Honey in His Mouth

by Lester Dent

Walter Harsh, a small-time grifter who's a lookalike for a South American dictator, gets dragged into a plot to steal the despot's ill-gotten wealth.

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Fiction, Pulp, Noir, Thriller

248 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2009

About the author

Lester Dent (1904–1959) was born in La Plata, Missouri. In his mid-twenties, he began publishing pulp fiction stories, and moved to New York City, where he developed the successful Doc Savage Magazine with Henry Ralston, head of Street and Smith, a leading pulp publisher. The magazine ran from 1933 until 1949 and included 181 novel-length stories, of which Dent wrote the vast majority under the house name Kenneth Robeson. He also published mystery novels in a variety of genres, including the Chance Molloy series about a self-made airline owner. Dent’s own life was quite adventurous; he prospected for gold in the Southwest, lived aboard a schooner for a few years, hunted treasure in the Caribbean, launched an aerial photography company, and was a member of the Explorer’s Club.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a close call with an angry man he swindled, photographer and con man Walter Harsh is approached by people in the employ of the ruler of an unnamed South American country. It seems Walter bears an uncanny resemblance to El Presidente, which fits nicely into their schemes to get access to the sixty-five million dollars El Presidente is known to possess...

I'll be real honest with you. Lester Dent's writing in the Doc Savage tales never really floated my boat. Maybe it's because he was writing for a penny per word. That being said, I liked Honey in his Mouth a lot. The writing was lightyears ahead of what Dent did in the early Doc Savages.

The plot moved along at a fast pace. Walter's a scumbag but still likeable. The people plotting against El Presidente are a diverse crew, including El Presidente's psychotic castrado brother, Brother. The subplot involving Harsh trying to break into a safe at Brother's estate keeps the story moving while everyone's trying to determine El Presidente's whereabouts. The ending surprised me and pretty much everyone got what they had coming to them.

In short, Lester Dent proved me wrong. This is a worthy addition to any Hard Case Crime fan's collection.

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

You’d think that a pulp crime story by the creator of Doc Savage would be filled with all kinds of outlandish action, but while the plot is a bit on the outrageous side, this is actually a pretty solid noir story.

Walter Harsh is a small-time con man who gets injured while fleeing from one of his marks. He’s recruited by a small group of conspirators who have been stealing from an unnamed Latin American country through a complicated scheme that involved pinning the thefts on the local dictator. Harsh is a dead ringer for the guy, and he’s soon flown to an estate in Florida where he can begin training to pretend to be El Presidente so the gang can use him as cover for their crimes once the real president leaves office. Unfortunately for the thieves, Harsh is one of those guys who is about half-sly and half-stupid and all greed so when he gets fixated on trying to get the $50,000 he’s been promised that’s locked in a safe in the estate, it turns into way more trouble than they bargained for.

Best part of this story was the character of Walter Harsh. His small-time greedy nature makes him completely incapable of considering the bigger picture. He’s so obsessed with the $50,000 in his safe and the beautiful mistress of the real El Presidente that he never thinks to wonder about how much more money is involved. His need for constant instant gratification is a great little character study about a stupid greedy guy in way over his head.

Not too shabby, Lester Dent. Not too shabby at all.

[Monique · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars
Enjoyable but with some highly improbable plot devices. Also very dated now.

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a very good reason for unpublished manuscripts to be unpublished: More often than not, they suck. Exhibit A right here. One star for being written by Lester Dent. Because he was cool. One star for a surprise (but totally contrived) ending that I didn't see coming. Out side of that, astoundingly bad.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

When reading this book, I couldn't help but think of all those B-grade action movies from the 80's and 90's about some Average Joe who happens to look like a famous crime lord and is tapped by the US government to pose as said crime lord and infiltrate his organization. Think Aidan Quinn in THE ASSIGNMENT or Lorenzo Lamas in MASK OF DEATH.
It's the sort of plot I've grown very tired of. Which is why I was so impressed with HONEY IN HIS MOUTH, a book that utilizes this general conceit without wallowing in all the tiresome cliches we've come to expect from this sort of thing. Not that it's particularly deep or anything--after all, it was written by the guy who created "Doc Savage." But, as a vehicle for pure entertainment, it rarely eases up on the throttle. The sultry cover and sleazy title earned me a questioning look from my wife, but rest assured this isn't some dumb erotic thriller. This is a solid effort from a gifted storyteller. Thank God for Hard Case Crime, which somehow unearthed this manuscript after it had been sitting around in a drawer collecting dust for the past 50+ years.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A grifter and an attractive accomplice become embroiled in a scheme to impersonate a South American president. Apart from a overtly graphic arm break as a result of a car collision, the opening passage was so dull it felt like trudging through quicksand to get through it. That said, once I did, the story heated up with the introduction of three major players responsible for concocting a scheme for financial gain by murdering the president and replacing him with a look-a-like. I would've like to see more of Miss Muirz who had an air of danger and mystery surrounding her and a decent back story to boot - however, grifter Harsh held the majority of the spotlight - not a bad thing, I just wanted a slightly different focus. The ending is what saves this book from an otherwise uneventful tale in which plenty of blood is spilled and our grifter comes a full circle. Not great, not good, not bad, but ok - 2.5 stars.

[Oli Turner]

The sixtieth @h novel completed #honeyinhismouth by #lesterdent originally written in 1956. A great premise and a solid start. The first half has a good set up. The second half went in a different direction than I anticipated and the ending was bleak and brutal in the best way. Given that it was a previously unpublished novel, I suspect if Dent was alive at the time of publication and had a decent editor this could have benefited from a bit of adjustment. Remove a little of the fat and replace it with getting closer to achieving the goal to crank up the tension a bit more and then have the same ending - it could have been a real gem. A great cover from #ronlesser

[Timo Raunio · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was moderate but easy to read and to follow.

[Susanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a return to old school Noir, where nobody is heroic and fate is going to mess with everyone in the worst way. I enjoyed it.

As I remember, the copyright page said it was written (though not published) in 1956, which explains the gritty, classic feel.

The cover tagline is something like: "They shared the same face. Could they share the same woman?" (Like they've replaced her regular coffee with Folgers and will she taste the difference?) Be warned - the book is nowhere near that sleazy and the women are way smarter than that. :)

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an absolute masterpiece of noir fiction. It is the Mona Lisa and Sistine Chapel all rolled into one. It is as good as anything Day Keene, Orrie Hitt, or Gil Brewer has written. Who is Lester Dent? I
have no idea, but he knows how to tell a story. Our hero is a small time conman in the Midwest getting out of one jam and into another. He bears an incredible resemblance to someone else and is convinced to take that mans place. Who is the conman and who is being conned?

[Corey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. I love Hard Case Crime, and this one is good pulpy fun. It'd make a boffo movie.

[Craig Childs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walter Harsh is just a small-time Missouri grifter who suddenly finds himself facing a manslaughter charge after one of his marks dies in a car crash trying to chase him down to recover $700 of stolen merchandise. The police also want to pin a statutory rape conviction on Harsh because his girlfriend claims to be only fifteen years old.

His run of rotten luck looks to have changed, however, when a mysterious Hispanic man from Florida offers to make the criminal charges go away and also pay him $50,000 to impersonate the dictator of a small South American country.

The dictator is on the verge of being overthrown and forced into exile. The mysterious man is representing a coalition of four individuals who have been moving over $65 million of El Presidente’s wealth to offshore accounts. They plan to kill El Presidente, then use Harsh as an imposter just long enough to gain access to the funds.

I have been reading through the Hard Case Crime backlog since 2010, and I have postponed this one for nearly last. It was hard to muster up enthusiasm for a lost Lester Dent novel that sat dormant for over fifty years. After all, he was an enormously popular writer in the 1930’s and 40’s (under the pen name Kenneth Robeson); I figured if this manuscript was any good at all, a publisher would have long since snapped it up.

Boy, was I wrong.

Instead, this is a taut noir novel full of memorable characters with dynamic relationships to each other. In addition to Harsh, there is:
- His hard-drinking, oversexed, free spending, and perhaps underage girlfriend Vera Sue
- Mr. Hassam is a Jordanian expatriate with sound judgement but unlimited avarice
- Miss Muirz is El Presidente's former mistress, whose love for the man is exceeded only by the rage at his having left her for younger women.
- Doctor Englaster and Brother have their own private vendettas, but neither can be counted on to make decisions under pressure.

This is a great example of 50’s era pulp crime and suspense writing. The elaborate international plot takes time to execute, and in that time these relationships fray. Fledgling alliances are formed. Loyalties are questioned. Double crosses abound. The reader can feel the noose tightening around Harsh’s neck the whole time, even when his plans appear to be working.

Much of the action takes place in Palm Island mansion. Harsh is petty, small-thinking, violent toward women, and paranoid. He thinks he is playing all the angles to walk away with the $50,000 and the dictator’s mistress, but he is incapable of conceptualizing the real amount of money and political sway at stake. The reader knows all along he is out of his depth, and he is such a snake it is hard to root for his success.

My only criticism (and the reason I did not give it five stars) was that the story relies on the oft-used but never convincing trope of two unrelated characters being doppelgangers. This novel actually doubles down on this flaw by having the two characters meet face to face, and one of them does not recognize the other.

However, once you swallow the unlikely premise, the skillful writing and the engaging character dynamics make this a satisfying read.

[Dan Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lester Dent lived in a small farming community about ten miles from my hometown. A gentleman I worked with in radio was a close friend of Dent and a fellow ham radio operator. I've read biographies and some Doc Savage pulps as a kid but this was my first delve into other works by Dent. He didn't disappoint my hopes of including locations I've known all my life, as the town where Brother finds Harsh in the hospital at the start is my hometown. I didn't care for how Harsh treated Vera Sue, but after all, this is noir, right? Not some 21st century politically correct novel. All in all, a decent little story with a familiar premise. It makes me want to find more of his non-Doc Savage writings.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A kind of fun little crime story, this one suffers from the fact that the main character is just really stupid. I mean, it makes him unlikable, but also you know all the time that he is screwing things up for himself. These guys hire him to impersonate someone, and instead of just doing it and making a lot of money, he keeps trying to escape, or otherwise botch their plans. Dummy. The cover makes a big deal about the femme fatale character of this novel, but she doesn't really even do all that much, and certainly never wears anything like on the cover. But, it's amusing the way all the little parts fit together, and it's nice seeing Vera Sue get her revenge, in any case.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honey in His Mouth is the first non-Doc Savage book I've read by Lester Dent. He's the godfather of Pulp and his method for how he churned out so many books in his prolific career is well studied by fans and authors, yet this is the first non-Savage book of his I've read unless, of course, I read something he wrote under a pseudonym and didn't realize it was him.

I tore through this book. Excellent quick story with an excellent pulp ending.

I want to find more non-Savage Dent books. Anyone have suggestions?

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

A meathead thug, a paranoiac castrato, a drunken physician, a careful Middle Eastern ex-pat, and two intelligent women are all planning stuff in Florida. You know what happens.

Some colorful characters, some decent metaphor, and nothing else you've never seen. Pretty good for an airplane read but not the highest caliber pulp fiction. If you like the genre, maybe give it a look. Otherwise, you can skip it.

[Izzy Corbo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good crime caper novel that goes awry. Plenty of coincidences, but some fun surprises to be found in this tight book. I enjoyed the first third and the ending (which turns out a lot darker then I anticipated) the most.

[David Erik Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this because I’ve long loved Dent’s Formula (https://www.paper-dragon.com/1939/den...) but realized I’d never read his fiction. Frankly, I could have lived without. The formula is good. Dent’s writing itself, less so. It has aged poorly. There are better uses for your time.

[Scott Varnham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lester Dent, author of more than 100 Doc Savage novels, knew how to put a story together. He delivers a decent little tale here, with a plot involving a dictator and several large sums of money. The narrator’s kind of an idiot, and brutish in places, but the whole thing is an interesting read.

[Kara Jorges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lester Dent's plotting skills are well showcased here in a heist adventure with lots of twists and turns.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird start, good middle, surprise ending. Good book. I actual liked this Noir book.

[Rahul Gupta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Waste of time. Too slow and non engaging.

[Bird Up · Rating 4 out of 5]

Madcap. Lots of action, kind of funny in parts, a mess of slimy characters and foreign intrigue, protagonist is a real bastard. Kind of like a Coen brothers story in some ways

[Jason Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pulpy fun, if all kinds of contrived.

[Sem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the clunky writing, this manages to be just off-kilter enough to work, though the synopsis might make you think it's more than what's inside.

[Steven Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reprint from 60-odd years ago, in a crime-noir style. Easy to read and enjoyable, spotting what became cliches before they became cliches.

[Oliver Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly entertaining, fast-paced, crazily plotted noir from the creator of Doc Savage! What more could you want!

[John Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A moderately entertaining story that ends up going nowhere special.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've seen the movies "Moon Over Parador" or "Dave," you know the general plot of Lester Dent's "Honey in his Mouth." Terrible title, by the way. Not at all representative of what goes on in the book. But it was 1956, so you get what you get.

Lester Dent created the action/adventure character Doc Savage, who had some serious fame back in the day.

Bad title aside, this is a pretty decent noir novel. The protagonist--Walter Harsh--is basically a scummy loser in way, way over his head. He's a small-time con man with a lot of greed and not a lot of brains, just a good line of bull and a cute (equally vapid and greedy) girl on his team.

Harsh is recruited by a bizarre group of conspirators for a singular purpose. Harsh happens to have the same face and blood type as a South American dictator. The conspirators, all from the dictator's inner circle, want to steal 65 million dollars that the dictator has hidden away all over the world. They need Harsh to do so, once they've done away with the dictator--who is just about to be removed from office by his unhappy populace.

Harsh, is, of course, too greedy and dumb and suspicious to just go along with all the plotting and planning. He has to play his own game to try and outsmart the conspirators. Harsh is only being paid a small amount of money to impersonate the dictator. Yet he's obsessed with the relatively small sum he's being paid, as it's the most money he has ever seen.

And, yes, it is tiresome how Harsh is such a moron and so obsessed with the money he will earn for the impersonation of the dictator. I get the feeling there is some element of satire in how greedy and horny and dumb and brutish that Harsh is. But the conspirators aren't much better.

"A swell lot of thieves," as Sam Spade would say with a sneer.

I will say that the story did not end like I thought it would. The ending reminded me of a "Twilight Zone" kind of thing, without being supernatural. There were a few obvious twists in the latter half of the book that anyone could see coming. Yet there were also a few story shifts that I didn't expect.

If you've read my other reviews, you won't be surprised that I think the story would have been better with more sex and violence. Yes, it was 1956, but come on. Not that there is no sex or violence, but it's fairly tame and restrained.

Overall, I liked "Honey in his Mouth." I have certainly read worse from the many Hard Case Crime novels I've consumed in the last year or so. If you're feeling like a classic noir novel, this is not a bad choice.

[Reuben Alcatraz]

Lester Dent writes...
"AMERICA'S RESPONSE TO CAMUS' "THE STRANGER"!"

that would be a better tag-line than "They shared the same woman, but could they share the same face?" Which, along with the hilariously saucy/banal cover paiting, have little bearing upon the plot of the novel.

This book reminds me of the kinds of novels that are described in other novels ("chPaul Auster, cghhchaugh") except that somebody actually bothered to write it, and they did so back in the 50s. The plot involves one Walter Harsh: a violent, reptilian, nymphomaniac, con-man-photographer, deeply stupid and self-aggrandizing, who finds himself in a predicament wherein he resembles some South American dictator and gets hired/abducted by the cronies of said dictator in order to abscond with LITERALLY MILLIONS of ungainfully earned post-colonial greenbacks, or whatever you want to call them. The relative pittance that Walter is after drives him mad throughout the course of the novel. Of course, it's a pre-ordained, set-on-rails kind of madness, and, in fact, quite bland and plot-serving, but I found it it rather compelling in spite (because) of its naive and shallow violence.
El Presidente, the South American dictator, is so deeply absent throughout the story that he casts a kind of enormous Kafka-ian shadow over the whole proceedings. It reminded me of Blade Runner in that sense, with the deep schism of Identity running jagged and wide under the glossy plot of the thing.
Yes, it has its occasional genre-bound cheezeball moments, but whatever, so does Life, and this book's only 2.79 + S&H online.
I was going to say the title had nothing to do with the plot wither then I remembered where it was from in the book, a banal picaresque some 2/5's through, and grinned sloppily to myself

If I was being honest about the literary merit of this book, I'd should really have given it a two or a three, but part of me enjoyed the conceptual and emotional loose ends; they're like hairy braids you make with a cursed coconut, and don't forget to try reading it as an damning psychological farce/critique critique of America's South American diplomacy!!