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Freaky Deaky
Robin Abbot and Emerson "Skip" Gibbs, ex-lovers and ex-radicals of the 1960s, team up once again in the 1980s to even an old score in Detroit against wealthy addict and former fellow radical Woody Ricks, while onetime bomb expert Chris Mankowski, now assigned to Sex Crimes, goes after Woody for another vicious crime. Reissue.
341 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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2024 people want to read
About the author
Elmore Leonard
211 books3,701 followersElmore John Leonard lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before settling in Detroit in 1935. After serving in the navy, he studied English literature at the University of Detroit where he entered a short story competition. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.
Father of Peter Leonard.
Father of Peter Leonard.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 351 reviews
February 14, 2023
There's no such thing as a bad Elmore Leonard novel, but inevitably, some of them have to be better than others, and to my mind, this book is not as successful as most of his other efforts. As virtually every reader of crime fiction knows, Leonard's principal strengths are the characters he invents and the great dialog that he gives them. In this case, though, none of the characters really appealed to me, and the dialog did not seem to flow as effortlessly, as intelligently, or as humorously as it does in most of his other books.
At the center of the novel are Robin Abbott and Skip Gibbs, two aging radicals from the late Sixties and early Seventies. Back in the day, when they weren't doing drugs and having sex with everyone in sight, Skip and Robin were blowing things up in the name of peace and justice. Ultimately, they wound up in prison and now that they're out, they're thinking of putting Skip's expertise with explosives to more practical use. (This book was published in 1988, and so the two are some fifteen years or so removed from their Glory Days.)
The other main character is a Detroit cop named Chris Mankowski. The book opens on Mankowski's last day as a member of the Bomb Squad before he transfers to the Sex Crimes unit. Also along for the ride are two brothers, Mark and Woody Ricks. The brothers were acquaintances of Robin and Skip's when they were in the movement. Mark now produces plays while his brother, who inherited the family's huge fortune, basically eats, drinks, and drugs himself into oblivion on a daily basis.
There's also Donnell, a former Black Panther, who now serves as Woody's driver and general factotum, and who's angling to cut himself a slice of Woody's fortune. Finally, there's an aspiring actress named Greta Wyatt, sometimes known as Ginger Jones. Greta attends a party at Woody's mansion where Woody takes her upstairs and rapes her. When she shows up at the Detroit P.D. to file a complaint, she meets Chris Mankowski who's on his first day on the job in Sex Crimes.
Once all the characters are on stage, the plot meanders all over the place as the plots in Elmore Leonard novels often do. The objectives and strategies of the various characters evolve over time and inevitably a lot of people will be double crossed and left angered and confused. There will also be a lot of explosions.
It's a fun read but, as I said, I found it less entertaining than most of Leonard's other crime novels, basically because I just didn't care about any of the characters or what might have happened to them along the way. After finishing this book yesterday, I sat down and watched "Jackie Brown," which was based on Leonard's novel Rum Punch. It's a great movie, based on a wonderful book, with lots of fantastic and memorable characters that I really did care a lot about.
Freaky Deaky is a good book, but I don't think it's in the same league as Rum Punch and any number of other Elmore Leonard novels.
At the center of the novel are Robin Abbott and Skip Gibbs, two aging radicals from the late Sixties and early Seventies. Back in the day, when they weren't doing drugs and having sex with everyone in sight, Skip and Robin were blowing things up in the name of peace and justice. Ultimately, they wound up in prison and now that they're out, they're thinking of putting Skip's expertise with explosives to more practical use. (This book was published in 1988, and so the two are some fifteen years or so removed from their Glory Days.)
The other main character is a Detroit cop named Chris Mankowski. The book opens on Mankowski's last day as a member of the Bomb Squad before he transfers to the Sex Crimes unit. Also along for the ride are two brothers, Mark and Woody Ricks. The brothers were acquaintances of Robin and Skip's when they were in the movement. Mark now produces plays while his brother, who inherited the family's huge fortune, basically eats, drinks, and drugs himself into oblivion on a daily basis.
There's also Donnell, a former Black Panther, who now serves as Woody's driver and general factotum, and who's angling to cut himself a slice of Woody's fortune. Finally, there's an aspiring actress named Greta Wyatt, sometimes known as Ginger Jones. Greta attends a party at Woody's mansion where Woody takes her upstairs and rapes her. When she shows up at the Detroit P.D. to file a complaint, she meets Chris Mankowski who's on his first day on the job in Sex Crimes.
Once all the characters are on stage, the plot meanders all over the place as the plots in Elmore Leonard novels often do. The objectives and strategies of the various characters evolve over time and inevitably a lot of people will be double crossed and left angered and confused. There will also be a lot of explosions.
It's a fun read but, as I said, I found it less entertaining than most of Leonard's other crime novels, basically because I just didn't care about any of the characters or what might have happened to them along the way. After finishing this book yesterday, I sat down and watched "Jackie Brown," which was based on Leonard's novel Rum Punch. It's a great movie, based on a wonderful book, with lots of fantastic and memorable characters that I really did care a lot about.
Freaky Deaky is a good book, but I don't think it's in the same league as Rum Punch and any number of other Elmore Leonard novels.
March 1, 2015
Former bomb squad detective Chris Mankowski has trouble fall into his lap in the form of Greta Wyatt, aka Ginger Jones, an actress who has been raped by local millionaire Woody Ricks. But what does that have to do with Skip and Robin, the former hippies blackmailing Ricks, or his driver Donnell?
There are two things (that we'll concern ourselves with in this review) that I'm unable to resist: an Elmore Leonard book I haven't read yet and a bargain. Since this was both of those things, being 1.99 on the Kindle when I nabbed it, it was impossible for me to resist.
Freaky Deaky is a tale of two former hippies seeking revenge, a former bomb squad detective riding to the rescue of a rape victim, and of a former black panther wanting to get his cut of an alcoholic millionaire's money. Pretty much par for the course for an Elmore Leonard novel.
The more of old Dutch's novels I read, the more convinced I am that the man was slicker than a stick of butter going down a bobsled track. The dialogue is the star attraction, as always with Leonard books, and one of the criminals is at least as interesting as the protagonist, another Leonard standard. While I really liked Chris Mankowski, I thought Donnell Lewis was even more interesting.
Even though Freaky Deaky was one of those Elmore Leonard novels that passes as quickly as a summer day, it was not without some flaws. Chris and Donnell got a long a little too well near the end, probably owing to Leonard's flying by the seat of his pants style of writing. Also, I thought Chris and Greta fell into bed a little too fast. I'm by no means an expert on rape and rape psychology but I wouldn't have thought a rape victim would be up for consensual sex two days after the event. Also, I thought it was pretty high on the douche spectrum that Chris would go for Greta so soon. Other than that, Freaky Deaky was pretty good, the usual serpentine Leonard book of cool dialogue and double crosses.
Wait, I have to point out one last thing that bugged me. In the ebook version that I read, the last 20% was extraneous material like excerpts from other Leonard books. I thought I had a fifth of the book left and suddenly it was over.
While I think Elmore Leonard is one of the slicker crime writers to ever live, this is definitely a second or third tier Leonard book. Three out of five stars.
There are two things (that we'll concern ourselves with in this review) that I'm unable to resist: an Elmore Leonard book I haven't read yet and a bargain. Since this was both of those things, being 1.99 on the Kindle when I nabbed it, it was impossible for me to resist.
Freaky Deaky is a tale of two former hippies seeking revenge, a former bomb squad detective riding to the rescue of a rape victim, and of a former black panther wanting to get his cut of an alcoholic millionaire's money. Pretty much par for the course for an Elmore Leonard novel.
The more of old Dutch's novels I read, the more convinced I am that the man was slicker than a stick of butter going down a bobsled track. The dialogue is the star attraction, as always with Leonard books, and one of the criminals is at least as interesting as the protagonist, another Leonard standard. While I really liked Chris Mankowski, I thought Donnell Lewis was even more interesting.
Even though Freaky Deaky was one of those Elmore Leonard novels that passes as quickly as a summer day, it was not without some flaws. Chris and Donnell got a long a little too well near the end, probably owing to Leonard's flying by the seat of his pants style of writing. Also, I thought Chris and Greta fell into bed a little too fast. I'm by no means an expert on rape and rape psychology but I wouldn't have thought a rape victim would be up for consensual sex two days after the event. Also, I thought it was pretty high on the douche spectrum that Chris would go for Greta so soon. Other than that, Freaky Deaky was pretty good, the usual serpentine Leonard book of cool dialogue and double crosses.
Wait, I have to point out one last thing that bugged me. In the ebook version that I read, the last 20% was extraneous material like excerpts from other Leonard books. I thought I had a fifth of the book left and suddenly it was over.
While I think Elmore Leonard is one of the slicker crime writers to ever live, this is definitely a second or third tier Leonard book. Three out of five stars.
April 27, 2015
Only Elmore Leonard could make damn dirty hippies somewhat entertaining.
Chris Mankowski is a Detroit cop in the late ‘80s who transfers from the bomb squad to sex crimes. His first case is a feisty young actress named Ginger (a/k/a Greta) who was sexually assaulted by alcoholic millionaire Woody Ricks. Chris takes a highly personal interest in Ginger’s case and starts checking out Woody and his brother just as two old associates from their college radical days embark on a scheme to shake down some money. Robin and Skip plan to use bombs to blow open Woody’s wallet while his chauffer Donnell, an ex-Black Panther, is also trying to scam the drunken Woody out of all he can.
Like most of his books, this involves a lot of shady characters with their own agendas saying great dialogue to each other as we get enough of their inner monologues to make all of them feel real. Leonard also famously wrote by the seat of his pants, making it all up as he went with no real plan, and usually that gives his books some fabulous twists and turns. However, sometimes this can give the book odd shifts, and that’s what happens here.
The first half focuses heavily on Robin and Skip’s past as former ‘60’s radicals who got sent to prison for their militant behavior and now are past all that peace, love, and dope bullshit. They want to get paid, and Leonard does a great job of characterization to quickly let you know that Robin and Skip’s old hippie days had a lot more to do with raising hell and getting laid than any high minded principles about protesting the Vietnam war or a corrupt capitalist system.
However, in the second half, this shifts a bit and become more about Chris. Leonard did a lot with characters seeing themselves in terms of pop culture, and there’s a great section where Chris, frustrated at all the murky motives and his relationship with Greta, sees Lethal Weapon and begins trying to act a bit like Mel Gibson with some hilarious results. There’s also a good deal from Donnel’s point of view as caretaker to a drunk that he’s trying to figure out a way to legally rob blind while holding off Robin and Skip. Then there’s a dilemma for Ginger who debates taking a settlement from Woody rather than trying to press legal charges.
All of this is pretty good, but it’s just a bit too much. It’s good enough, but just doesn’t feel as tight or as satisfying as some of his other plots. There’s also a bit of ickiness around how Chris is instantly attracted to Ginger even as she’s come into report her rape, and it seems more than a little odd that she’d be returning his affections pretty quickly.
Leonard did however know how to end the book perfectly.
Chris Mankowski is a Detroit cop in the late ‘80s who transfers from the bomb squad to sex crimes. His first case is a feisty young actress named Ginger (a/k/a Greta) who was sexually assaulted by alcoholic millionaire Woody Ricks. Chris takes a highly personal interest in Ginger’s case and starts checking out Woody and his brother just as two old associates from their college radical days embark on a scheme to shake down some money. Robin and Skip plan to use bombs to blow open Woody’s wallet while his chauffer Donnell, an ex-Black Panther, is also trying to scam the drunken Woody out of all he can.
Like most of his books, this involves a lot of shady characters with their own agendas saying great dialogue to each other as we get enough of their inner monologues to make all of them feel real. Leonard also famously wrote by the seat of his pants, making it all up as he went with no real plan, and usually that gives his books some fabulous twists and turns. However, sometimes this can give the book odd shifts, and that’s what happens here.
The first half focuses heavily on Robin and Skip’s past as former ‘60’s radicals who got sent to prison for their militant behavior and now are past all that peace, love, and dope bullshit. They want to get paid, and Leonard does a great job of characterization to quickly let you know that Robin and Skip’s old hippie days had a lot more to do with raising hell and getting laid than any high minded principles about protesting the Vietnam war or a corrupt capitalist system.
However, in the second half, this shifts a bit and become more about Chris. Leonard did a lot with characters seeing themselves in terms of pop culture, and there’s a great section where Chris, frustrated at all the murky motives and his relationship with Greta, sees Lethal Weapon and begins trying to act a bit like Mel Gibson with some hilarious results. There’s also a good deal from Donnel’s point of view as caretaker to a drunk that he’s trying to figure out a way to legally rob blind while holding off Robin and Skip. Then there’s a dilemma for Ginger who debates taking a settlement from Woody rather than trying to press legal charges.
All of this is pretty good, but it’s just a bit too much. It’s good enough, but just doesn’t feel as tight or as satisfying as some of his other plots. There’s also a bit of ickiness around how Chris is instantly attracted to Ginger even as she’s come into report her rape, and it seems more than a little odd that she’d be returning his affections pretty quickly.
Leonard did however know how to end the book perfectly.
March 14, 2016
“It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.”
― Elmore Leonard, Freaky Deaky
"I don't see how you endure those people, and endure group effort, and endure conferences and stupid revision requests and kindred bullshit. Please write the Hollywood book and kill them off in ugly ways."
-- John D. MacDonald in a letter to Elmore Leonard in 1986
A fun, but messy, Elmore Leonard Detroit novel. While technically set in Detroit it has the feel of a California/Hollywood novel. I'm not sure exactly why, but between the actors, movies, pills, acid, trust funds, and ex-hippies this book might smell like Leonard's Detroit, but it rubs you hot and raw just like LA.
Almost the entire cast of this book are former 1960s peaceniks, including Chris Mankowski the cool and calm, probationed police protagonist. I could probably dicker with Elmore Leonard's lax attitudes towards rape and money, but for the most part, that is just bitching about a pit in pretty sweet peach. I liked the book, even when the plot was spinning me like a drunk dervish.
― Elmore Leonard, Freaky Deaky
"I don't see how you endure those people, and endure group effort, and endure conferences and stupid revision requests and kindred bullshit. Please write the Hollywood book and kill them off in ugly ways."
-- John D. MacDonald in a letter to Elmore Leonard in 1986
A fun, but messy, Elmore Leonard Detroit novel. While technically set in Detroit it has the feel of a California/Hollywood novel. I'm not sure exactly why, but between the actors, movies, pills, acid, trust funds, and ex-hippies this book might smell like Leonard's Detroit, but it rubs you hot and raw just like LA.
Almost the entire cast of this book are former 1960s peaceniks, including Chris Mankowski the cool and calm, probationed police protagonist. I could probably dicker with Elmore Leonard's lax attitudes towards rape and money, but for the most part, that is just bitching about a pit in pretty sweet peach. I liked the book, even when the plot was spinning me like a drunk dervish.
April 5, 2022
Thousands of years ago in the history of mankind, the war between good and evil had ended. And it ended with the complete triumph of evil and a total, irrevocable extermination of good. Evil is cunning, it quickly splits itself into two - into apparent good and evil, so that mankind is under the delusion that the great conflict is still raging and it will not go in search of the truth. All that we think is good - art, love, enlightenment and all that we think is the pursuit of truth is actually a form of evil. - Manu Joseph.
I had to post this quote after meeting Robin, Skip, Woody and Mark in this novel. Revolutionaries of the sixties when they were young. Attended Woodstock. Protested against the Vietnam war. What did they become when they grew older and revolution was not fashionable anymore? They fed on each other. Robin and Skip held the rich guys Woody and Mark to ransom with bombs. Alcoholic Woody's ex-black panther body guard barely keeps it all together while trying to steal money from his boss. Robin is one of Elmore's best villains. Elmore unleashes "evil pretending to be good" villains on us.
Chris a bomb detonator and Greta a failed actress tries to thwart these ex revolutionaries while battling their own corruption and other demons. Chris also attended Woodstock and other protests. Now he is a policeman barely able to keep his job, living off his rich father.
A few years before Michel Houellebecq unleashed his anger about the hedonism of the sixties, Elmore Leonard wrote this pretty bitingly witty novel. The French have nothing on the Americans.
It is an intricately plotted thriller. Need I say that? The dialog is spectacular. The first page ..... if the first page does not pull you in .....
Elmore has great taste in music. Skip, the movie bomb maker listens to Iggy and the Stooges, MC5 and The Dictators.
I had to post this quote after meeting Robin, Skip, Woody and Mark in this novel. Revolutionaries of the sixties when they were young. Attended Woodstock. Protested against the Vietnam war. What did they become when they grew older and revolution was not fashionable anymore? They fed on each other. Robin and Skip held the rich guys Woody and Mark to ransom with bombs. Alcoholic Woody's ex-black panther body guard barely keeps it all together while trying to steal money from his boss. Robin is one of Elmore's best villains. Elmore unleashes "evil pretending to be good" villains on us.
Chris a bomb detonator and Greta a failed actress tries to thwart these ex revolutionaries while battling their own corruption and other demons. Chris also attended Woodstock and other protests. Now he is a policeman barely able to keep his job, living off his rich father.
A few years before Michel Houellebecq unleashed his anger about the hedonism of the sixties, Elmore Leonard wrote this pretty bitingly witty novel. The French have nothing on the Americans.
It is an intricately plotted thriller. Need I say that? The dialog is spectacular. The first page ..... if the first page does not pull you in .....
Elmore has great taste in music. Skip, the movie bomb maker listens to Iggy and the Stooges, MC5 and The Dictators.
October 6, 2013
Another excellent read as I continue my Elmore Leonard binge.
If you don't know the plot go over to Amazon for a quick recap.
It basically goes like this:
Pothead demolition expert & his former girlfriend -ex-cons having served time for their late 1960s "radical" activities- pair up to extort a couple of million dollars from a pair of millionaire brothers (both former classmates & fellow activists ...or least one of the brothers was).
Police detective recently transferred from the bomb squad to the sex crimes unit attempts to dampen their wick.
Hijinks ensue.
Add a few more principal characters, shake and toss.
Explosive fun (heh-heh-heh) with the usual wonderful and witty Elmore Leonard dialogue pushing things right along.
Personal aside:
My enjoyment in the re-reading of this book was almost destroyed by having watched the 1st 20 minutes of a regrettably cast film based on this novel and directed by Elmore Leonard devotee & Son Of Walther Matthau, Charles.
Charles Matthau faithfully incorporates dialogue lifted directly from this novel. In fact, he reportedly worked closely with Elmore Leonard in his adaptation.
The film should have worked.
With a cast like Andy Dick, Crispin Glover, and Christian Slater how can you lose, right?
(Sorry -trick question)
Read the book; avoid the fllm.
If you don't know the plot go over to Amazon for a quick recap.
It basically goes like this:
Pothead demolition expert & his former girlfriend -ex-cons having served time for their late 1960s "radical" activities- pair up to extort a couple of million dollars from a pair of millionaire brothers (both former classmates & fellow activists ...or least one of the brothers was).
Police detective recently transferred from the bomb squad to the sex crimes unit attempts to dampen their wick.
Hijinks ensue.
Add a few more principal characters, shake and toss.
Explosive fun (heh-heh-heh) with the usual wonderful and witty Elmore Leonard dialogue pushing things right along.
Personal aside:
My enjoyment in the re-reading of this book was almost destroyed by having watched the 1st 20 minutes of a regrettably cast film based on this novel and directed by Elmore Leonard devotee & Son Of Walther Matthau, Charles.
Charles Matthau faithfully incorporates dialogue lifted directly from this novel. In fact, he reportedly worked closely with Elmore Leonard in his adaptation.
The film should have worked.
With a cast like Andy Dick, Crispin Glover, and Christian Slater how can you lose, right?
(Sorry -trick question)
Read the book; avoid the fllm.
March 21, 2021
I sometimes wonder if Leonard is basically re-casting the same novel over and over again. Oh, the score or scheme is always a bit different, but it's the characters that seem the same, but with a few twists added. That's not criticism, it's just just that I sense that encountered similar types such as the tough bomb squad cop Chris Mankowski, slick scheming chauffeur (and ex-Black Panther), Donnell Lewis, wannabe actress (and possible rape victim) Ginger (a.k.a. Greta), and a couple of criming ex-student radicals, Skip & Robin. (Or are they?) I was drawn to this particular Leonard (and I thought I read most of them), when I ran across a comment of Leonard's saying he thought Freaky Deaky was his best novel. I don't know if that's true or not, or if Leonard was just promoting a recent title (I didn't see the date of the Leonard interview), but it's certainly a good one.
What sets Freaky Deaky apart is that you get the sense that Leonard is sending up the sixties here, which is kind of unique for Leonard. (The razor sharp dialogue is kind of a standard thing for Leonard.) In other words, the student movements were kind of silly, Vietnam sucked, Woodstock was interesting, but in the end you gotta move on. The two ex-hippie criminals in this, Robin Abbott and "Skip" Gibbs are among the more entertaining of Leonard's psycho-idiots. Abbott in particular is a nasty piece of work, so waiting for her fate alone kept me turning the pages. The target for Gibbs and Abbott is a constantly drunk fool named Woody Ricks, who has inherited quite a fortune. Gibbs, Abbott, Ricks, and Lewis, all knew each other in the days of protest, rock & roll, sex, and drugs. Robin in particular sees this money-score as something of a revenge move due to someone ratting out her and Skip to the FBI, which resulted in a couple of jail stints. Ricks, having the money, is also one of Robin's chief and convenient suspects, though you never get the sense that Robin and Skip ever possessed radical principles other than chaos, sex, and drugs. Oh, and there's a lot of dynamite throughout the novel to punch things up. Recommended.
What sets Freaky Deaky apart is that you get the sense that Leonard is sending up the sixties here, which is kind of unique for Leonard. (The razor sharp dialogue is kind of a standard thing for Leonard.) In other words, the student movements were kind of silly, Vietnam sucked, Woodstock was interesting, but in the end you gotta move on. The two ex-hippie criminals in this, Robin Abbott and "Skip" Gibbs are among the more entertaining of Leonard's psycho-idiots. Abbott in particular is a nasty piece of work, so waiting for her fate alone kept me turning the pages. The target for Gibbs and Abbott is a constantly drunk fool named Woody Ricks, who has inherited quite a fortune. Gibbs, Abbott, Ricks, and Lewis, all knew each other in the days of protest, rock & roll, sex, and drugs. Robin in particular sees this money-score as something of a revenge move due to someone ratting out her and Skip to the FBI, which resulted in a couple of jail stints. Ricks, having the money, is also one of Robin's chief and convenient suspects, though you never get the sense that Robin and Skip ever possessed radical principles other than chaos, sex, and drugs. Oh, and there's a lot of dynamite throughout the novel to punch things up. Recommended.
September 15, 2025
Starts out swell, with a hard-bitten, bomb-defusing cop hero, a trio of bomb-planting, sixties-renegade villains, and two rich jerk brothers marked for extortion. About a third of the way in though, someone says of the femme fatale, “Robin doesn’t really know what she’s doing. She’s just making it up as she goes along.” Which pretty much sums up the narrative trajectory of the novel itself. This unraveling perhaps represents E.L.’s feelings about the futility of the sixties counter-culture in general, but it also makes things a lot less interesting the longer it goes on.
May 8, 2017
It's like how souffles are these flawless, light concoctions with complex flavors and it seems like they should be simple but they're actually one of the more difficult things to make. That's Elmore Leonard.
Freaky Deaky is a pile-up of suspense and comedic brilliance, as a cop moving from working with explosives to working with sex crimes tries to chart his way through a tangle of hustles surrounding Woody Ricks, a wealthy, bombed-out-of-his-mind former yippie. There's Skip and Robin, former radicals now mostly out for a good score, willing to be convinced that it's totally ethical to extort Woody because there's a chance he turned them in years ago. There's Greta Wyatt, a.k.a. Ginger Jones, the aspiring actress Woody drunkenly assaults at a party on his boat, mistakenly convinced that his brother had arranged for their encounter: it's hard to begrudge her some sort of payout, especially after the official justice lets her down. There's Donnell, one-time Black Panther and acquaintance of Skip and Robin, now Woody's chauffeur and jack-of-all-trades right-hand man, whose patient long game of leading Woody to leave him a substantial part of his fortune in his will is sometimes complicated by a genuine caretaking impulse. Even protagonist Chris, bemusedly working his way through this tangle of bombs and motivations, wouldn't entirely mind getting a little piece of the action, as long as it's above-board.
Everything here runs as smoothly as a Swiss watch, with perfect bits of comedy--Donnell throwing the bomb in the swimming pool out of panic--and drama--Chris's mild tailspin in response to Greta's belief that he's changed. And the moral dilemmas are handled with a light but deft touch, as everyone raises the possibility that taking some money from Woody doesn't really matter, because he'll never miss it and he'll never even understand what's happened, as Greta debates the balance between justice for her and a just assessment of Woody's own capacity to be responsible for his actions, and as I hope against hope for Donnell to get a decent score out of all this. He deserves it.
This is a delightful, tightly-plotted, entirely enjoyable book.
Freaky Deaky is a pile-up of suspense and comedic brilliance, as a cop moving from working with explosives to working with sex crimes tries to chart his way through a tangle of hustles surrounding Woody Ricks, a wealthy, bombed-out-of-his-mind former yippie. There's Skip and Robin, former radicals now mostly out for a good score, willing to be convinced that it's totally ethical to extort Woody because there's a chance he turned them in years ago. There's Greta Wyatt, a.k.a. Ginger Jones, the aspiring actress Woody drunkenly assaults at a party on his boat, mistakenly convinced that his brother had arranged for their encounter: it's hard to begrudge her some sort of payout, especially after the official justice lets her down. There's Donnell, one-time Black Panther and acquaintance of Skip and Robin, now Woody's chauffeur and jack-of-all-trades right-hand man, whose patient long game of leading Woody to leave him a substantial part of his fortune in his will is sometimes complicated by a genuine caretaking impulse. Even protagonist Chris, bemusedly working his way through this tangle of bombs and motivations, wouldn't entirely mind getting a little piece of the action, as long as it's above-board.
Everything here runs as smoothly as a Swiss watch, with perfect bits of comedy--Donnell throwing the bomb in the swimming pool out of panic--and drama--Chris's mild tailspin in response to Greta's belief that he's changed. And the moral dilemmas are handled with a light but deft touch, as everyone raises the possibility that taking some money from Woody doesn't really matter, because he'll never miss it and he'll never even understand what's happened, as Greta debates the balance between justice for her and a just assessment of Woody's own capacity to be responsible for his actions, and as I hope against hope for Donnell to get a decent score out of all this. He deserves it.
This is a delightful, tightly-plotted, entirely enjoyable book.
January 30, 2010
Freaky Deaky begins with three major characters who appear at first in pairs of alternating chapters: Chris Mankowski, a Detroit cop who is leaving the bomb squad for a different assignment; and Robin Abbott and Skip Gibbs, aging hippie radicals scheming to use their anarchic skills in more financially rewarding ways. Elmore Leonard manages these characters with remarkable skill, insinuating them into each other's lives while folding in other characters along the way. While Chris is likable throughout, in the early stages of the novel Robin and Skip are more annoying than anything else, but Freaky Deaky's great humor eventually overwhelms any shortcomings in the novel's cast of characters. No great insights into the criminal mind here--just a great deal of entertainment.
September 20, 2020
Elmore Leonard's Own Kind Of Freaky Deaky
The Urban Dictionary defines "Freaky Deaky" as "to be in a heightened state of sexual arousal and performing strange, extreme, or unusual sexual acts". The term occurs only once in Elmore Leonard's 1988 novel of that name. Late in the book, one of the characters says: "We got a feel for that kind of action, huh? Know when to step outside, so to speak, let them do their own kind of freaky deaky. You remember that sexy dance? Man, we had people shooting each other over it."
Leonard indeed makes his own kind of freaky deaky in this novel which is set in the Detroit of the 1980s combined with the strong influence of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Not usually regarded as a socially conscious writer, Leonard in the novel is strongly critical of the student anti-war, drug-using, rock culture culminating about 15 years before the time of his story. The novel revisits many aging hangers-on to the youth culture who were at the time and who have remained selfish, violent, hard-eyed criminals rather than allegedly idealistic adolescents.
There are few, if any, good guys in this story. The primary and most sympathetic character is a police officer, Chris Mankowski, 38 who had spent time in college on the fringes of the youth movement and who subsequently served briefly in Vietnam. Mankowski, an expert on explosives, works on the bomb squad but is about to transfer to working on sex crimes. Mankowski wants to marry but has had difficulty keeping a lady friend. He gets advice from his aging father. After being dumped by his latest flame, Phyllis, Mankowski quickly becomes involved with an aspiring actress, Greta who has been raped by Woody, discussed below. Throughout most of this novel, Mankowski is suspended from the police force and acts ambiguously and on his own. In addition to his involvement fighting and perhaps being part of crime to a degree, this novel captures Mankowski's loneliness and search for love.
The other characters are more sinister. Skip and Robin are former lovers from the 60s who are indicted, jump bail, and serve prison sentences for their activities. Skip has become a stuntman for films while Robin writes pulp romances under a pen name. They reunite in Detroit with visions of taking out a pair of wealthy brothers, Woody and Mark, that Robin believes may have ratted on them to the authorities back in the day. The older and wealthier of the brothers, Woody, is a lethargic alcoholic who lives in a mansion and is tended to by his driver and aide, Donnell, a former Black Panther who has also served jail time. This shady group of characters, Skip, Robin, Donnell, and Mark share in common a desire to separate the otiose Woody from his money. The characters scheme together and separately. As with many criminals, they fight against one another as much as they work to fleece Woody, and its costs them. As Mankowski remarks in the story, one has to be [explicative] stupid to be a criminal.
The story is set in the streets and bars of Detroit and in the once opulent mansions now owned by bad guys. There is a lot of glitz, superficiality, drinking, and sex. The violence in the story centers around explosives -- on the use and the disarming of dynamite bombs. As in an old cartoon, the characters resort to dynamite frequently with mixed results.
"Freaky Deaky" was one of Leonard's own favorites among his novels and deservedly so. The novel reminded me of the 1960s and the turmoil that time brought to and left with our country. The story moves briskly, with its tangled plot and the machinations of its characters. Each of the primary characters are well-delineated, particularly Mankowski. And Leonard's dialogue is pithy and sharp.
This book shows Leonard at his best as a writer about crime and about human character. The novel is available in paperback and in the Library of America's volume "Elmore Leonard: Four Novels of the 1980s".
Robin Friedman
The Urban Dictionary defines "Freaky Deaky" as "to be in a heightened state of sexual arousal and performing strange, extreme, or unusual sexual acts". The term occurs only once in Elmore Leonard's 1988 novel of that name. Late in the book, one of the characters says: "We got a feel for that kind of action, huh? Know when to step outside, so to speak, let them do their own kind of freaky deaky. You remember that sexy dance? Man, we had people shooting each other over it."
Leonard indeed makes his own kind of freaky deaky in this novel which is set in the Detroit of the 1980s combined with the strong influence of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Not usually regarded as a socially conscious writer, Leonard in the novel is strongly critical of the student anti-war, drug-using, rock culture culminating about 15 years before the time of his story. The novel revisits many aging hangers-on to the youth culture who were at the time and who have remained selfish, violent, hard-eyed criminals rather than allegedly idealistic adolescents.
There are few, if any, good guys in this story. The primary and most sympathetic character is a police officer, Chris Mankowski, 38 who had spent time in college on the fringes of the youth movement and who subsequently served briefly in Vietnam. Mankowski, an expert on explosives, works on the bomb squad but is about to transfer to working on sex crimes. Mankowski wants to marry but has had difficulty keeping a lady friend. He gets advice from his aging father. After being dumped by his latest flame, Phyllis, Mankowski quickly becomes involved with an aspiring actress, Greta who has been raped by Woody, discussed below. Throughout most of this novel, Mankowski is suspended from the police force and acts ambiguously and on his own. In addition to his involvement fighting and perhaps being part of crime to a degree, this novel captures Mankowski's loneliness and search for love.
The other characters are more sinister. Skip and Robin are former lovers from the 60s who are indicted, jump bail, and serve prison sentences for their activities. Skip has become a stuntman for films while Robin writes pulp romances under a pen name. They reunite in Detroit with visions of taking out a pair of wealthy brothers, Woody and Mark, that Robin believes may have ratted on them to the authorities back in the day. The older and wealthier of the brothers, Woody, is a lethargic alcoholic who lives in a mansion and is tended to by his driver and aide, Donnell, a former Black Panther who has also served jail time. This shady group of characters, Skip, Robin, Donnell, and Mark share in common a desire to separate the otiose Woody from his money. The characters scheme together and separately. As with many criminals, they fight against one another as much as they work to fleece Woody, and its costs them. As Mankowski remarks in the story, one has to be [explicative] stupid to be a criminal.
The story is set in the streets and bars of Detroit and in the once opulent mansions now owned by bad guys. There is a lot of glitz, superficiality, drinking, and sex. The violence in the story centers around explosives -- on the use and the disarming of dynamite bombs. As in an old cartoon, the characters resort to dynamite frequently with mixed results.
"Freaky Deaky" was one of Leonard's own favorites among his novels and deservedly so. The novel reminded me of the 1960s and the turmoil that time brought to and left with our country. The story moves briskly, with its tangled plot and the machinations of its characters. Each of the primary characters are well-delineated, particularly Mankowski. And Leonard's dialogue is pithy and sharp.
This book shows Leonard at his best as a writer about crime and about human character. The novel is available in paperback and in the Library of America's volume "Elmore Leonard: Four Novels of the 1980s".
Robin Friedman
November 10, 2013
Been a while since my last Elmore Leonard whose much-lamented death a couple of months ago drove me to pick this one up from the bookshelf. Line by line, paragraph by paragraph, Dutch's prose still has no peer. Forget genre writers, even regular writers would kill for a style so vivid, so immediate. Freaky Deaky has that trademark style in spades, not a despised adverb in sight.
Unfortunately, the somewhat thin plot (small-time ex-hippie crooks trying to extort money out of a fat wasted millionaire) is stretched out over nearly 350 pages, an unsustainable length for this particular caper. There is some flab in the middle parts, although Leonard does give us a bravura finish. I wish he'd kept the whole thing tighter and leaner, it would have made for a better book.
The setting is Detroit in the late 80s, deep into Reagan's second term. The characters, with one or two exceptions, are a venal and nasty lot. Robin and Skip, the flower children gone horribly wrong, through whose eyes Leonard looks back at the counter-culture movement which ran riot (literally) in Detroit in the late 60s and 70s. Then there's the fucked-up rich brothers, Mark and Woody, feckless targets ripe for the picking. Much of the action is set in Woody's imposing mansion, which helps to give the book its slightly claustrophobic feel. Next up, Chris Mankowski, the smart cop in trouble with the authorities, who works the case with doggedness and intuition, and picks up the girl along the way, Greta/Ginger, an actress and a naif. And finally, the memorable Donnell, ex-Black Panther, now Woody's man about the house, his interior monologues probably the best thing about Freaky Deaky. For some reason, I kept thinking Clive Rowe would have made a great Donnell, it was his face I kept seeing as I read the Donnell sections of the book.
All in all, a decent read but not, perhaps, Dutch's finest work. Still, enough in here to show why Leonard is revered - and mourned - by so many.
P.S. That link up there, by the way, is the Economist's wonderful obituary of Leonard, done up in the form of an affectionate (and accurate!) pastiche.
Unfortunately, the somewhat thin plot (small-time ex-hippie crooks trying to extort money out of a fat wasted millionaire) is stretched out over nearly 350 pages, an unsustainable length for this particular caper. There is some flab in the middle parts, although Leonard does give us a bravura finish. I wish he'd kept the whole thing tighter and leaner, it would have made for a better book.
The setting is Detroit in the late 80s, deep into Reagan's second term. The characters, with one or two exceptions, are a venal and nasty lot. Robin and Skip, the flower children gone horribly wrong, through whose eyes Leonard looks back at the counter-culture movement which ran riot (literally) in Detroit in the late 60s and 70s. Then there's the fucked-up rich brothers, Mark and Woody, feckless targets ripe for the picking. Much of the action is set in Woody's imposing mansion, which helps to give the book its slightly claustrophobic feel. Next up, Chris Mankowski, the smart cop in trouble with the authorities, who works the case with doggedness and intuition, and picks up the girl along the way, Greta/Ginger, an actress and a naif. And finally, the memorable Donnell, ex-Black Panther, now Woody's man about the house, his interior monologues probably the best thing about Freaky Deaky. For some reason, I kept thinking Clive Rowe would have made a great Donnell, it was his face I kept seeing as I read the Donnell sections of the book.
All in all, a decent read but not, perhaps, Dutch's finest work. Still, enough in here to show why Leonard is revered - and mourned - by so many.
P.S. That link up there, by the way, is the Economist's wonderful obituary of Leonard, done up in the form of an affectionate (and accurate!) pastiche.
March 27, 2017
Elmore Leonard's 'Freaky Deaky' is a delightful cops-and-robbers farce, perfect for clearing the mind of workaday or family difficulties. Well, mostly. 1960's leftie terrorists, arrogant drunken rich guys, gangbangers, and a criminal chauffeur do a complicated dance with each other fighting over money from a wealthy but demented childman. It is all played for laughs, gentle reader.
A Detroit detective, Chris Mankowski, expert on explosives and bomb making, arrests a demented rich man, Woody Ricks, who allegedly raped an actress, Greta Wyatt. The arrest is somewhat unorthodox, but Chris thinks Greta is not only telling the truth, she is very attractive. However, Ricks is an important man, so Chris is suspended. He can't let it go, of course.
One thing leads to another, and some people go boom!
Very enjoyable lighthearted beach read!
April 6, 2024
Far from Leonards best, but also not his worst. I guess I'm saying that it was okay.
December 4, 2008
Elmore Leonard is so cool.
Maybe you think you haven't heard of him, but I bet you have. Quentin Tarantino directed "Jackie Brown" in 1997 — the film is based on Leonard’s novel Rum Punch. “Out of Sight” (1998) with George Clooney and “Get Shorty” (1995) with John Travolta and Danny DeVito are based on Leonard’s works, as well.
Freaky Deaky is an older Leonard novel, circa 1988. I don’t think the guy has written a single bad book, though, and I just read this one, so I’ll tell you about it and then encourage you to indulge yourself in more Elmore if you haven’t already acquainted yourself with his work.
Leonard likes to explore the criminal world that lies just beneath the plain, boring lawful one. In Freaky Deaky, Detroit is the setting, characters play with bombs, and nothing is quite what it seems.
Leonard’s characters are so well-drawn, one feels like he is reading a movie. Every player, from last-day-on-the-bomb-squad cop Mankowski to a bodyguard named Juicy Mouth, has distinct personality and style. I don’t know how Leonard does it, but that ability sets him very high on my list favorite writers.
The story opens with a scene reminiscent of Lethal Weapon: Booker, a drug dealer, calls 911 to report the chair he is sitting in is rigged to explode. Chris Mankowski and his partner Jerry Baker have left Booker to stew and are standing on the man's patio finishing their cigarettes when the house blows up. In classic Leonard style, they aren't discussing the bomb situation, but rather how annoying restaurant waiters are.
Next we meet Skip, a bomb technician who works on movie sets and his friend Robin, ex-con and unreformed hippie. Robin seems innocuous enough, but she has an agenda that entails revenge and a big score. Very ambitious. Wealthy, doped-up Woody Ricks is the target. In typical Leonard fashion, the plot winds around the characters until it draws them into the grand finale. Read it. I’m not gonna tell you how it ends.
For more about Elmore Leonard and his work, visit http://www.elmoreleonard.com.
Movie lovers might be interested to know that Pronto, Cat Chaser, and Gold Coast were made-for-TV movies based on Leonard’s books. Maximum Bob was an ABC-TV miniseries.
Tarantino is supposed to have plans to direct Bandits, Freaky Deaky, and Killshot. The rights to Cuba Libre were released in February 1998 to the Coen brothers ("Fargo").
And FYI, Michigan (Leonard's home state) has declared January 16 "Elmore Leonard Day."
Maybe you think you haven't heard of him, but I bet you have. Quentin Tarantino directed "Jackie Brown" in 1997 — the film is based on Leonard’s novel Rum Punch. “Out of Sight” (1998) with George Clooney and “Get Shorty” (1995) with John Travolta and Danny DeVito are based on Leonard’s works, as well.
Freaky Deaky is an older Leonard novel, circa 1988. I don’t think the guy has written a single bad book, though, and I just read this one, so I’ll tell you about it and then encourage you to indulge yourself in more Elmore if you haven’t already acquainted yourself with his work.
Leonard likes to explore the criminal world that lies just beneath the plain, boring lawful one. In Freaky Deaky, Detroit is the setting, characters play with bombs, and nothing is quite what it seems.
Leonard’s characters are so well-drawn, one feels like he is reading a movie. Every player, from last-day-on-the-bomb-squad cop Mankowski to a bodyguard named Juicy Mouth, has distinct personality and style. I don’t know how Leonard does it, but that ability sets him very high on my list favorite writers.
The story opens with a scene reminiscent of Lethal Weapon: Booker, a drug dealer, calls 911 to report the chair he is sitting in is rigged to explode. Chris Mankowski and his partner Jerry Baker have left Booker to stew and are standing on the man's patio finishing their cigarettes when the house blows up. In classic Leonard style, they aren't discussing the bomb situation, but rather how annoying restaurant waiters are.
Next we meet Skip, a bomb technician who works on movie sets and his friend Robin, ex-con and unreformed hippie. Robin seems innocuous enough, but she has an agenda that entails revenge and a big score. Very ambitious. Wealthy, doped-up Woody Ricks is the target. In typical Leonard fashion, the plot winds around the characters until it draws them into the grand finale. Read it. I’m not gonna tell you how it ends.
For more about Elmore Leonard and his work, visit http://www.elmoreleonard.com.
Movie lovers might be interested to know that Pronto, Cat Chaser, and Gold Coast were made-for-TV movies based on Leonard’s books. Maximum Bob was an ABC-TV miniseries.
Tarantino is supposed to have plans to direct Bandits, Freaky Deaky, and Killshot. The rights to Cuba Libre were released in February 1998 to the Coen brothers ("Fargo").
And FYI, Michigan (Leonard's home state) has declared January 16 "Elmore Leonard Day."
June 11, 2018
Ordinarily, I am an enormous fan of Mr. Leonard. Freaky Deaky is that rare exception that proves the general greatness of the author. Moments of his brilliant prose couldn't disguise the fact that after 100 pages nothing had happened, and not a single character stood out as anything but a pale imitation of a character he had done better elsewhere.
August 30, 2013
Elmore Leonard said on occasion this was his favorite of the books he wrote. Although it is right up there near the top of those I have read, it does not quite rank as my favorite (Get Shorty). Still, this is a brilliant book. Diamond cutter dialogue (what else?); subtle character arcs; and laugh out loud humor. The action revolves around setting bombs for fun and profit: Booker hears his girlfiend's voice on the phone, "Are you sitting down?" He said, "I am. I have sat the fuck down. Now you gonna talk to me, what?" Moselle's voice said, "I'm suppose to tell you that when you get up, honey, what's left of your ass is gonna go clear through the ceiling." But (I think) what Leonard was really doing was putting the '60's in focus, the good and the evil, and doing it with that spoonful of humorous sugar to help the medicine go down.
January 25, 2011
To my understanding, Elmore Leonard was the father of a style of prose which all but removed dialogue tags. Rarely do you see in his stories the use of John said, Bill said, Ellen said. Rather, Leonard brandishes a style in which a character performs an action and then the dialogue follows. The result is vivid scenes without too much "telling". Freaky Deaky has unique characters and problems that surmount in the most unexpected ways.
Dave
Dave
July 23, 2024
Freaky Deaky is an example of the median Elmore Leonard novel. His best books have a few things in common – his characters are all extremely likable or hateable, but they all seem like people, not caricatures. There’s a fun, complicated setup that could go half a dozen directions. And the fun is simply being around these characters to see what they do.
This was published 8 years before Out of Sight, and it comes off a little like a rough draft of that book. While the main plot points are different, several characters in Freaky Deaky are very similar to the ones in the later book. Out of Sight is an all-time classic novel (and film), anything reminiscent is going to seem a little less than.
That’s not to say it’s not a good book – I’ve never read an Elmore Leonard novel I wouldn’t recommend as a low-stakes, undemanding vacation read, which is exactly what this was. It’s great. If you haven’t read or watched Out of Sight, read this first. Then read Out of Sight.
This was published 8 years before Out of Sight, and it comes off a little like a rough draft of that book. While the main plot points are different, several characters in Freaky Deaky are very similar to the ones in the later book. Out of Sight is an all-time classic novel (and film), anything reminiscent is going to seem a little less than.
That’s not to say it’s not a good book – I’ve never read an Elmore Leonard novel I wouldn’t recommend as a low-stakes, undemanding vacation read, which is exactly what this was. It’s great. If you haven’t read or watched Out of Sight, read this first. Then read Out of Sight.
July 21, 2025
A skillfully plotted, brilliantly written crime novel that is also a great takedown of entitled, useless late '60s and early '70s counterculture types. Leonard's dialogue is a blast to read.
First read in August 2018, the first of Leonard’s crime novels I checked out, largely on the basis of quotations from the first chapter in a University Bookman review of the Library of America volume of Leonard’s Westerns—a roundabout way to discover it. Listened to the audiobook narrated by Frank Muller in July 2025. Good performance even if Muller’s interpretation often differed from what I heard in my head.
First read in August 2018, the first of Leonard’s crime novels I checked out, largely on the basis of quotations from the first chapter in a University Bookman review of the Library of America volume of Leonard’s Westerns—a roundabout way to discover it. Listened to the audiobook narrated by Frank Muller in July 2025. Good performance even if Muller’s interpretation often differed from what I heard in my head.
August 3, 2012
I can't devote the time necessary to review all the Elmore Leonard books I've read in my life, there are far too many - the man is a writing machine - and just about every single one has been terrific, state of the art. The New York Times has said he's "...the greatest living crime writer of our time...perhaps ever", and I think they underpraise him. Freaky Deaky is typical: great fun, fantastically true dialogue, unique characters you'd love to actually meet, and inventive plotting that drives everything along at a swift pace. Great stuff, this.
October 27, 2013
This one now has a pleasing double-retro flavor, with being set in the '80s as its characters reflect back on the political protests and anarchic violence of the late '60s and '70s. While Leonard's treatment of Greta is definitely no model of current feminist thought about assault victims, the overall story still has plenty of punch.
January 20, 2010
A decent read about some ex-weathermen and their penchant for explosives. A decent look at the culture of the 60's and how it translates (or not) to contemporary society. Good character development. Actually would give this a 3.5
March 4, 2017
Classic. A romp back in time to the 80's.
April 10, 2021
Con Elmore Leonard leggere un romanzo è come guardare un film.
Tutto si trasforma istantaneamente in immagini, sia i dialoghi che le ambientazioni ed il ritmo.
Intrattenimento noir-tarantiniano, insieme a fricchettoni di buona famiglia, bombaroli e Black Panthers, tutti incentrati sulla caccia al colpo grosso che ti sistema per tutta la vita, sempre se ci arrivi vivo alla fine della caccia.
Tutto si trasforma istantaneamente in immagini, sia i dialoghi che le ambientazioni ed il ritmo.
Intrattenimento noir-tarantiniano, insieme a fricchettoni di buona famiglia, bombaroli e Black Panthers, tutti incentrati sulla caccia al colpo grosso che ti sistema per tutta la vita, sempre se ci arrivi vivo alla fine della caccia.
December 21, 2020
Frankly, I had been thinking this is one of Mr. Leonard's better crime novels, with wonderful characters and strange humor, until the very end. I won't spoil it but I found the ending unsatisfying, and seriously wished I could give this one three and a half stars.
November 21, 2023
very fun. i enjoyed this book a lot, especially the satirical nature of the activists. i am so grateful to have been forced to read elmore leonard, so on par for justin of course, and it is so clear that he is the dickens of detriot.
February 14, 2018
Elmore Leonard began to relax into his craft when he entered the decade of the eighties, when he would turn 60. He had stopped drinking, for one thing, spoke openly about how that affected him. He was also starting to get major recognition, and make a lot of money. His settings wandered from his native Detroit to places where he’d vacationed, like Miami and Atlantic City. And he began to write scenes that might not have appeared in his earlier work.
Early in Freaky Deaky, for instance—said to have been his own favorite among his novels—a cop named Chris Mankowski is transferring from the bomb squad to some other department, maybe homicide, maybe sex crimes, and has a long interview with a police psychologist, who is trying to figure out if he has some hidden motivation for the switch. The scene doesn’t add to the plot at all. But it’s biting about the psychiatrist and revealing about Chris’ intelligence. It’s also hilarious.
I’m a little surprised, perhaps mildly embarrassed, to have finished my eighth Leonard novel in a matter of weeks, with another Library of America volume waiting in the wings. I consider myself a serious reader, often reflect on the fact that I don’t know how much reading time I have left. There are major classics I still haven’t tackled. But the sheer delight of being sunk into one of these Library of America Leonard volumes is not to be underestimated. I look forward to getting home and reading every evening. I’m never disappointed.
I can understand how Freaky Deaky was a favorite (though the title grates on me, I must say). It marked a return to Detroit, for one thing (the name Mankowski was your first clue[1]). It also takes a nostalgic look at the Sixties, though Leonard was too old to be a flower child during that decade. Two aging radicals, Robin Abbott and Skip Gibbs, have gotten out of jail and made their way back to the city of their earlier triumphs. Skip was a bomb expert, and Robin a general nay-sayer, opposed to everything except empty hedonism and manipulating human beings. In every one of these novels from the Eighties, there is at least one character who is utterly immoral, a psycho- or socio-path (in LaBrava there’s a character who kills a man because he cut him off on traffic. That the victim happens to be a judge is just an added bonus). In Freaky Deaky there are two such people. Leonard doesn’t analyze or try to understand them. He portrays them in all their cold-bloodedness.
Robin and Skip have come back to Detroit because there are a pair of brothers there—Woody and Mark Ricks—whom they knew back in the Sixties, when they were all student radicals. Woody and Mark are heirs to a vast fortune, a hundred million dollars, that the radicals had tapped even back in the old days, when the boy’s mother was in charge. Now Woody is the official heir, and if Robin and Skip are amoral, Woody is an alcoholic slob, drinking heavily from morning to night, eating junk, pawing at women. Early on in the story he rapes a woman named Greta who was hoping to talk about a job in a movie. If Woody has a defense, it would probably be that he was so blitzed out of his mind that he didn’t know rape from consent. Leonard’s characters are often major boozers, as if he’s looking at what might have been. Woody is the worst.
He therefore seems an easy mark for Robin and Skip. All they have to do is get him to transfer some money from his trust fund and sign a check. The sky’s the limit, though they settle on a fairly modest $1.7 million (they can always come back next year). They have to split the take with Donnell, the ex-Black Panther who takes care of Woody. He is yet another in a long string of entertaining African American characters in these eighties novels. He’s smart, savvy, and actually does a huge amount of work taking care of this white whale. He won’t be outsmarted by Robin and Skip, but is willing to work with them if he gets his share (and it’s bigger than theirs).
Into the middle of this mess walk Greta (trying to get reparations for the rape) and our friend Chris, who has indeed transferred to sex crimes but who also has a knowledge of bombs. It is through the use of bombs, and the threat of their use, that Skip and Robin are working on Donnell and Woody. Chris happens to know all about bombs, and is as savvy as anyone. He’s also—a no no for a cop in his situation—in love with Greta. But that becomes okay when he gets suspended from the force for living outside the city limits.
I would agree that Freaky Deaky is the most entertaining of the novels in this volume, also the most nerve-wracking (those bombs go off when you least expect them to). But it’s a close call with Glitz, set in a nostalgic Atlantic City, and LaBrava, in Miami. I would rank these books in reverse order of their composition, which leaves me looking forward to the next volume even more. I enjoy reading them as much as he enjoyed writing them.
[1] I can say that because my daughter in law is Polish and from Detroit. She has a lot of stories.
www.davidguy.org
Early in Freaky Deaky, for instance—said to have been his own favorite among his novels—a cop named Chris Mankowski is transferring from the bomb squad to some other department, maybe homicide, maybe sex crimes, and has a long interview with a police psychologist, who is trying to figure out if he has some hidden motivation for the switch. The scene doesn’t add to the plot at all. But it’s biting about the psychiatrist and revealing about Chris’ intelligence. It’s also hilarious.
I’m a little surprised, perhaps mildly embarrassed, to have finished my eighth Leonard novel in a matter of weeks, with another Library of America volume waiting in the wings. I consider myself a serious reader, often reflect on the fact that I don’t know how much reading time I have left. There are major classics I still haven’t tackled. But the sheer delight of being sunk into one of these Library of America Leonard volumes is not to be underestimated. I look forward to getting home and reading every evening. I’m never disappointed.
I can understand how Freaky Deaky was a favorite (though the title grates on me, I must say). It marked a return to Detroit, for one thing (the name Mankowski was your first clue[1]). It also takes a nostalgic look at the Sixties, though Leonard was too old to be a flower child during that decade. Two aging radicals, Robin Abbott and Skip Gibbs, have gotten out of jail and made their way back to the city of their earlier triumphs. Skip was a bomb expert, and Robin a general nay-sayer, opposed to everything except empty hedonism and manipulating human beings. In every one of these novels from the Eighties, there is at least one character who is utterly immoral, a psycho- or socio-path (in LaBrava there’s a character who kills a man because he cut him off on traffic. That the victim happens to be a judge is just an added bonus). In Freaky Deaky there are two such people. Leonard doesn’t analyze or try to understand them. He portrays them in all their cold-bloodedness.
Robin and Skip have come back to Detroit because there are a pair of brothers there—Woody and Mark Ricks—whom they knew back in the Sixties, when they were all student radicals. Woody and Mark are heirs to a vast fortune, a hundred million dollars, that the radicals had tapped even back in the old days, when the boy’s mother was in charge. Now Woody is the official heir, and if Robin and Skip are amoral, Woody is an alcoholic slob, drinking heavily from morning to night, eating junk, pawing at women. Early on in the story he rapes a woman named Greta who was hoping to talk about a job in a movie. If Woody has a defense, it would probably be that he was so blitzed out of his mind that he didn’t know rape from consent. Leonard’s characters are often major boozers, as if he’s looking at what might have been. Woody is the worst.
He therefore seems an easy mark for Robin and Skip. All they have to do is get him to transfer some money from his trust fund and sign a check. The sky’s the limit, though they settle on a fairly modest $1.7 million (they can always come back next year). They have to split the take with Donnell, the ex-Black Panther who takes care of Woody. He is yet another in a long string of entertaining African American characters in these eighties novels. He’s smart, savvy, and actually does a huge amount of work taking care of this white whale. He won’t be outsmarted by Robin and Skip, but is willing to work with them if he gets his share (and it’s bigger than theirs).
Into the middle of this mess walk Greta (trying to get reparations for the rape) and our friend Chris, who has indeed transferred to sex crimes but who also has a knowledge of bombs. It is through the use of bombs, and the threat of their use, that Skip and Robin are working on Donnell and Woody. Chris happens to know all about bombs, and is as savvy as anyone. He’s also—a no no for a cop in his situation—in love with Greta. But that becomes okay when he gets suspended from the force for living outside the city limits.
I would agree that Freaky Deaky is the most entertaining of the novels in this volume, also the most nerve-wracking (those bombs go off when you least expect them to). But it’s a close call with Glitz, set in a nostalgic Atlantic City, and LaBrava, in Miami. I would rank these books in reverse order of their composition, which leaves me looking forward to the next volume even more. I enjoy reading them as much as he enjoyed writing them.
[1] I can say that because my daughter in law is Polish and from Detroit. She has a lot of stories.
www.davidguy.org
May 2, 2023
Fast moving thriller with Leonard's trademark conversational style and offbeat characters. Drunken rich people, ex-revolutionaries who like dynamite and a cop hero who's not sure if he's on the job or on the take. Snappy dialogue and lots of action. - BH.
July 15, 2025
Elmore Leonard was at the top of his game in this one from 1988, his whole bag of tricks on display. Leonard's particular talent was to capture personality through dialogue and convey atmosphere with the sparest of detail. It's often said that his dialogue was natural, the way people really talked, but it was more than that-- it was unfailingly clever and interesting, always to the point, while sounding completely authentic. He had the American vernacular down.
His plots were not so much careful constructions as detached, clinical observations of low-lifery and criminal shenanigans. In an Elmore Leonard novel we just sit back and watch as dysfunctional and unscrupulous people do what they do. There's usually somebody relatively sympathetic to root for, sometimes with his or her own dubious agenda, and the pleasure lies in watching the bad guys come to a bad end.
In this one, set in Detroit in the late eighties, two former sixties radicals, one a calculating female ideologue turned romance novelist and the other a drug-fueled loose cannon who moved on from bombing draft offices to working as a special effects explosives expert in the movies, re-unite to extort money from a former comrade who inherited millions and is now himself an alcoholic basket case. His household is run by a former Black Panther who has his own plans for siphoning off some of the wealth. In the mix is a Detroit cop recently transferred from the bomb squad to sex crimes, investigating the brain-fogged tycoon for a rape he committed at a party he threw.
Mix ingredients, shake well and just watch. It all ends with a bang. Great street-wise entertainment from a master.
His plots were not so much careful constructions as detached, clinical observations of low-lifery and criminal shenanigans. In an Elmore Leonard novel we just sit back and watch as dysfunctional and unscrupulous people do what they do. There's usually somebody relatively sympathetic to root for, sometimes with his or her own dubious agenda, and the pleasure lies in watching the bad guys come to a bad end.
In this one, set in Detroit in the late eighties, two former sixties radicals, one a calculating female ideologue turned romance novelist and the other a drug-fueled loose cannon who moved on from bombing draft offices to working as a special effects explosives expert in the movies, re-unite to extort money from a former comrade who inherited millions and is now himself an alcoholic basket case. His household is run by a former Black Panther who has his own plans for siphoning off some of the wealth. In the mix is a Detroit cop recently transferred from the bomb squad to sex crimes, investigating the brain-fogged tycoon for a rape he committed at a party he threw.
Mix ingredients, shake well and just watch. It all ends with a bang. Great street-wise entertainment from a master.
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