City Primeval: High Noon In Detroit is a 1980 crime novel by Elmore Leonard.
Clement Mansell, nicknamed the "Oklahoma Wildman", murders crooked Detroit judge Alvin Guy and his girlfriend in cold blood. Exploiting the legal system's holes, Mansell gets off on a technicality and intends to use Guy's notebook as blackmail material. Unfortunately for him, Homicide Detective Raymond Cruz is infuriated by Clement escaping justice and intends to bring him down even if it means bending the law himself...
The book was later adapted into the miniseries Justified: City Primeval.
List of tropes applying to this novel:
- Agent Scully: Sergeant Norbert Brill is a rare example in a mundane, realistic setting. He's well-known by his colleagues for his skepticism of absolutely any theory or speculation by his co-workers.
- Asshole Victim: Alvin Guy is a corrupt, power-mad Hanging Judge who exploited his authority to bully everyone around him. Nobody is particularly sad when Clement murders him, and Cruz is only really angry by the fact that Clement got away with murdering a judge than Alvin's death.
- Ax-Crazy: Clement is extremely violent and prone to explosive fits of rage that often end with people dead. Unfortunately, he's also savvy enough to maneuver his way out of legal punishment.
- Bait the Dog: When Guy's girlfriend panics after Clement murders him, Clement seems like he's about to comfort her… only to punch her in the face instead.
- By-the-Book Cop: Cruz - despite ironically being compared to a cowboy - is exceedingly by-the-book and is careful not to violate procedure.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Cruz has a reputation as this, due to being The Quiet One and bringing up random conversation topics.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Alvin Guy was prone to this. He earned Cruz's ire when he sentenced a kid visiting on a school trip to stay in a jail cell overnight for annoying him and sentenced Cruz to stay with him for questioning his judgment.
- Clement murders Guy and his girlfriend for accidentally causing him to damage his car, something that was more the product of his reckless driving than anything else.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Clement's sole redeeming quality is his genuine love for his late mother.
- Everything Is Racist: Judge Guy frequently accused anyone who called out his behavior of being racist. He even claimed a defendant who refused a plea deal he offered was an Uncle Tom.
- Genre Refugee: It's noted multiple times that Cruz is essentially an old-fashioned cowboy straight out of a Western thrown into early-80s Detroit.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Clement tries to calm down Guy's girlfriend by punching her in the face. It doesn't work, though she quiets down out of fear for her life.
- Hanging Judge: Alvin Guy was quite prone to handing out excessively long sentences and frequently would hold people in contempt of court for the pettiest reasons.
- Insane Troll Logic: A deeply racist variant. Clement despises interracial relationships because he claims it makes the white partner black, something a racist like him despises.
- Jerkass:
- Clement is a violent, bigoted hothead who is an unpleasant bastard even outside of being a murderer.
- Judge Guy was a hot-tempered, power-mad Hanging Judge who took advantage of his power to abuse anyone he didn't like. Not even his own girlfriend is safe from his bullying.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While the journalist who interviews Cruz is unprofessional and confrontational, she does accurately pinpoint that he's subconsciously mimicking the cowboys he's seen on movies and TV.
- Kick the Dog: Not only does Clement murder Judge Guy, but he also kills his innocent girlfriend in cold blood.
- No Name Given: The reporter who interviews Cruz is left unnamed, namely since Cruz didn't remember it. She even gets mad when she realizes he forgot.
- Noble Bigot with a Badge: Jerry is a decent cop, but he's homophobic and somewhat sexist.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The plot is kicked off when Clement murders Judge Alvin Guy.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Jerry Hunter half-jokingly teases Maureen for being a woman and uses homophobic slurs.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Clement is deeply racist and homophobic, and uses quite a lot of bigoted slurs in his narration and dialogue. He's also deeply offended by the idea of interracial relationships.
- Poor Communication Kills: The reporter who interviews Cruz brings up that his marriage failed because he wouldn't talk about his work to his wife. After she needles him about it, Cruz shares with her a particularly graphic case to demonstrate why he didn't; she winds up storming off, missing the point entirely.
- Shout-Out: Cruz and Maureen have a discussion about Apocalypse Now and The Gunfighter at one point. It's subtly implied Cruz styled his mustache after Gregory Peck in the latter film.
- The Smurfette Principle: Detective Maureen Downey is the only woman amongst the main squad of detectives.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Cruz is fairly socially awkward and tends to misjudge social situations. His Establishing Character Moment is assuming a confrontational interview with a Jerkass reporter is a date, and getting confused when she storms off after he describes a particularly gruesome case.
- Straw Feminist: A reporter who interviews Cruz spends the entire time accusing him of being a misogynist and trying to style himself after cowboys from film and TV - though it's implied she may have a point with the latter.
- Stupid Crooks: Neither Clement nor Sandy are particularly bright, and Clement in particular makes a lot of dumb mistakes.
- Thrill Seeker: Herzog describes Clement as a daredevil who enjoys taking risks and killing people. He'll even put himself in danger because he loves the thrill of the chase so much.Herzog: He's Evil Knievel with a gun.
- The Quiet One: Cruz is generally pretty quiet and off in his own head when he doesn't have to talk.
- Tattooed Crook: Clement is covered in tattoos.
- Villain Protagonist: Clement is given just as much focus and POV chapters as Cruz.
