Stick was published by Arbor House in 1983 and follows Ernest “Stick” Stickley, an ex-con released from prison who becomes entangled in the cocaine-era Miami underworld. Stick witnesses a murder, goes to work for a wealthy financier, and begins playing the various criminal and semi-criminal parties against each other — using the observational skills and patience he learned in prison.
The novel captures Miami at its most excessive: cocaine money, luxury cars, ostentatious wealth, and casual violence. Leonard’s Florida is as vividly drawn as his Detroit — a landscape of strip malls, highways, and money where everyone is performing for everyone else.
The Film
The 1985 film adaptation, directed by and starring Burt Reynolds, was a disaster. Reynolds rewrote the ending to give himself a more heroic role, and Leonard was so unhappy with the result that it strengthened his resolve to maintain creative control over future adaptations. The experience was, ironically, productive: it contributed to the Hollywood satire that would fuel Get Shorty five years later.
Leonard’s Miami
Stick was Leonard’s first sustained engagement with South Florida, a setting he would return to in LaBrava, Glitz, Rum Punch, and Out of Sight. His Miami is not the Art Deco fantasy of Miami Vice (which premiered the year after Stick’s publication) but the real city of transplanted northerners, Cuban immigrants, drug money, and real estate speculation. The class dynamics — new money vs. old money vs. criminal money — are rendered with sociological precision.
Collecting Stick
First edition (1983, Arbor House, New York): Boards with dust jacket.
Approximate market values:
- Fine/Fine in dust jacket: $100–$300
- Signed first edition: $200–$600
- Without jacket: $15–$30
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Moderate appreciation. Important as an early crime-period Leonard.
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate. Signed copies should reach $400–$1,000.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Stick connected to any other Leonard novels? Ernest Stickley first appeared in Swag (1976), making Stick a rare Leonard sequel. The character evolved significantly between the two novels.
Why is the film so bad? Burt Reynolds’s ego overwhelmed Leonard’s material. Reynolds wanted a conventional action-hero arc; Leonard’s Stick is a quiet observer who wins through intelligence, not violence. The mismatch between star and material produced a film that pleased neither Leonard fans nor Reynolds fans.