Mr. Majestyk

By: Elmore Leonard

Narrated by: Frank Muller

Length: 4 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Vincent Majestyk saw too much death in the jungles of Southeast Asia. All he wants to do now is farm his melons and forget. But peace can be an elusive commodity, even in the Arizona hinterlands - and especially when the local mob is calling all the shots. And one quiet, proud man's refusal to be strong-armed by a powerful hood is about to start a violent chain reaction that will leave Mr. Majestyk ruined, in shackles, and without a friend in the world - except for one tough and beautiful woman. But his tormentors never realized something about their mark: this is not his first war. Vince Majestyk knows more than they'll ever know about survival... and everything about revenge.

©1974 Elmore Leonard (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Whatever you call his novels, they always read like Elmore Leonard, distinctive in style and vision, brilliantly inventive in plot and characters." ( Los Angeles Times)

Couldn't put it down

I usually pick books that are at least 8 hrs long but I'm glad that I broke that rule with Mr Majestyk.
This was simply one of the most enjoyable books I've listened to in quite a while.

Leonard and Muller never disappoint

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Leonard's story and characters are always edgy and realistic. Muller's narration
brings the words to life.

Awesome read

great book and great read. Elmore is a master and every word counts. loved it.

A Modern Western

The dialogue makes the story. Frank Muller's narration is impeccable. Leonard and Muller are a match made on literary heaven. Don't hesitate.

I Loved Every Second Of This Story!

This was my first Elmore Leonard book that I've listened to and I can't wait to go through his entire collection now.

Great Story perfectly read by Frank Muller.

Elmore Leonard and Frank Muller: purrrrfection.

Faithful readers of mine will have heard me rave on at length about these two guys. I'm gonna do it again. Mr. Majestyk is both Leonard and Muller at the peaks of their careers, in the mid-70's. Both of them continued to do great work for several more decades. Mr. Majestyk appears in a later book by Leonard, when he is a seedy, broken down old judge in Detroit, if memory serves. In this book Vince Majestyk is a strong, brave, healthy young man who just wants to raise melons, have them picked by migrants and then sold to food brokers. His peaceful life is busted in on by gangsters who want him to use boozehounds to do the picking, rather than the skilled Mexican workers who follow ripening crops all over the country, earning enough money to send back to their families, but leading a nomadic, roaming life. Leonard sketches out his hero and several of the workers, in particular one very attractive young woman. It takes Leonard a few paragraphs to establish what lesser writers take chapters to accomplish. As I have quoted Leonard before, when asked why his books are so short, says, "I leave out the stuff that people don't read."
Mr. Majestyk resists the encroachment of these lowlifes onto his fields, and he soon runs afoul of one very fowl gangster, Frank Renda. The cat and mouse chase that the two men lead is so thrilling that you will genuinely have trouble stopping to do anything else before you finish this. THIS is why we read audiobooks.
Frank Muller was my favorite narrator for years, until he died, and then along came Edoardo Ballerini. Muller's voice is what we talk about when we say "mellifluous," that is, if we say that. His phrasing, pauses, voicing, nuances of individual characters: I could go on praising him for a long time. The book manages to be funny in addition to being everything else that it is. I won't spoil the ending, but you will probably see it coming from a mile away. The enjoyment is in the getting there. Majestyk's heroics are not overblown or cartoonish, although he does manage to off about a dozen bums in the book. The romance is very briefly sketched, but charming nonetheless. I was somewhere in the middle of about five books when I spotted this one: I dropped all the others and read this one start-to-finish without even thinking about the others. Not everything Leonard ever wrote was spectacularly good. A lot of it was. The same is true for Frank Muller. Once you have read Polar Star (please!) you will forgive Mr. Muller any lesser works, particularly since he is not the guy writing the books. The hit TV series Justified is based on a book by Leonard called Raylan. Any book involving Raylan Givens is well worth your time. I hope you have as much fun as I do with these gentlemen. It is a unique pleasure.

Elmore Leonard, at last.

Finally decided to try a book by Elmore Leonard, my father's all time favorite author. I have no idea what took me so long as I loved the book. My regret is that I didn't give him a try when my father was still alive, it would have been one more thing for us to share. I loved the book and the narrator and know I've found a source of many audio books to come.
I realized I love this author when I fell in love with Justified, what a wonderful series that is!

Warm and exciting story, great characters

What did you love best about Mr. Majestyk?

This book is timeless, and Frank Muller's wonderful voice is perfectly suited to Elmore Leonard's style and writing.

Have you listened to any of Frank Muller’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have sought out books performed by the late great Frank Muller, and discovered other authors this way. Mr. Majestyk is a classic.

Any additional comments?

This is one of those special books I will listen to again sometime.

Enjoyed it.

There was a couple audio glitches, but the story was good. A classic tale by Leonard.

freedom, courage, hope, dreams, woven into love .

narrator great, almost more than a story, but an inspiring slice of how I'd like to be, or become...