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Carl Webster #2
Up in Honey's Room: A Novel
Sweet Honey Deal's not sure what compelled her to marry Walter Schoen, possibly the most boring man on Earth. So she quickly rectified the situation by leaving the dour German-born butcher to start a new life. A good thing, too, now that America's at war with Adolf Hitler and Walter's loyalty to his adopted country was always questionable. Even better, now U.S. Marshal Carl Webster wants to come up to Honey's room for an official "chat" . . . and for something more intimate, if Honey has anything to say about it. The feds' legendary "Hot Kid," Carl's hunting two German POWs who escaped from an Oklahoma internment camp. Maybe Honey's estranged hubby knows something. Maybe Honey knows something. Maybe Carl can stay faithful to his wife. Or maybe they're all about to get tangled up—along with a sultry Ukrainian spy and her transvestite manservant—in a nutty assassination plot that can't possibly succeed . . .
318 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 8, 2007
218 people are currently reading
1336 people want to read
About the author
Elmore Leonard
215 books3,738 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 373 reviews
October 14, 2015
Carl Webster comes to Detroit looking for some escaped German POWs. Will Honey, the ex-wife of a friend of the POWs, be his salvation or his downfall?
Yeah, I made the teaser way more exciting than the book. I hesitate to call any Elmore Leonard book bad but this one was definitely on the shitty side of good.
For my money, Elmore Leonard does his best work when pitting guys with various degrees of sleaze against each other in either Miami or Detroit and peppering it with slick dialogue. While this one has a Detroit setting, it's set in the 1940's which kind of removes a lot of the cool factor. Also, German POWs who barely speak English do not have the slickest dialogue in crime fiction.
I felt like I missed something regarding Carl Webster's past relationships with the POWs and why he was so determined to go after them. Turns out I had since that was previously detailed in Comfort to the Enemy and Other Carl Webster Stories.
While I thought Carl Webster was a cool guy, I also feel like he was Raylan Givens with a lick of paint. Actually, since Carl Webster has about as much written about him as Raylan Givens, maybe the writers of Justified drew some material for Raylan from Carl. Either way, I felt like this could have easily been a Raylan Givens story with minimal modifications.
My biggest gripe with this was that nothing happened for most of the book. I think the book suffered because the time period was a departure from Leonard's usual and the characters didn't lend themselves to his usual magic. Two stars. I refrained from giving it one star because the book didn't actually suck but it's definitely a bottom shelf Leonard.
Yeah, I made the teaser way more exciting than the book. I hesitate to call any Elmore Leonard book bad but this one was definitely on the shitty side of good.
For my money, Elmore Leonard does his best work when pitting guys with various degrees of sleaze against each other in either Miami or Detroit and peppering it with slick dialogue. While this one has a Detroit setting, it's set in the 1940's which kind of removes a lot of the cool factor. Also, German POWs who barely speak English do not have the slickest dialogue in crime fiction.
I felt like I missed something regarding Carl Webster's past relationships with the POWs and why he was so determined to go after them. Turns out I had since that was previously detailed in Comfort to the Enemy and Other Carl Webster Stories.
While I thought Carl Webster was a cool guy, I also feel like he was Raylan Givens with a lick of paint. Actually, since Carl Webster has about as much written about him as Raylan Givens, maybe the writers of Justified drew some material for Raylan from Carl. Either way, I felt like this could have easily been a Raylan Givens story with minimal modifications.
My biggest gripe with this was that nothing happened for most of the book. I think the book suffered because the time period was a departure from Leonard's usual and the characters didn't lend themselves to his usual magic. Two stars. I refrained from giving it one star because the book didn't actually suck but it's definitely a bottom shelf Leonard.
December 7, 2022
"His books don't sound like he had any fun writing them."
One of the characters in Up in Honey's Room muses about the books of Zane Grey. It is a criticism nobody would ever level at Elmore Leonard.
Up in Honey's Room is a talky and carefully plotted thriller that unravels during the second world war. It is also a sleazy comedy of manners set among the cops, low lives and robbers/nazis of the time.
The characters are developed entirely through dialog and nothing else.
Honey Deal is a delightfully sordid, promiscuous and cool as a cucumber woman who has the hots for multiple men including Nazis.
Jurgen and Otto are Nazis on the run. Jurgen is portrayed quite sympathetically by Leonard.
Carl Webster is a tough detective, who is sent to Detroit, to hunt down Jurgen and Otto. He is crazy about Honey but is also loyal to his wife, who is in the marines.
Walter Schoen, Honey's ex-husband who resembles Himmler and does not get her jokes, is a no-good Nazi who dreams of murdering Roosevelt in a suicide attack.
Alcoholic double agent and countess Vera is providing false information to the Nazis while organizing meetings with Americans sympathetic to Hitler. Her murderous cross dressing servant and lover Bohdan wants to run away with Vera.
The finale when they are all forced to strip naked and lined up to be shot by the murderous Bohdan (so that it would wipe off any evidence connecting his lover Vera to the Nazis) is ingenious. But he does not know Vera has another trick up her sleeve.
Novels set during world war 2 are usually about the mental and physical devastation unleashed by the war. Up in Honey's Room is violent, but also tongue in cheek and outrageously funny. Elmore Leonard is having fun with these characters, perhaps suggesting that people weren't too bad back then. They were just caught in the whirlpool of history. For example, Otto who is supposed to be a Nazi, loves reading American novels and hooks up with a Jewish art thief. While Jurgen once harbored dreams of becoming a Matador in Spain. But here they are, playing at being Nazi spies.
The book might have inspired Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds. I hope Terry Zwigoff makes a movie based on it.
One of the characters in Up in Honey's Room muses about the books of Zane Grey. It is a criticism nobody would ever level at Elmore Leonard.
Up in Honey's Room is a talky and carefully plotted thriller that unravels during the second world war. It is also a sleazy comedy of manners set among the cops, low lives and robbers/nazis of the time.
The characters are developed entirely through dialog and nothing else.
Honey Deal is a delightfully sordid, promiscuous and cool as a cucumber woman who has the hots for multiple men including Nazis.
Jurgen and Otto are Nazis on the run. Jurgen is portrayed quite sympathetically by Leonard.
Carl Webster is a tough detective, who is sent to Detroit, to hunt down Jurgen and Otto. He is crazy about Honey but is also loyal to his wife, who is in the marines.
Walter Schoen, Honey's ex-husband who resembles Himmler and does not get her jokes, is a no-good Nazi who dreams of murdering Roosevelt in a suicide attack.
Alcoholic double agent and countess Vera is providing false information to the Nazis while organizing meetings with Americans sympathetic to Hitler. Her murderous cross dressing servant and lover Bohdan wants to run away with Vera.
The finale when they are all forced to strip naked and lined up to be shot by the murderous Bohdan (so that it would wipe off any evidence connecting his lover Vera to the Nazis) is ingenious. But he does not know Vera has another trick up her sleeve.
Novels set during world war 2 are usually about the mental and physical devastation unleashed by the war. Up in Honey's Room is violent, but also tongue in cheek and outrageously funny. Elmore Leonard is having fun with these characters, perhaps suggesting that people weren't too bad back then. They were just caught in the whirlpool of history. For example, Otto who is supposed to be a Nazi, loves reading American novels and hooks up with a Jewish art thief. While Jurgen once harbored dreams of becoming a Matador in Spain. But here they are, playing at being Nazi spies.
The book might have inspired Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds. I hope Terry Zwigoff makes a movie based on it.
September 16, 2024
This is Elmore Leonard's second novel to feature U.S. Marshal Carl Webster, the "Hot Kid," who was first introduced in The Hot Kid. It is now 1944. The Second World War is raging, and Carl is back in the U.S. after being wounded in combat and mustered out of the military. The book finds him in Detroit, in a not-so-hot pursuit of two German P.O.W.s who escaped from a camp in Oklahoma.
Leonard is know principally for the wonderful characters who populate his novels and for the great dialogue that he gives those characters. His plots are often pretty thin and exist principally as a way to allow the characters to interact. In this case, the plot is basically non-existant, but there are some very good characters in addition to Carl Webster. Principal among them is the sexy Honey Deal.
Just before the war, Honey married Walter Shoen, a German-American butcher who believes that he may be the twin brother of Heinrich Himmler, the dreaded Nazi SS leader. Walter sympathizes with Germany and the Nazis, and as the war progresses, he becomes involved with a group of Nazi symmpathizers and possible spies in the Detroit area.
After being married to Walter for a year, Honey divorces him because she has become totally bored with him. When Carl Webster arrives on the scene several years later, Walter is still pinning for Honey, but before long, Honey will have set her sights on the handsome (and married) U.S. Marshal.
The interplay between Carl and Honey is the best part of the book. Most of the other characters are not nearly as interesting as the characters that Leonard usually creates and the dialogue is not as good as usual. This may have something to do with the fact that the book is set in the 1940s and that several of the characters are Germans who may not be given to the snappy exchanges that one usually expects from Leonard's characters.
For virtually the entire duration of the book, Webster has a pretty good idea where he could find the two escaped prisoners he is looking for, but he makes little or no effort to arrest them. Rather, he spends his time jousting with Honey and with Walter's circle of German sympathizers. By the time the novel approaches something like a climax, there's really not much of a payoff.
This isn't a bad book by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that Leonard does a much better job with stories set in the present day, populated by contemporary characters. I enjoyed this book, but it will never rank among my favorite Elmore Leonard novels.
Leonard is know principally for the wonderful characters who populate his novels and for the great dialogue that he gives those characters. His plots are often pretty thin and exist principally as a way to allow the characters to interact. In this case, the plot is basically non-existant, but there are some very good characters in addition to Carl Webster. Principal among them is the sexy Honey Deal.
Just before the war, Honey married Walter Shoen, a German-American butcher who believes that he may be the twin brother of Heinrich Himmler, the dreaded Nazi SS leader. Walter sympathizes with Germany and the Nazis, and as the war progresses, he becomes involved with a group of Nazi symmpathizers and possible spies in the Detroit area.
After being married to Walter for a year, Honey divorces him because she has become totally bored with him. When Carl Webster arrives on the scene several years later, Walter is still pinning for Honey, but before long, Honey will have set her sights on the handsome (and married) U.S. Marshal.
The interplay between Carl and Honey is the best part of the book. Most of the other characters are not nearly as interesting as the characters that Leonard usually creates and the dialogue is not as good as usual. This may have something to do with the fact that the book is set in the 1940s and that several of the characters are Germans who may not be given to the snappy exchanges that one usually expects from Leonard's characters.
For virtually the entire duration of the book, Webster has a pretty good idea where he could find the two escaped prisoners he is looking for, but he makes little or no effort to arrest them. Rather, he spends his time jousting with Honey and with Walter's circle of German sympathizers. By the time the novel approaches something like a climax, there's really not much of a payoff.
This isn't a bad book by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that Leonard does a much better job with stories set in the present day, populated by contemporary characters. I enjoyed this book, but it will never rank among my favorite Elmore Leonard novels.
April 19, 2023
Elmore Leonard's books are always good for their entertainment value.Perhaps some would consider his tales far-fetched, but he has the ability to bring life to his plot and credibility to most situations.
Up in Honey's Room takes place in Detroit during the final year of WW II. Honey had been married for one year to Walter Schoen, who not only resembled Himmler, but considered himself his separated twin due to their shared birthdate and place of birth! She is a bright, funny and attractive woman unsuited to this boring, fastidious Nazi sympathizer. Honey is enlisted to assist the FBI in the capture of some escaped German POW's because of her prior relationship with Walter. Thus the stage is set for some interesting and amusing antics. In viewing this plot with bumbling spies and friendly or scheming Nazis, one might equate it with the old TV program, "Hogan's Heroes". This would be a total error, for Leonard has captured the imagination and involved some creative humor along the way.
Leonard's characters are certainly unique and explicitly drawn. Conversations among the people often consists of amusing banter and some amazing stupidity. This little treasure is no exception. Also enjoyable were the descriptions of life during that period, including modes of transportation, clothing styles and the types of foods consumed! As usual, he has concluded the narrative with a surprising twist.
Up in Honey's Room takes place in Detroit during the final year of WW II. Honey had been married for one year to Walter Schoen, who not only resembled Himmler, but considered himself his separated twin due to their shared birthdate and place of birth! She is a bright, funny and attractive woman unsuited to this boring, fastidious Nazi sympathizer. Honey is enlisted to assist the FBI in the capture of some escaped German POW's because of her prior relationship with Walter. Thus the stage is set for some interesting and amusing antics. In viewing this plot with bumbling spies and friendly or scheming Nazis, one might equate it with the old TV program, "Hogan's Heroes". This would be a total error, for Leonard has captured the imagination and involved some creative humor along the way.
Leonard's characters are certainly unique and explicitly drawn. Conversations among the people often consists of amusing banter and some amazing stupidity. This little treasure is no exception. Also enjoyable were the descriptions of life during that period, including modes of transportation, clothing styles and the types of foods consumed! As usual, he has concluded the narrative with a surprising twist.
July 15, 2023
Up In Honey’s Room
Elmore Leonard wrote “Up In Honey’s Room” at the age of 82 and wrote three more novels after that… before he died at the age of 87. I think that should give some hope to us Stephen King fans who fear that the master (now merely in his late 60’s) will stop writing any time soon. It doesn’t have to be that way.
To be honest, this is the first Elmore Leonard work I’ve ever read, based largely on Stephen King’s recommendation in “On Writing” that we read Leonard for his spot-on dialogue.
Leonard writes in 2007 about events in Detroit in the early 1940s, and we get a sense that we're there, when everyone is obsessed with the threat of Nazi Germany, Detroit is the arsenal of democracy, and we couldn’t be more proud of that city and its powerful American manufacturing capability.
Into this monument to capitalism steps Walter Schoen, a Hitler-loving German butcher who feels that his biggest claim to fame is that he looks exactly like Heinrech Himmler. Walter has married an intelligent but extremely flighty American named Honey Deal. She thought he might be interesting. Turns out he’s not, in fact he’s only smiled once (maybe) in their two years of marriage… even when she’s told him some pretty good jokes. Honey leaves Walter, but by then she already knows many of his pro-Nazi friends.
So of course, when heroic US Marshal Carl Weber blows in from Oklahoma chasing a couple of escaped German POWs, Honey is one of the first people he contacts. Honey finds Carl good-looking, funny, and sexy… she has a low boiling point and a very direct approach when she’s interested in male companionship. But Carl’s married and relatively faithful to a gunnery instructor for the US Marines, so Honey meets and seduces one of the escaped German POWs instead. He’s a handsome ex-tank commander named Jergin, and he has already gotten to like America and wants to stay here and become a rodeo broncobuster after the war ends.
Things get more complicated. There are plenty of other Nazi sympathizers that the FBI is watching, and they wind together into a complex scheme that turns on the death of a noted doctor and his wife and ends up in Honey’s room just as Honey, Walter, Carl, and Jergin are forced to strip naked as a transvestite pro-Nazi sympathizer prepares to machine gun them all.
Okay. So the plot is very weird, but there are great characters (especially Honey and Carl) and the dialogue is so perfect that you are absolutely certain that you are eavesdropping on real conversations with real but very strange people.
Some critics say that it’s not one of Leonard’s best novels by any means. But I found it very entertaining.
Elmore Leonard wrote “Up In Honey’s Room” at the age of 82 and wrote three more novels after that… before he died at the age of 87. I think that should give some hope to us Stephen King fans who fear that the master (now merely in his late 60’s) will stop writing any time soon. It doesn’t have to be that way.
To be honest, this is the first Elmore Leonard work I’ve ever read, based largely on Stephen King’s recommendation in “On Writing” that we read Leonard for his spot-on dialogue.
Leonard writes in 2007 about events in Detroit in the early 1940s, and we get a sense that we're there, when everyone is obsessed with the threat of Nazi Germany, Detroit is the arsenal of democracy, and we couldn’t be more proud of that city and its powerful American manufacturing capability.
Into this monument to capitalism steps Walter Schoen, a Hitler-loving German butcher who feels that his biggest claim to fame is that he looks exactly like Heinrech Himmler. Walter has married an intelligent but extremely flighty American named Honey Deal. She thought he might be interesting. Turns out he’s not, in fact he’s only smiled once (maybe) in their two years of marriage… even when she’s told him some pretty good jokes. Honey leaves Walter, but by then she already knows many of his pro-Nazi friends.
So of course, when heroic US Marshal Carl Weber blows in from Oklahoma chasing a couple of escaped German POWs, Honey is one of the first people he contacts. Honey finds Carl good-looking, funny, and sexy… she has a low boiling point and a very direct approach when she’s interested in male companionship. But Carl’s married and relatively faithful to a gunnery instructor for the US Marines, so Honey meets and seduces one of the escaped German POWs instead. He’s a handsome ex-tank commander named Jergin, and he has already gotten to like America and wants to stay here and become a rodeo broncobuster after the war ends.
Things get more complicated. There are plenty of other Nazi sympathizers that the FBI is watching, and they wind together into a complex scheme that turns on the death of a noted doctor and his wife and ends up in Honey’s room just as Honey, Walter, Carl, and Jergin are forced to strip naked as a transvestite pro-Nazi sympathizer prepares to machine gun them all.
Okay. So the plot is very weird, but there are great characters (especially Honey and Carl) and the dialogue is so perfect that you are absolutely certain that you are eavesdropping on real conversations with real but very strange people.
Some critics say that it’s not one of Leonard’s best novels by any means. But I found it very entertaining.
August 10, 2025
"Up in Honey's Room" is Elmore Leonard's follow-up novel to "The Hot Kid".
U.S. Marshall Carlos "Carl" Webster is a little bit older, but he's still got it. It's 1944 and the Allied Forces are kicking Germany's ass. Carl is state-side rounding up criminals and occasionally AWOL German soldiers who may or not be German spies. Some of them are just soldiers who don't agree with Hitler's National Socialist agenda, and they want out. Then there are the American citizens who agree with Hitler and want to do something to help the losing German side.
Walter Schoen is one of those American citizens. He believes that he is Himmler's twin, inexplicably separated at birth. He decides to set into motion a plan to assassinate President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Not on Carl Webster's watch, of course.
What ensues is a humorously convoluted story in which Webster must deal with assassination attempts on his own life, the temptations of adultery, and sorting out who's who among the real Nazis and the Nazi posers.
Leonard doesn't let up, and the ending is one the funniest shootouts Leonard has ever written.
U.S. Marshall Carlos "Carl" Webster is a little bit older, but he's still got it. It's 1944 and the Allied Forces are kicking Germany's ass. Carl is state-side rounding up criminals and occasionally AWOL German soldiers who may or not be German spies. Some of them are just soldiers who don't agree with Hitler's National Socialist agenda, and they want out. Then there are the American citizens who agree with Hitler and want to do something to help the losing German side.
Walter Schoen is one of those American citizens. He believes that he is Himmler's twin, inexplicably separated at birth. He decides to set into motion a plan to assassinate President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Not on Carl Webster's watch, of course.
What ensues is a humorously convoluted story in which Webster must deal with assassination attempts on his own life, the temptations of adultery, and sorting out who's who among the real Nazis and the Nazi posers.
Leonard doesn't let up, and the ending is one the funniest shootouts Leonard has ever written.
June 22, 2009
For those of you with fondness for Detroit (no that is not a joke!!)
The book is almost worth reading just for Elmore Leonard's descriptions of WWII Detroit, back when there were cornfields up on north Woodward to the zoo on Belle Isle to old the Hudsons Department Store.
(for recommendation of other historic Detroit novels, see end of this review).
For those of you who have yet to acquire a taste for Detroit, the book is typical Elmore Leonard, imaginative characters you can see, interesting dialogue and not much of a plot.
With Elmore Leonard you have to get into the mood and feeling of the scene and the characters. He sets the stage with intersting characters (the Karl the Oklahoma US Marshall, Honey the self assured, sexy Kentucky transplant, Walter whose life is built around his resmeblebce to Henrick Himmler, to the escaped German POWs, to a forgotten German spy ring including a transvestite) and you just watch them interact. There is not a great deal of rising action, and the story climax may feel almost as an after thought, but this, like most of his novels, the enjoyment is not as much in the resolution, but just in the ride along the way.
If you like Up in Honey's Room, recommend Loren D. Estleman's historic crime novels about Detroit
Thunder City (turn of the Century),
Whiskey River (Prohbition)
Jitterbug (WWII era)
Edsel (1950s)
Stress (1970s)
King of the Corner (1980s)
Loren D. Estelman does not have Elmore Leonar's gift for characters and dialogue, but he has great similies and his descriptions of Detriot are spot on.
Please let me know if you know of any other good Detroit authors.
The book is almost worth reading just for Elmore Leonard's descriptions of WWII Detroit, back when there were cornfields up on north Woodward to the zoo on Belle Isle to old the Hudsons Department Store.
(for recommendation of other historic Detroit novels, see end of this review).
For those of you who have yet to acquire a taste for Detroit, the book is typical Elmore Leonard, imaginative characters you can see, interesting dialogue and not much of a plot.
With Elmore Leonard you have to get into the mood and feeling of the scene and the characters. He sets the stage with intersting characters (the Karl the Oklahoma US Marshall, Honey the self assured, sexy Kentucky transplant, Walter whose life is built around his resmeblebce to Henrick Himmler, to the escaped German POWs, to a forgotten German spy ring including a transvestite) and you just watch them interact. There is not a great deal of rising action, and the story climax may feel almost as an after thought, but this, like most of his novels, the enjoyment is not as much in the resolution, but just in the ride along the way.
If you like Up in Honey's Room, recommend Loren D. Estleman's historic crime novels about Detroit
Thunder City (turn of the Century),
Whiskey River (Prohbition)
Jitterbug (WWII era)
Edsel (1950s)
Stress (1970s)
King of the Corner (1980s)
Loren D. Estelman does not have Elmore Leonar's gift for characters and dialogue, but he has great similies and his descriptions of Detriot are spot on.
Please let me know if you know of any other good Detroit authors.
May 17, 2017
It is a story told
primarily through dialogue and character development. I thought it
was great stuff, but I caution that it is not for everyone. Honey Deal is
the "real doll," a femme fatale that thought it would be interesting to
marry Walter Shoen, a German butcher who sympathizes with the
Nazis. After a year of being bored silly by his German manners, she
walks out on him. Five years later, the war is in full swing and federal
Marshal Carl Webster is hunting two Nazi POWs that escaped from a
penitentiary in Oklahoma. Carl is the real deal too, an honest-to-godcowboy from the west who is intent on getting his man and who keeps
his hands off the goods even when Honey turns around topless in an
effort to make him. Carl thinks Honey's ex husband is harboring the
fugitives and enlists her help in talking to her ex. The Nazis are a crazy
group, including Walter who believes he is Heinreich Himmler's twin
separated at birth, another one who thinks he wants to be a cowboy in
a rodeo, and of course the Romanian Countess who has a transvestite
butler. It is a crazy tale and once you get into it, there's no turning
back. Leonard wrote this to be realistic and it has that feel. You feel as
if you are in war-era Detroit and the characters are something else,
especially Honey Deal. I recommend reading this one,
primarily through dialogue and character development. I thought it
was great stuff, but I caution that it is not for everyone. Honey Deal is
the "real doll," a femme fatale that thought it would be interesting to
marry Walter Shoen, a German butcher who sympathizes with the
Nazis. After a year of being bored silly by his German manners, she
walks out on him. Five years later, the war is in full swing and federal
Marshal Carl Webster is hunting two Nazi POWs that escaped from a
penitentiary in Oklahoma. Carl is the real deal too, an honest-to-godcowboy from the west who is intent on getting his man and who keeps
his hands off the goods even when Honey turns around topless in an
effort to make him. Carl thinks Honey's ex husband is harboring the
fugitives and enlists her help in talking to her ex. The Nazis are a crazy
group, including Walter who believes he is Heinreich Himmler's twin
separated at birth, another one who thinks he wants to be a cowboy in
a rodeo, and of course the Romanian Countess who has a transvestite
butler. It is a crazy tale and once you get into it, there's no turning
back. Leonard wrote this to be realistic and it has that feel. You feel as
if you are in war-era Detroit and the characters are something else,
especially Honey Deal. I recommend reading this one,
June 13, 2014
Good book with fun characterizations and witty dialogue. I liked it, but I don't remember a whole lot about it. Overall it's a good read, but kind of disposable.
A good airplane book.
A good airplane book.
October 22, 2012
Honey Deal, a Kentucky girl who moved to Detroit during the depression met and married a butcher named Walter, who is himself an immigrant but from somewhat farther away. Walter is German by birth and a doppelganger for Heinrich Himmler—who he believes is his twin brother—and is involved with a German spy ring. After a year of unhappy marriage Honey divorces Walter and tries to move on but then, after being interviewed by the FBI, meets Carl, a U.S Marshall of some notoriety who is in search of an escaped German POW from a camp in Oklahoma. Honey is aware that Walter is hiding Jurgen, the escaped POW who she finds herself attracted to, but she now finds herself equally attracted to Carl. The characters begin to multiply as the plot thickens and violence and humor intermingle. Strategies of escape and capture as well as murder are incongruously humorous in this bygone era as Honey seemingly turns every event to her personal advantage. Detroit, “The Arsenal of Democracy” is the perfect setting for this droll chronicle of spies, before the age of atomic warfare and world ending technology. Although far from “Hogan’s Heroes” pathetic Walter often seems more like a disheartened Colonel Klink than an intrepid enemy.
August 6, 2011
The varied responses of a group of readers to the same book always interest me, so I was intrigued by the very divergent GoodReads reviews of this book. Many loyal Elmore Leonard fans found it disappointing, but I couldn't get enough of the sassy, sexy Honey Deal and the other characters who populated this WW2 era novel.
There's no doubt that the story didn't really go anywhere, but for me it didn't need to. Leonard crafts his characters so well, with such economy in his language, that I really feel I've entered their world. I've marvelled at his skill in characterization and wonder if this skill was finely honed to preserve the integrity of his many books that have become films. A Leonard character is so vivid and so complete that even the most mediocre director couldn't miss their essence.
Up in Honey's Room is Leonard's first period novel that I've read. The other eight or ten books that I've enjoyed were contemporary. As a Detroiter, reading Leonard's descriptions of a bustling, vibrant city in the 1930's was fun for me. Leonard is one of our home town heroes and I hope he has it in him to write another three dozen books.
There's no doubt that the story didn't really go anywhere, but for me it didn't need to. Leonard crafts his characters so well, with such economy in his language, that I really feel I've entered their world. I've marvelled at his skill in characterization and wonder if this skill was finely honed to preserve the integrity of his many books that have become films. A Leonard character is so vivid and so complete that even the most mediocre director couldn't miss their essence.
Up in Honey's Room is Leonard's first period novel that I've read. The other eight or ten books that I've enjoyed were contemporary. As a Detroiter, reading Leonard's descriptions of a bustling, vibrant city in the 1930's was fun for me. Leonard is one of our home town heroes and I hope he has it in him to write another three dozen books.
December 4, 2017
Ebook and audio by Arliss Howard
Elmore skillfully uses stereotype characters to capture what was going on "at home" during WWII. I believe Elmore saw combat in the Pacific Theater as a navy Seebee (combat engineer construction worker). I especially like his main character, Honey Deal, showing how at the time, women were starting show some 'social emancipation'. It's that over the top line "Sieg Hiel, y'all. I'm Honey Deal," that shows some disrespect to the bad guys. This the same tool that late night comics use for denigration. Not a bad story for a guy in his 80's.
Elmore skillfully uses stereotype characters to capture what was going on "at home" during WWII. I believe Elmore saw combat in the Pacific Theater as a navy Seebee (combat engineer construction worker). I especially like his main character, Honey Deal, showing how at the time, women were starting show some 'social emancipation'. It's that over the top line "Sieg Hiel, y'all. I'm Honey Deal," that shows some disrespect to the bad guys. This the same tool that late night comics use for denigration. Not a bad story for a guy in his 80's.
August 29, 2022
The follow-on novel to The Hot Kid once again features US Marshal Carl Webster, who is now forced to live with the notoriety of his past exploits. The time is the early 1940s, near the end of World War II and Carl is called to the Detroit area to expose and nab members of a Nazi spy ring. Not least among them is Walter Schoen who happens to be a dead ringer for Heinrich Himmler and, in fact, thinks he is the Nazi leader’s unknown twin brother. Schoen’s wife of only one year, Honey, has divorced him several years previously but seems likely to hold the keys that will allow Carl Webster to get close to the spy ring.
This novel is told almost entirely through dialog, a technique that Elmore Leonard had perfected over his long career. That makes for a relatively quick read as the pages just keep turning. The plot was unconventional too, and entirely unpredictable. Honey has a way of using her beauty to entice men and whether or not the happily married Carl Webster succumbs to her charms is part of the mystery.
I will confess that Elmore Leonard can be a hot or miss author for me. I really enjoy his westerns where he cut his teeth, but his more recent crime novels have been up and down. This one is a good one for sure, as much due to the character of Carl Webster as to the writing prowess of Elmore Leonard.
This novel is told almost entirely through dialog, a technique that Elmore Leonard had perfected over his long career. That makes for a relatively quick read as the pages just keep turning. The plot was unconventional too, and entirely unpredictable. Honey has a way of using her beauty to entice men and whether or not the happily married Carl Webster succumbs to her charms is part of the mystery.
I will confess that Elmore Leonard can be a hot or miss author for me. I really enjoy his westerns where he cut his teeth, but his more recent crime novels have been up and down. This one is a good one for sure, as much due to the character of Carl Webster as to the writing prowess of Elmore Leonard.
February 14, 2018
Doesn't really go anywhere but the dialogue is the show here. No one does it better than EL.
March 21, 2019
Remarkable novel. Psychological more than most detective stories, with rounded characters, a sound plot, an anticlimactic ending, great writing.
March 31, 2015
begins: "honey phoned her sister-in-law muriel, still living in harlan county, kentucky, to tell her she'd left walter schoen, calling him valter, and was on her way to being honey deal again. she said to muriel, "i honestly thought i could turn him around, but the man still acts like a nazi. i couldn't budge him."
leonard employs a tool i've taken to calling "time passages" (check out al stewart's song you get a chance)...characters using their imagination as we all do...and in this one, one of many in which leonard uses this tool, the scenes come late in the story, the first is carl eating his eggs and onions, imagining a scene from the night before, imagining telling his dad's wife the story...and a tad later, walter in the greyhound bus station downtown detroit, hearing the news of roosevelt's death, april 12th, shortly after sitting for a sketch that was to become a painint.
but work work work...enjoyed the story, and i don't know if the story seemed to drag because i'm too busy with work work work, or what. i did enjoy the time passages scenes...everything all tied together and wrapped with a bow by story end.
good read.
Up In Honey's Room, Elmore Leonard...and yet another from Leonard...that doesn't sound right...and yet another from Elmore Leonard...funny how some names just seem to demand both first and last be provided. Anyway, this one comes late in this story that is taking me forever and a day to read probably because of work work work. Carl Webster, U.S. Marshal, is having breakfast om the hotel coffee shop and his waitress reminds him of Narcissa Raincrow, his dad's common-law wife, bless her heart. He could tell Narcissa what happened. He'd been telling her things all his life and she'd listen without any attitudes or beliefs interfering. The way he heard their conversation: And then Leonard gets into it, Carl chewing on his eggs scrambled with onions, rehashing a scene from the night before...Honey and him, up in Honey's room.
leonard employs a tool i've taken to calling "time passages" (check out al stewart's song you get a chance)...characters using their imagination as we all do...and in this one, one of many in which leonard uses this tool, the scenes come late in the story, the first is carl eating his eggs and onions, imagining a scene from the night before, imagining telling his dad's wife the story...and a tad later, walter in the greyhound bus station downtown detroit, hearing the news of roosevelt's death, april 12th, shortly after sitting for a sketch that was to become a painint.
but work work work...enjoyed the story, and i don't know if the story seemed to drag because i'm too busy with work work work, or what. i did enjoy the time passages scenes...everything all tied together and wrapped with a bow by story end.
good read.
Up In Honey's Room, Elmore Leonard...and yet another from Leonard...that doesn't sound right...and yet another from Elmore Leonard...funny how some names just seem to demand both first and last be provided. Anyway, this one comes late in this story that is taking me forever and a day to read probably because of work work work. Carl Webster, U.S. Marshal, is having breakfast om the hotel coffee shop and his waitress reminds him of Narcissa Raincrow, his dad's common-law wife, bless her heart. He could tell Narcissa what happened. He'd been telling her things all his life and she'd listen without any attitudes or beliefs interfering. The way he heard their conversation: And then Leonard gets into it, Carl chewing on his eggs scrambled with onions, rehashing a scene from the night before...Honey and him, up in Honey's room.
July 13, 2009
I love Elmore Leonard, so I'm a bit bummed that this book wasn't better.
Not that it doesn't contain his usual mix of conniving (but dense) criminals, and steely lawmen with a soft-heart for a damsel in distress, but this time it never really comes together to be anything but exactly the sum of its parts.
The book takes place in Detroit at the end of WWII, with a mix of (non-evil) Nazis, would be Nazis, and just plain criminals that are ripe for the kind of selfish shenanigans that are at the heart of every good Leonard story. There's plotting, planning, and double-crosses, all presented in the usual slightly laid-back and lyrical way that's the author's hallmark. And when it comes to historical detail, this is the best kind. The characters are living in the world, not just ticking off points for historical accuracy. Even if everything in here wasn't quite right, you'd never know it. This is a world that they live in.
That said, having read and watched a lot of noir fiction of the period, I feel like it doesn't really have the kick you want out of a tale from that period. With the world at war, and men being forced to make terrible choices, you'd hope for something that at least has the pull of a Gilda, if not a Casablanca. But for all the consternation the emotional and financial stakes always seem to be simmering instead of boiling over.
It's a decent read, but nothing to get excited about.
Not that it doesn't contain his usual mix of conniving (but dense) criminals, and steely lawmen with a soft-heart for a damsel in distress, but this time it never really comes together to be anything but exactly the sum of its parts.
The book takes place in Detroit at the end of WWII, with a mix of (non-evil) Nazis, would be Nazis, and just plain criminals that are ripe for the kind of selfish shenanigans that are at the heart of every good Leonard story. There's plotting, planning, and double-crosses, all presented in the usual slightly laid-back and lyrical way that's the author's hallmark. And when it comes to historical detail, this is the best kind. The characters are living in the world, not just ticking off points for historical accuracy. Even if everything in here wasn't quite right, you'd never know it. This is a world that they live in.
That said, having read and watched a lot of noir fiction of the period, I feel like it doesn't really have the kick you want out of a tale from that period. With the world at war, and men being forced to make terrible choices, you'd hope for something that at least has the pull of a Gilda, if not a Casablanca. But for all the consternation the emotional and financial stakes always seem to be simmering instead of boiling over.
It's a decent read, but nothing to get excited about.
March 18, 2017
Li este livro numa semana, durante uma passeata de Chaves a Santiago de Compostela - a pé. Para as horas de descanso, que adivinhei longas, decidi levar uma leitura suave, que facilitasse não perder o fio à meada sem grande esforço. Acertei em cheio.
A minha estreia com a obra de Leonard não foi um arraial: "Unha com carne". Mas não foi uma desilusão. Achei graça ao livro, a culpa foi das elevadas expectativas que referências como Tarantino, Miguel Esteves Cardoso ou o meu amigo João Marques, que me ofereceu estes dois volumes, me criaram.
Este "Na Casa de Honey" tem alguma piada, mas é mais fraco do que "Unha com Carne". É um livro competente: tem lá os estereótipos todos, o sexo q.b., algum mistério, pouquito suspense. E está bem escrito. Mas é chocho, ainda que a progressão da leitura se faça no sentido certo: o livro acaba muito mais seguro do que começa. Não se desse o caso de eu estar em peregrinação, e como tal num estado de grande tolerância espiritual, e a leitura teria ficado pela página 60 - ou menos.
Que a NYTBR diga que o homem é, talvez, o melhor escritor policial de todos os tempos: é um absurdo, não é. Que o MEC diga que o tipo mete o Chandler no bolso dos trocos: é um disparate, não mete. Que eu diga que ainda vou fazer mais uma tentativa, depois de pesquisar a obra do homem para descobrir quais são as obras-primas, para perceber o que vêem os outros que eu não vejo: vou sim senhor!
A minha estreia com a obra de Leonard não foi um arraial: "Unha com carne". Mas não foi uma desilusão. Achei graça ao livro, a culpa foi das elevadas expectativas que referências como Tarantino, Miguel Esteves Cardoso ou o meu amigo João Marques, que me ofereceu estes dois volumes, me criaram.
Este "Na Casa de Honey" tem alguma piada, mas é mais fraco do que "Unha com Carne". É um livro competente: tem lá os estereótipos todos, o sexo q.b., algum mistério, pouquito suspense. E está bem escrito. Mas é chocho, ainda que a progressão da leitura se faça no sentido certo: o livro acaba muito mais seguro do que começa. Não se desse o caso de eu estar em peregrinação, e como tal num estado de grande tolerância espiritual, e a leitura teria ficado pela página 60 - ou menos.
Que a NYTBR diga que o homem é, talvez, o melhor escritor policial de todos os tempos: é um absurdo, não é. Que o MEC diga que o tipo mete o Chandler no bolso dos trocos: é um disparate, não mete. Que eu diga que ainda vou fazer mais uma tentativa, depois de pesquisar a obra do homem para descobrir quais são as obras-primas, para perceber o que vêem os outros que eu não vejo: vou sim senhor!
May 18, 2017
Kinda felt like the book was a series of conversations, bouncing from one to the next until we come to the end set up like a pulp whodunit; key players all in a room, justice ready to be served, case closed. The room? Honey's, the key cog in the book that actually makes it readable. Strange to stay so about an Elmore Leonard but the story of a couple escaped Nazi's from a prison camp being chased down by the Hot Kid was so dull it was hard to keep reading. I am glad I persevered as there are a couple of nice moments, unfortunately they're few and far between. 2/5 stars.
February 9, 2013
Hate begets hate. While Elmore Leanard is an outstanding author, he should stay away from writing sympathetic sounding Nazi, KKK novels. I absolutely hated this novel. 0 of 10 stars for not one redeeming moment in this lousy story.
August 30, 2015
S'okay. Dialogue is good, but the rest is somewhat lacking for me.
February 8, 2019
I really enjoyed the novel's WWII setting, especially the German espionage in Detroit angle. There's a lot of potential there. Walter Schoen, the Nazi subversive who looks just like Heinrich Himmler, made for a believable character, a resentful loner, abandoned by his wife, working a job he feels is beneath him, plotting to undermine his adopted country.
Unfortunately, Walter's machinations take a backseat about halfway through the book, as Vera and Bohdan, bohemian spies from the Ukraine, assume greater and greater prominence, and very little is made of what these spies are actually doing. Vera and Bo are interesting enough, but I just didn't believe their backstories—especially Bo, the psychopathic transvestite who murdered his way out of a concentration camp and escaped to America where, less than four years later, he speaks English fluently enough to slang and jive and drop pop culture references like a Tarantino character.
Honey, the title character, also bugged me, primarily because she spent the whole novel throwing herself, sometimes literally naked, at the married US Marshal Carl Webster, only to dismiss all that near the end by saying she never really wanted him to cheat on his wife with her. Please.
I liked Carl and wish he figured more directly into more of the story. I especially liked his thread of the plot, chasing down some escaped German POWs—SS officer Otto and Afrika Korps tank commander Jurgen—who have fled to Detroit, where they get entangled in the Walter-Vera-Bo spy mess. Jurgen's romance with Honey is way too quick and drifts into cliche, but the chase element he shares with Carl resolves pretty nicely.
This is also a really talky book. Leonard is justly famous for his dialogue, but here it's forced to do too much of the work that simple exposition is designed to do. Characters say and explain things to each other that no two people chatting in the early spring of 1945 would ever need to unpack. I'm thinking especially of Carl and his dad, Virgil, giving each other facts and figures on the outcome of the Battle of the Bulge, or multiple characters explaining that the MP 40 submachine gun, though commonly known as the "Schmeisser," was not, in fact, manufactured by Schmeisser. It's as if they know the reader is listening in.
So I have some complaints, and this is certainly one of the lesser Leonard crime books I've read, but I was never bored the way I was, to my surprise, in the much more famous Get Shorty. The conclusion, in which Leonard brings the various threads of the plot together in one final spasm of violence, has real tension and at least one genuine surprise.
Mildly recommended if you want a diverting WWII homefront crime yarn.
Unfortunately, Walter's machinations take a backseat about halfway through the book, as Vera and Bohdan, bohemian spies from the Ukraine, assume greater and greater prominence, and very little is made of what these spies are actually doing. Vera and Bo are interesting enough, but I just didn't believe their backstories—especially Bo, the psychopathic transvestite who murdered his way out of a concentration camp and escaped to America where, less than four years later, he speaks English fluently enough to slang and jive and drop pop culture references like a Tarantino character.
Honey, the title character, also bugged me, primarily because she spent the whole novel throwing herself, sometimes literally naked, at the married US Marshal Carl Webster, only to dismiss all that near the end by saying she never really wanted him to cheat on his wife with her. Please.
I liked Carl and wish he figured more directly into more of the story. I especially liked his thread of the plot, chasing down some escaped German POWs—SS officer Otto and Afrika Korps tank commander Jurgen—who have fled to Detroit, where they get entangled in the Walter-Vera-Bo spy mess. Jurgen's romance with Honey is way too quick and drifts into cliche, but the chase element he shares with Carl resolves pretty nicely.
This is also a really talky book. Leonard is justly famous for his dialogue, but here it's forced to do too much of the work that simple exposition is designed to do. Characters say and explain things to each other that no two people chatting in the early spring of 1945 would ever need to unpack. I'm thinking especially of Carl and his dad, Virgil, giving each other facts and figures on the outcome of the Battle of the Bulge, or multiple characters explaining that the MP 40 submachine gun, though commonly known as the "Schmeisser," was not, in fact, manufactured by Schmeisser. It's as if they know the reader is listening in.
So I have some complaints, and this is certainly one of the lesser Leonard crime books I've read, but I was never bored the way I was, to my surprise, in the much more famous Get Shorty. The conclusion, in which Leonard brings the various threads of the plot together in one final spasm of violence, has real tension and at least one genuine surprise.
Mildly recommended if you want a diverting WWII homefront crime yarn.
July 1, 2022
“Sieg Heil, y’all. I’m Honey Deal”
I adore Honey Deal.
This is the way our Honey addresses the gathering of weird, wannabee WWII spies. I laugh out loud. Not one of my typical giggles when something amuses me in a book. Most times, I only smile, but when it’s Elmore Leonard’s dialogue, all bets are off. And this is a novel completely carried by dialogue. No one does it better.
“My husband was in the shipping business, coastal freighters that traded among ports on the Black Sea. Fadey got along with the Soviets, gritting his teeth, offering bribes when his bullshit wasn’t enough. He had only complimentary things to say about Josef Stalin, that pockmarked midget. Do you know how tall he is? The Russians say five foot six. Oh, really? He wears lifts in his shoes or he’d be no taller than a five-foot pile of horseshit. It’s the reason he’s killed ten million of his own people. His mother sent him to a seminary to become a priest, but God rejected him.”
“‘I love Virgil,’ the Tulsa lieutenant said. ‘The first thing he ever said to me--we’re in that bar in the basement of the Mayo. He says, ‘You ever been in a pissing contest?’ I said no, what do you go for, height or distance? He says, ‘No, we piss on the ice in urinals and bet on whose pile of cubes gets melted down the most.’ But the thing about your dad, he didn’t piss on any kind of regular basis. He could hold it.’
‘That’s why he’s still one of the great pissers,’ Carl said, ‘he can hold it as long as he wants , which you don’t find at all in men his age. I’ve been in that bar with my dad, but I can’t say I ever pissed next to him. Go in the woods with him hunting, I don’t think I ever saw him piss, not wanting to leave his sign.’
‘That’s your dad,’ the Tulsa lieutenant said.”
“Vera said, ‘Bo, I don’t want to be in this house anymore. Please get me out of here before I become an alcoholic.’
‘You already are.’
‘I count my drinks,’ Vera said. ‘I never have more than twenty-five in a day.’”
I adore Honey Deal.
This is the way our Honey addresses the gathering of weird, wannabee WWII spies. I laugh out loud. Not one of my typical giggles when something amuses me in a book. Most times, I only smile, but when it’s Elmore Leonard’s dialogue, all bets are off. And this is a novel completely carried by dialogue. No one does it better.
“My husband was in the shipping business, coastal freighters that traded among ports on the Black Sea. Fadey got along with the Soviets, gritting his teeth, offering bribes when his bullshit wasn’t enough. He had only complimentary things to say about Josef Stalin, that pockmarked midget. Do you know how tall he is? The Russians say five foot six. Oh, really? He wears lifts in his shoes or he’d be no taller than a five-foot pile of horseshit. It’s the reason he’s killed ten million of his own people. His mother sent him to a seminary to become a priest, but God rejected him.”
“‘I love Virgil,’ the Tulsa lieutenant said. ‘The first thing he ever said to me--we’re in that bar in the basement of the Mayo. He says, ‘You ever been in a pissing contest?’ I said no, what do you go for, height or distance? He says, ‘No, we piss on the ice in urinals and bet on whose pile of cubes gets melted down the most.’ But the thing about your dad, he didn’t piss on any kind of regular basis. He could hold it.’
‘That’s why he’s still one of the great pissers,’ Carl said, ‘he can hold it as long as he wants , which you don’t find at all in men his age. I’ve been in that bar with my dad, but I can’t say I ever pissed next to him. Go in the woods with him hunting, I don’t think I ever saw him piss, not wanting to leave his sign.’
‘That’s your dad,’ the Tulsa lieutenant said.”
“Vera said, ‘Bo, I don’t want to be in this house anymore. Please get me out of here before I become an alcoholic.’
‘You already are.’
‘I count my drinks,’ Vera said. ‘I never have more than twenty-five in a day.’”
August 2, 2019
Cuando leí que directores como Tarantino, Soderbergh y los hermanos Coen han adaptado al cine novelas suyas (aunque, desafortunadamente, el proyecto de Ethan y Joel se quedó en el guion), supe que debía conocer su obra. Sin embargo, ya con una de sus novelas en la mano, temí, tras leer el título, que terminaría siendo un fraude. ¿A quién se le ocurriría titular una narración circunscrita al género negro “El día de Hitler”? Suena a que más bien James Cameron o Michael Bay deberían ser quienes dirigieran una película seguramente cargada de acción, balaceras y persecuciones a lo bruto. No obstante, decidí darle una oportunidad al texto.
Afortunadamente, descubrí que el título de la novela fue decisión de los editores en español (en el inglés original es “Up in Honey’s Room”), pues refiere precisamente al natalicio de Adolf Hitler: 20 de abril, día en que Walter Schoen, un enfebrecido fanático del káiser y del Tercer Reich, de ascendencia alemana pero radicado en Detroit, planeaba asesinar al presidente de los Estados Unidos: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
La trama, en realidad, gira en torno de Otto y Jurgen, dos prisioneros de guerra que escapan de su reclusión en suelo americano, a quienes Walter y Vera Mezwa (misteriosa mujer que actúa como espía para el gobierno germano) mantienen ocultos. Para atrapar al par de fugitivos, el marshall Carl Webster busca a Honey Deal, la hermosa y exuberante exesposa de Schoen, en busca de pistas para lograr su captura.
Divertida e intrigante, “El día de Hitler” es una novela que te atrapa y no te suelta, y que, efectivamente, denota claramente ser referente para la irreverente y excesiva filmografía que gente como Tarantino y los Coen realizan.
Afortunadamente, descubrí que el título de la novela fue decisión de los editores en español (en el inglés original es “Up in Honey’s Room”), pues refiere precisamente al natalicio de Adolf Hitler: 20 de abril, día en que Walter Schoen, un enfebrecido fanático del káiser y del Tercer Reich, de ascendencia alemana pero radicado en Detroit, planeaba asesinar al presidente de los Estados Unidos: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
La trama, en realidad, gira en torno de Otto y Jurgen, dos prisioneros de guerra que escapan de su reclusión en suelo americano, a quienes Walter y Vera Mezwa (misteriosa mujer que actúa como espía para el gobierno germano) mantienen ocultos. Para atrapar al par de fugitivos, el marshall Carl Webster busca a Honey Deal, la hermosa y exuberante exesposa de Schoen, en busca de pistas para lograr su captura.
Divertida e intrigante, “El día de Hitler” es una novela que te atrapa y no te suelta, y que, efectivamente, denota claramente ser referente para la irreverente y excesiva filmografía que gente como Tarantino y los Coen realizan.
June 5, 2021
There are books only one writer could have written, and this is one of them.
I’ve now read three Elmore Leonards. The first was Get Shorty, which I found kind of contrived. The second was Valdez Is Coming, which was impressive. And now Up in Honey’s Room.
Which is kind of like reading a mash-up of Jerome Charyn, Inherent Vice Pynchon, and Le Carré. If you can imagine. Leonard didn’t write only westerns, and in fact he seems somewhat singular in his ability to write westerns and other genres, but even in Honey’s Room you can see where that background (and here he evokes Hemingway, which he himself probably guessed, as Hemingway is referenced in the book) is relevant, where he sees the connective tissue.
You can see where Tarantino found Leonard such a kindred spirit (Rum Punch/Jackie Brown), as Leonard certainly has a way with dialogue and tension. That’s Honey’s Room in a nutshell.
It’s also an interesting take on the WWII era, what to do with Nazis who weren’t slaughtering people in concentration camps (in more recent times, which is not to condone Nazis, but that’s basically all they’re viewed as, no distinction at all between a Nazi and a German soldier). Readers particularly uncomfortable with this will have a hard time processing such a book.
Anyway, it’s a great way to view the scope of Leonard’s talent.
I’ve now read three Elmore Leonards. The first was Get Shorty, which I found kind of contrived. The second was Valdez Is Coming, which was impressive. And now Up in Honey’s Room.
Which is kind of like reading a mash-up of Jerome Charyn, Inherent Vice Pynchon, and Le Carré. If you can imagine. Leonard didn’t write only westerns, and in fact he seems somewhat singular in his ability to write westerns and other genres, but even in Honey’s Room you can see where that background (and here he evokes Hemingway, which he himself probably guessed, as Hemingway is referenced in the book) is relevant, where he sees the connective tissue.
You can see where Tarantino found Leonard such a kindred spirit (Rum Punch/Jackie Brown), as Leonard certainly has a way with dialogue and tension. That’s Honey’s Room in a nutshell.
It’s also an interesting take on the WWII era, what to do with Nazis who weren’t slaughtering people in concentration camps (in more recent times, which is not to condone Nazis, but that’s basically all they’re viewed as, no distinction at all between a Nazi and a German soldier). Readers particularly uncomfortable with this will have a hard time processing such a book.
Anyway, it’s a great way to view the scope of Leonard’s talent.
June 3, 2025
Mostly set in Detroit during the final months of WW II, this is a quick read about a bunch of good guys (some straight thinking and straight shooting lawmen, an alluring and independent thinking sales woman, an escaped German prisoner of war) who take on a group of nazis (a bad nazi, a boring nazi, a cross-dressing nazi and even a charming one). About 90 percent of the story is told through dialogues and as usual there are no complaints there, although I felt Leonard seems to rely on his natural looseness a bit too much in this book, one of his last… And the plot is, even by Leonard's standards, quite thin and a bit far-fetched.
August 30, 2018
This is one of Dutch Leonard's wildest plots, but his wit, gift for dialogue, and blinkered look on the world survives intact. Written in his '80s, it has laugh out loud moments, a frisky sense of sexuality, and characters you want to get to know better (one of whom is strongly reminiscent of Raylan Givens, the protagonist of "Justified.''
February 12, 2026
Another terrific Elmore Leonard novel. Leonard's dialogue is always sharp and the interplay between his primary characters, especially Honey, Carl, and Jurgen as WWII comes to a close is crackling, witty and right on the nose. It's a fast, fun read, so much so that I plan to read the final novel in the Carl Webster trilogy right away.
March 27, 2024
Great! Just great!
October 28, 2024
Another classic read from Elmore Leonard, a favorite writer of mine.
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