Leverage Continues in Paperback Form
Although Leverage the television show may have ended, the story of “hitter, hacker, grifter, thief and mastermind” lives on through a series of paperback novels published by Berkley during the first five months of 2013. Instead of picking up where the series left off, however, the books fit within the narrative of season four, when the Leverage Team was based out of John McRory’s Bar and Grill in Boston. Thus while not an actual continuation of Leverage, the setting does allow all five major characters to play a role in the proceedings and the novels themselves remain true to the group’s dynamics as well as the mythology already established on the television show.
The different medium also allows for longer storylines than a standard television episode and plots that would have been difficult to film for the small screen. The first in the series of three paperbacks, for instance, almost exclusively takes place during the San Diego Comic-Con International. The second, meanwhile, centers on two missing black rhinos that were shipped from Africa to a financially failing zoo in Massachusetts, and the story vacillates between the two settings. The final installment likewise has globetrotting elements, with time spent at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, the largest such exhibition in the world. All three books were written by different authors, two of whom have a long history of crafting similar tie-in novels for such television shows as Alias, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek.
The lone exception is Matt Forbeck, who kicks off the new Leverage series with The Con Job. Forbeck has an impressive “geek” resume, having written the Guild Wars fantasy novel Ghost of Ascalon and a Magic: The Gathering comic book. His Leverage narrative is thus a literal “geekfest,” and not only for resident hacker Alec Hardison. All the members of the Leverage Team are allowed to embrace there inner geek throughout the proceedings, the majority of which takes place at the San Diego Comic-Con. Real life celebrities like Stan Lee make appearances, as well as hacker rival Chaos. Hitter Eliot Spencer, meanwhile, impersonates comic book writer Warren Ellis at one point, and later dresses in a Star Wars Stormtrooper outfit while accompanied by thief Parker wearing a Slave Leia costume. The plot itself revolves around a fictitious illustrator whose artwork was in effect stolen when the proceeds he was promised for the items never materialized.
The Zoo Job, written by veteran science fiction and fantasy author Keith R.A. DeCandido, directly ties to the second season opener of Leverage, in which Nate Ford and his team assist car crash victim Matt Kerrigan, who was about to turn whistleblower on a bank fraud scheme. Kerrigan and his daughter Zoe have since relocated to Brillinger, Massachusetts, where they befriend the owner of a local zoo who has secured a pair of exotic black rhinos from Africa to help draw in more visitors. The rhinos never arrive, however, and young Zoe sends the zoo owner to Boston and Nate Ford. Eliot Spencer’s past plays a significant role in the narrative, especially his time as a henchman for international crime financier Damien Moreau, while Nate Ford’s former insurance fraud colleague James Sterling makes an appearance as well.
The final Leverage novel of 2013 is written by Greg Cox, whose credits include paperback tie-ins to everything from Alias to Star Trek to Xena: Warrior Princess. When a former friend of Eliot Spenser dies in a hit-an-run accident, the proceeds of his estate are awarded to his no-good brother—including the rights to a best-selling spy novel—instead of his long-term girlfriend. There is more to The Bestseller Job than simply reacquiring the inheritance, however, as the aforementioned novel was based on actual illicit events and the private black ops team responsible wants to silence anyone aware of that fact. Grifter Sophie Devereaux, meanwhile, finally gets a fan of her theater performances in the form of a computer-geek stalker, and the dynamics of the Leverage Team come into play when they attempt to write a sequel novel in less than forty-eight hours.
Leverage the television series ended in December 2012 on a note of closure, with Nate Ford and Sophie Devereaux leaving the team to build a life together instead, but that does not mean that there are not more stories to be told. Although the trio of paperback novels released during the first half of 2103 are not a true continuation of the Leverage narrative per say, they still live up to the standards set on the small screen and keep the Leverage flame alive in the process for the many fans of the show.
Anthony Letizia (May 13, 2013)
