Elmore Leonard: Picket Line (USA 2026)

From the Publisher:
"This is the best of a magnificent writer's magnificent books." -- Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried
Three stories from the late, best-selling Elmore Leonard -- "the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever!" (New York Times Book Review): Picket Line is the never-before-published, prescient tale of a budding agricultural strike in Texas, accompanied by Chick Killer and Ice Man.

"If a man comes out of the field and goes on the picket line, even for one day, he'll never be the same..."
Chino and Paco Rojas seem well-mannered, at least for Chicanos, to the white cops that pull them over for littering on the long drive from California to Trinity, Texas. So well-mannered, in fact, that Captain Frank McKellan lets them off with a warning and recommends them a job at Stanzik Farms, the largest independent melon grower in the area.

But Chino and Paco didn't drive all this way for work. Instead, Chino is looking for a mysterious man, Vincent Mora, whose new Valley Agricultural Workers Association is causing a scene striking against the farm owners.

Stanzik's fields and Mora's union bring together a cast of unlikely characters: Connie Chavez, a former picker and blossoming revolutionary who leads with a bullhorn and a fearless mouth; Bud Davis, a white Xavier University student working for spending money; Harold Ritchie, a local marine-turned-cop; Luis Tamez, a striker whose grandson served with Harold in Vietnam; and many more, including the pragmatic Chino, who finds himself pulled irrevocably into the cause. Some are neighbors, others just passing through. Some know each other well, or at least thought they did... before the picket line.

This never-before-published gem from master storyteller Elmore Leonard describes the early days of an unprecedented farmers' movement; the complex cast of Chicanos, Anglos, and migrants that impact the union; and the careful balance of passion, patience, and pure, stupid guts that it takes to hold the line. Also included in this edition are the short stories Chick Killer, following the iconic Karen Sisco as she confronts a serial murderer, and Ice Man, a visionary tale of abuse suffered by Native Americans at the hands of an immigration officer. These gripping and enduring stories showcase Leonard at his best, and their subjects are more relevant today than ever.

Elmore Leonard: Picket Line. The Lost Novella & Two New Stories. Introduction by C. M. Kushins. Mariner Books, ISBN: 9780063389380 (September, 2026), 144 p., $18.99.

Elmore Leonard: Picket Line and Other Stories (UK 2025)

From the Publisher:
These three stories -- 'Picket Line', 'Chick Killer' and 'Ice Man' -- show Elmore Leonard at his most terse and harsh, able to conjure up a sense of profound unease and injustice in just a few words.

The main story 'Picket Line' describes a tense stand-off between migrant workers in Texas, police and labour organisers in a brilliantly orchestrated series of arguments and negotiations, with the potential for terrible violence lurking in every exchange. 'Chick Killer' and 'Ice Man', set in Florida and California are two riffs on the thing that made Leonard great: his extraordinary ear for creating dialogues of negotiation, where the stakes could not be higher for the loser.

»Like all of Leonard's books, Picket Line is a taut and engaging tale. Crime dramas made Leonard famous, but this is a social-justice story... . Leonard renders their adventures and their thoughts in spare, elegant, Hemingway-inspired prose... . Picket Line builds a convincing portrait of the spirit of a lost, idealistic age... . It has the cinematic mastery of scene and dialogue that characterized Leonard's later works «-- Héctor Tobar, The New York Times

Elmore Leonard: Picket Line and Other Stories. Short Stories. Penguin Modern Classics, ISBN: 9780241755396 (October, 2025), 112 p., £8.99.

Elmore Leonard: Picket Line (USA 2025)

From the Publisher:
"This is the best of a magnificent writer's magnificent books." -- Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried
The first major release in nearly a decade from the late, best-selling Elmore Leonard -- "the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever!" (New York Times Book Review): Picket Line is the never-before-published, prescient story of a budding agricultural strike in Texas, the racial tension brewing in the fields, and what happens when brutality from "the man" goes unchecked.

"If a man comes out of the field and goes on the picket line, even for one day, he'll never be the same..."
Chino and Paco Rojas seem well-mannered, at least for Chicanos, to the white cops that pull them over for littering on the long drive from California to Trinity, Texas. So well-mannered, in fact, that Captain Frank McKellan lets them off with a warning and recommends them a job at Stanzik Farms, the largest independent melon grower in the area.

But Chino and Paco didn't drive all this way for work. Instead, Chino is looking for a mysterious man, Vincent Mora, whose new Valley Agricultural Workers Association is causing a scene striking against the farm owners.

Stanzik's fields and Mora's union bring together a cast of unlikely characters: Connie Chavez, a former picker and blossoming revolutionary who leads with a bullhorn and a fearless mouth; Bud Davis, a white Xavier University student working for spending money; Harold Ritchie, a local marine-turned-cop; Luis Tamez, a striker whose grandson served with Harold in Vietnam; and many more, including the pragmatic Chino, who finds himself pulled irrevocably into the cause. Some are neighbors, others just passing through. Some know each other well, or at least thought they did... before the picket line.

This never-before-published gem from master storyteller Elmore Leonard describes the early days of an unprecedented farmers' movement; the complex cast of Chicanos, Anglos, and migrants that impact the union; and the careful balance of passion, patience, and pure, stupid guts that it takes to hold the line.

Elmore Leonard: Picket Line. The Lost Novella. Introduction by C. M. Kushins. Mariner Books, ISBN: 9780063389366 (September, 2025), 106 p., $22.99, eBook $12.99.