Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man No. 89 (UK 2026)

From the Publisher:
Motor city process server and ex-thug Jack Ryan is very good at finding people - especially people who don't want to be found. Now he's being offered large bucks to locate a lost lowlife named Robert Leary, a.k.a. Bobby Lear. But this hunt is leading Ryan back into very bad company - and into beds where he doesn't belong. Then suddenly he's on someone's hitlist for some undisclosed reason, with all the big money numbers adding up to double-cross. And if Jack doesn't watch his back, he's going to find himself missing... permanently.

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man No. 89. Penguin Modern Classics, ISBN: 9780241755433 (March, 2026), 272 p., £10.99, eBook £5.99.

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man No. 89 (USA 2013)

From the Publisher:
"No one is Leonard's equal," declares the Chicago Tribune -- and anyone who might doubt it would only have to read Elmore Leonard's riveting noir classic, Unknown Man #89, to become a true believer.

The twisty tale of a Detroit process server whose search for a missing stockholder leads him into more serious peril than he ever imagined possible, Unknown Man #89 is a gourmet stew of mystery, suspense, and double and triple cross, peppered with the razor sharp dialogue for which Grand Master Leonard is justifiably famous.

Exhilarating old-school crime fiction that the late, great John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Robert Parker would have been proud to call their own, Unknown Man #89 is a gem -- nothing less than we'd expect from the man who created the incomparable U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens of the hit TV series Justified.

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man No. 89. William Morrow Paperbacks, ISBN: 9780062189288 (June, 2013), 341 p., $14.99.

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man # 89 (UK 2006)

From the Publisher:
Tough guy jack Ryan goes looking for a missing lowlife and finds himself in a whole lot of trouble...
Motor city process server and ex-thug Jack Ryan is very good at finding people - especially people who don't want to be found. now he's being offered large bucks to locate a lost lowlife named Robert Leary, aka Bobby Lear. But this hunt is leading Ryan back into very bad company - and into beds where he doesn't belong. Then suddenly he's on someone's hitlist for some undisclosed reason, with all the big money numbers adding up to double-cross. And if Jack doesn't watch his back, he's going to find himself missing... permanently.

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man # 89. Phoenix, ISBN: 0753819651 (March, 2006), 272 p., £6.99.

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man No. 89 (USA 2002)

From the Publisher:
"LEONARD IS OUR GREATEST CRIME NOVELIST." -- Washington Post
Detroit process server Jack Ryan has a reputation for being the best in the business at finding people who don't want to be found. Now he's looking for a missing stockholder known only as "Unknown Man No. 89." But his missing man isn't "unknown" to everyone: a pretty blonde hates his guts and a very nasty dude named Royal wants him dead in the worst way. Which is very unfortunate for Jack Ryan, who is suddenly caught in the crossfire of a lethal triple-cross and as much a target as his nameless prey.

"No one is Leonard's equal... The great ones never seem to sweat, even when they're working hard. Ali, boxing; Astaire, dancing; Streisand, singing; Secretariat, at full gallop. And Elmore Leonard, writing." -- Chicago Tribune

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man No. 89. HarperTorch, ISBN: 0060082216 (April, 2002), 356 p., $7.50.

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man # 89 (USA 1993)

From the Publisher:
"Elmore Leonard is the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever!" -- The New York Times Book Review
It is not by accident that Jack Ryan is known as the best process server in Detroit. He can track down anyone, and he always maintains a professional distance from the recipient of the papers; always, that is, unless the lady being served is blond, sexy, and vulnerable.

Ryan's job for Perez, the gentleman from Louisiana, starts out like all the others. He's simply to find a missing stockholder, Unknown Man No. 89. In return, Ryan will be rewarded handsomely, and Perez will get a percentage of the stockholder's newly discovered profits. But he has unwittingly become the third person pursuing the elusive quarry, and his competition is -- literally -- cutthroat.

Yet it is not until Ryan meets the lovely Lee that the assignment really starts to become more than routine. Lee's life is on the skids and her fight against alcohol evokes more than pity in him; she stirs emotions that run much deeper, and it is his love for her that inspires him to risk his life for the highest stakes of all.

This edition features a new introduction by the author.

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man # 89. With a new introduction by the autho. New York: Otto Penzler Books, 1993, ISBN: 1562870505, The Armchair Detective Library, 264 p., $20.00.

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man # 89 (USA 1984)

From the Publisher:
DOWN AND DIRTY
Jack Ryan had knocked around Detroit for a few years before he discovered what he was really good at. He could find people. Particularly people who didn't want to be found. Most of the time he didn't even carry his .38 Smith and Wesson.

Now he had the chance to pick up a nice bit of green. All he had to do was locate a guy named Robert Leary, a/k/a Bobby Lear.
But looking was leading to trouble. Because a pretty blond with bedroom eyes hated Bobby's guts. A mean dude named Royal wanted Bobby dead. And a junkie named Tunafish was ready to sell out his own mother for the right price.

So if Ryan could count to three, he'd know it added up to a double-cross -- and somebody squeezing the trigger of a very deadly gun.

"REMARKABLY INGENIOUS... WILL KEEP YOU ON THE EDGE OF YOUR CHAIR." -- THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"EXCITING... SUSPENSEFUL." -- MIAMI HERALD

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man # 89. BIG MONEY MAKES PEOPLE DO DANGEROUS THINGS. IT MAKES THEM LIE. AND CHEAT. AND KILL. Avon Books, ISBN: 0380670410 (January, 1984), 264 p., $2.95.

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man # 89 (USA 1978)

From the Publisher:
"AN IMMENSELY GIFTED WRITER... WILL KEEP YOU GASPING RIGHT TO THE LAST PAGE!" -- Cosmopolitan
Jack Ryan violated his primary rule. Ryan was a semipro thief gone legit. Almost. A process server now. Best in Detroit. So they said.

The rule he broke was never get involved. The reason was a blonde, beautiful and rich.
The assignment looked like a piece of cake, until his target turned up dead in a drawer with a numbered tag on his toe.
Now Ryan is planning to tag himself with two smooth operators trying to cash in on the lonely widow's assets, and a man in a red suit with a gray gun dead-set on getting what everybody else was after -- no matter who gets caught in the crossfire.

"Suspense mounts quickly... surprises come often. Leonard keeps the action hot; his prose crackles... Unknown Man No. 89 delivers many treats." -- St. Louis Globe-Democrat

Elmore Leonard: Unknown Man # 89. A CRACKLING NOVEL OF MURDER, MONEY, AND LOVE-ON-THE-RUN. Dell, ISBN: 0440191351 (December, 1978), 264 p., $1.95 (?).