Sure, Elmore Leonard is in his 80s. So what? The guy is getting better with age. Over a six-decade career, he’s written more than three dozen novels — most of them classics — and even a children’s book (A COYOTE’S IN THE HOUSE). The latest, THE HOT KID (available in paperback today), may be his best.

The setting is Depression-era Oklahoma — a hornet’s nest of outlaws, speakeasies and gun molls. But wait! There’s a new gun in town: Carl Webster, who’s fast becoming the most famous lawman in the land, thanks to True Detective writer Tony Antonelli. Soon Webster’s hot on the trail of Jack Belmont, the sociopath son of an oil millionaire who wants to usurp Pretty Boy Floyd as Public Enemy Number One. Bullets are flying. Bodies are dropping. And Carl Webster’s legend grows. Throw in a little red-head named Louly, who might be even deadly with a gun than Carl, and you have the perfect blend between Leonard’s early Westerns and modern crime tales.

THE HOT KID is Elmore Leonard in top form: cooler-than-cool characters, pitch-perfect dialogue, and a page-burning plot.

I can’t wait to see what Leonard’s writing in his 90s.