A taut and engaging tale ... Leonard renders their adventures and their thoughts in spare, elegant, Hemingway-inspired prose ... A convincing portrait of the spirit of a lost, idealistic age ... The novella gains momentum as it flows from one briefly sketched and absorbing scene to the next ... It has the cinematic mastery of scene and dialogue that characterized Leonard’s later works ... Picket Line disappoints, however, when the story reaches its final chapters ... In Picket Line, however, the attempt to give the story a gritty twist falls flat — and feels false to the real-life Latino history that inspired the tale.
Within just a few short scenes the mystery-slash-thriller is set up wonderfully. There's an interesting, gritty lead character, with a suspicious background and an undisclosed purpose, who is about to step into a potentially volatile situation. One could hardly ask for more ... Leonard's writing chops are on full display, though still in development according to Kushins. Leonard employs a style in which there's very little pure narration ... Leonard cranks up that heat with his use of uber-realistic dialogue ... Leonard uses this style consistently as he bounces between viewpoint characters, and it's effective, but at times it does get a bit schizophrenic when he bounces too quickly ... Unfortunately, it all ends prematurely. Plot threads are left hanging, questions are left unanswered, and thematic posits are left inadequately examined ... Picket Line is certainly mandatory for Leonard completists.
A diverting window into a key period of [Leonard's] career ... With resonant themes and taut pacing, the novella paints an intense and immersive portrait of a small-town clash that heats up quickly and stays hot, though its roots as a plot outline are clear. This may not stand with the author’s best work—the ending is especially abrupt—but Leonard diehards will rejoice all the same.