Leonard takes the conventions of the traditional heist novel and combines them with the traditions of the romance.

The novel is also very cinematic; there are 96 quick scenes within the approximately 300 page novel. Dialogue and action carry the plot. There is minimal exposition, and even then in each scene the reader sees the action through a single character's point of view; Leonard's oeuvre has always insisted there be no authorial intrusion.

Leonard begins with the conventions of the crime genre, then confounds them.

As in much genre fiction for instance, many scenes in Out of Sight end with a question that demands a detailed answer.

Naturally the reader must read on to discover the answer to that question. This technique helps make some published novels into "page-turners." But Leonard does not work from an organized plot.

He likes to make the story up as he goes along. He...