robbery ever committed to save a captured fox. It is the perfect vehicle for a sociopathic buddy movie—Thelma and Louise without the extenuating circumstances.

That said, it must be stressed that Madison Smartt Bell's latest novel is richer in subtlety and nuance and a lot less romantic than might be expected in a genre that thrives on bold strokes and the frequent glorification of hard cases...