SOURCE: "Elmore Leonard: Splitting Images," in Western Humanities Review, Vol. XLI, No. 1, Spring, 1987, pp. 78-86.

In the following essay, Most examines Leonard's use of language and conventions of narrative and plot to illuminate the moral views of his readers.

Towards the beginning of Elmore Leonard's Split Images, a rather odd thing happens. A multi-millionaire named Robbie Daniels has shot and killed a Haitian refugee who has broken into his house in Palm Beach. This, unfortunately, seems not to be odd at all, at least not in Leonard's world. What is odd is what happens next. Gary Hammond, the young squad-car officer who questions Daniels, asks him whether the woman accompanying him had entered the house together with him, and the millionaire replies, "Yeah, but when I realized someone had broken in, the way the place was tossed, I told Miss Nolan, stay in the foyer and don't move...