Enter Jackie Nevada

The DirecTV guide description of last week's Justified episode "Money Trap" pretty much says it all:

"Raylan finds himself caught between a foxy grifter and an old nemesis out for revenge..."

Just how Elmore Leonard drew it up. In fact, much of this particular hour was lifted from Raylan, the novel. It includes the long-awaited introduction of Jackie Nevada, the card-shark Butler grad whose sense for banter and nostalgia belies her years on this earth. Her character comes across better on paper than on the show, but it doesn't make her any less attractive.

Jackie is the daughter of professional poker player Reno Nevada, and was almost named "Sierra," which of course leads to some witty back-and-forth with Raylan. She's another one of Elmore Leonard's dark-haired pistols. After all, it was J Lo who played Karen Sisco in Out Of Sight. And it was the very underrated Carla Gugino who played Sisco in the short-lived TV series.

So Jackie is going to be the next one on the "merry-go-round" with Raylan, who seems to attract women with a certain moral flexibility and colorful vocabulary.

The other show-runner from the DirecTV description was the "old nemesis out for revenge." This storyline was so memorable from the book that I thought I had seen the first-run episode before.

Jody, a killer fugitive on the run, fresh off killing two bounty hunters, enlisted the help of a low-rent porn director to find the money he stashed (that Jackie Nevada ran off with), and take out Raylan in the process.

In fact Jody and Kenneth (Kennet') make a sharply-produced video to call out Raylan, who watched it with wide eyes. Raylan and Jody  have their showdown in Raylan's home bar and Raylan pumps him full of bullets.

Jackie of course happens upon the scene while Raylan's gun is still smoking, and of course it doesn't faze her. This sort of action plays better in the book, but it's all very true to the author's vision.

Justified Season 4: The Search For Truth

The season premiere of Justified took a little bit of a turn. It was more like a day in the life of Deputy U.S. Marshal (and unauthorized free-lance bounty hunter) Raylan Givens. Nothing seems more natural than Raylan walking on a Harlan County sidewalk, carrying some keepsakes in a Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale crate.

He collared a fugitive by discharging his weapon to activate a steering wheel airbag, got his car stolen with the aforementioned fugitive in the trunk, and confronted Daddy Arlo in the pen. Boyd blew up a car, a hooker shot a john in a bear costume, and old Arlo shanked a guy in the joint.

It was a very entertaining hour for the second-best show on TV (ahead of Mad Men, but still behind the king). The season premiere didn't offer up too much in the way of a criminal mastermind like Mags Bennett, or a sinister samurai like Robert Quarles, or a brash angle-player like Wynn Duffy. But there were some serious show runners revealed.

First there was the unearthed Panamanian diplomatic bag, linked to a 30-year old botched coke drop, with the mysterious drivers license name Waldo Truth. And then there was the snake-handling religious revivalist, looking to snake away (see what I did there?) Boyd's oxy clientele. Expect everything to converge with some three-way shootout before the end of the season.

As always the dialogue was top-notch, as you would expect from characters drawn from Elmore Leonard. Boyd Crowder's vocabulary goes a little over the top, but the characters are all so well-drawn it is very forgivable. One thing the show was missing was the byplay with Raylan's boss Art Mullen, who didn't appear in this episode.

And Raylan's work "off the books" for cash is bound to have some consequences. A straight-arrow detective doesn't get ratings or sell as many novels as our favorite flawed lawman.

Paper Backtime: Raylan

Finally. It only took 6 weeks. Not that Raylan didn't move, it could've been polished off in 2 days. But getting your book ingestion done isn't about what you read as much as where you read. I haven't been in a school car pick-up lane or in the upright-and-locked position on a plane awaiting takeoff in months.

So while I've been consumed with family activities and feeding this site with dime store opinions, I inched through the latest Elmore Leonard novel - a sturdy companion to the great TV series Justified.

The book is kind of like a TV series in itself, a collection of situations in which our favorite Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens finds himself. There is no over-arching master-criminal like a Mags Bennett or a Robert Quarles on which a given season of the TV series hinges upon.

And the satellite characters aren't really developed, by design. Ava and Winona make brief appearances, and there's backstory, but they don't figure into any of the storylines. Boyd Crowder has a role, but it's more as mining company exec lady's right-hand man, than as Raylan's best "frenemy."

Raylan's conversations with his boss Art Mullen are still priceless.

The characters that are best-drawn are the series of criminals and fugitives that are all clever enough to have some success, but stupid enough to try to get around or through Raylan:

Dickie and Coover Crowe (Bennetts in the TV series), brain-dead sons of Pervis Crowe (the Mags Bennett-type) and bumbling pot dealers.

Layla, the cold-blooded OR nurse that cuts out kidneys in hotel bathtubs and sells them back to the victims as parts.

Delroy, the strip club owner who gets his girls pumped up on oxy to rob banks.

Elmore Leonard is an equal opportunity portrayer of bad guys. Man, woman, rich, poor, white, black, or other - they all fit in Harlan County, Kentucky. And the writer's top-notch dialogue makes them all engaging enough.

Raylan is just as quick-triggered as we know and love, putting down criminals or blasting the hat off some thug muscle just to make a point. And as far as the borderline women go who tempt Raylan, he stays all-business. Strike that, rather primarily business.

There's Jackie Nevada, the 23-year old college poker phenom who skips on the cops after she loses 20 Grand at a raided card game before she winds up on Raylan's radar, makes all her money back and a whole lot more, and gets Raylan to...

THE END

Backtime Road Trip Day 2: Sea of Tranquility

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to do the math.

Here's the equation:

(1 tired Dad - 2 Kids dropped at in-laws + 1 hotel room + 2 shades drawn + 1 Do Not Disturb sign + 1 Melatonin) = 11 hours of sleep.

So I woke up refreshed in Huntsville, and prepared for my second annual solo summer sojourn to Louisville. So I hit the road by way of US Space and Rocket Center. I figured traveling through space is what my kids will do instead of us old-timers who wait in airports and occasionally get to hit the open road. So how about space camp?

Now that's the ultimate open road. From there, my GPS took me on backroads back to the interstate. Apparently I crossed into Tennessee and didn't even know it. Maybe they were embarrassed that a couple more Volunteer football players just got arrested. And I thought the new boss was nothing like the old boss.

But it was in Kentucky, just 90 minutes from my destination, where the smooth sailing ended. Was it an accident or a crime scene? Maybe US Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens had another Justified shooting.

This was the picture for over 3 hours in the mid-to-late afternoon on I-65 in Kentucky. Apparently while the road was still slippery, a compact car was wedged under a semi about a mile ahead. Timing is everything in life. If I left 10 minutes earlier I never would have been caught up in this. But if I left 5 minutes earlier, I might have been killed.

I was just two miles from the exit and woefully short on gas. The shoulder was unavailable because at least a dozen cops and emergency vehicles were occupying it. The exit 3 miles behind us was where the traffic south of us was being detoured so I couldn't afford to be idling with a near-empty tank.

Thankfully, the kids weren't with me. I used up all the juice on the cell phone, portable DVD player, and the laptop and didn't want to start the battery since I had no idea how long I'd be sitting there.

Mercifully, just as the mosquitos descended, the traffic started moving. I made it to the exit before running out of gas, and pulled into your friendly neighborhood British Petroleum station. When I coasted in, Jackson Browne's "Running On Empty" was playing on the loudspeaker. Maybe things do happen for a reason.

Just like wheeling in to Louisville just after dark, and fireworks lighting up the skyline for my arrival.

Maybe space is overrated. All the action's down here.