The odd thing about Walter Schoen, German born but now running a butcher shop in Detroit, he's a dead ringer for Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and the Gestapo. They even share the same birthday. Walter is a member of a spy ring that sends US war production data to Germany and gives shelter to escaped German prisoners of war. Honey Deal, Walter's American wife, has given up trying to make him over as a regular guy. She decides it's time to stop telling him jokes he doesn't understand and get a divorce. Along comes Carl Webster, the Hot Kid of the Marshals Service. He's looking for Jurgen Schrenk, a former Afrika Korps officer who escaped from a POW camp in Oklahoma. Carl uses Honey to meet Walter, who Carl believes is hiding Jurgen. He also meets Vera Mezwa, the nifty Ukrainian head of the spy ring, who's better looking than Mata Hari, and her tricky lover Bohdan, with the Buster Brown haircut and a sly way of killing. Honey's a free spirit; she likes the hot kid marshal and doesn't care much that he's married. But all Carl wants is to get Jurgen without getting shot. And then there's Otto - the Waffen-SS major who runs away with a nice Jewish girl.
It's Elmore Leonard's world: gritty, funny and full of surprises.
I’ve said before I’d petition Elmore to write about nothing but Kentucky from now on. Except now, I have to petition him to write so much more of our history. (At least the two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive: Harlan County shows up here with Darcy, one of my favorite parts.)
After The Hot Kid and Comfort To The Enemy, and even Cuba Libre, this is just what I wanted to read. More Carl, Louly, and Virgil, more Jergen and Otto, more hilarious absurdity, more people with all different sides and all kinds of surprises.
Sitting with her again Carl thought of giving her a knee a pat for no reason other than having the war in common, on different sides but they’d feel the same way about it. He said to her, “You think the war’s done anyone any good?”
“I’ll say no one, because I’m too tired to think of something that sounds wise, or enigmatic. Or stupid.”
Reading updates
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Started reading
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27 May, 2013:
Finished reading
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27 May, 2013:
Reviewed