Up In Honey's Room Unabridged Cd [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

 

 

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Fans of The Hot Kid will like Up in Honey's Room much better than those who read Up in Honey's Room as a standalone novel. A good part of the book's appeal is in comparing Carl (Carlos) Webster's straight-shooting integrity with the slippery morals of the Nazi sympathizers in Up in Honey's Room.

Reading the book reminded me of the movie version of The Maltese Falcon where the greedy characters are often played for laughs while Sam Spade looks on with apparent disinterest . . . but with an intense desire to see justice done. Naturally, Carl Webster is in the Sam Spade role.

So how does Carl get involved with a bunch of Nazi sympathizers? It's simpler than it sounds: Carl is tracking down two escaped POWs: Jurgen Schrenk, a former Panzer captain for Rommel in North Africa, who is from Detroit originally, and Otto Penzler, an SS officer who did many dirty deeds in World War II. Carl figures that they must be in Detroit, or they would have been caught by now. He's right. Jurgen had tracked down an old friend, staunch pro-Nazi Walter Schoen, who runs a butcher shop in Detroit who has hidden the two men.

From there, Elmore Leonard delights in presenting you with the most amazing ironies that take a simple story into the happier realms of comedy. Walter is a look-alike for Heinrich Himmler, a resemblance that thrills Walter. He loves to tell people that the two men were born in the same hospital on the same day . . . surely they are twins who were separated at birth. Naturally, that means that Walter is overjoyed to have Otto around because of his SS background.

Walter is now acting as part of a spy ring for the Nazis . . . and once you meet the other members of the ring you'll be sure to understand why the Allies won World War II. There's the racist, Joe Aubrey, who fathered an African-American child and looks forward to sending his son to college. The leader and most dangerous member of the ring is Vera Mezwa who is a Ukrainian who claims to have been married to a Polish count who was killed by the Nazis. Her houseman, Bohdan Kravchencko, another Ukrainian, is a triple agent who is pretending to help the FBI keep track of the ring. He's a bi-sexual who escaped from a Nazi labor camp by knifing guards. Bohdan favors dressing in women's clothes and has a violent streak when he isn't bedding Vera. There's also the Hitler-loving Dr. Taylor who provides invisible ink for the spy reports.

So who's Honey? She's Walter's ex-wife. Carl feels like he can work with Honey to get access to Walter and the rest of the spies . . . and maybe find the two escapees. Honey provides much of the contrast in the story. She's very American even though her appearance makes Walter feel like she's a perfect German. He even fails to notice that she's not a natural blond, even after being married for a year.

Honey likes men and she would just love to get closer to Carl. But Carl's determined to stay faithful to his wife. How will they do together?

I won't tell you any more, but you'll be bowled over by a very funny irony about every third page. It's great fun!

The story is a little too goofy to be taken seriously and not quite funny enough to be a total comedy. That's why I graded it at four stars rather than five. If you haven't read the Hot Kid, you may only think it's a three star book.

Fans of The Hot Kid will like Up in Honey's Room much better than those who read Up in Honey's Room as a standalone novel. A good part of the book's appeal is in comparing Carl (Carlos) Webster's straight-shooting integrity with the slippery morals of the Nazi sympathizers in Up in Honey's Room.

Reading the book reminded me of the movie version of The Maltese Falcon where the greedy characters are often played for laughs while Sam Spade looks on with apparent disinterest . . . but with an intense desire to see justice done. Naturally, Carl Webster is in the Sam Spade role.

So how does Carl get involved with a bunch of Nazi sympathizers? It's simpler than it sounds: Carl is tracking down two escaped POWs: Jurgen Schrenk, a former Panzer captain for Rommel in North Africa, who is from Detroit originally, and Otto Penzler, an SS officer who did many dirty deeds in World War II. Carl figures that they must be in Detroit, or they would have been caught by now. He's right. Jurgen had tracked down an old friend, staunch pro-Nazi Walter Schoen, who runs a butcher shop in Detroit who has hidden the two men.

From there, Elmore Leonard delights in presenting you with the most amazing ironies that take a simple story into the happier realms of comedy. Walter is a look-alike for Heinrich Himmler, a resemblance that thrills Walter. He loves to tell people that the two men were born in the same hospital on the same day . . . surely they are twins who were separated at birth. Naturally, that means that Walter is overjoyed to have Otto around because of his SS background.

Walter is now acting as part of a spy ring for the Nazis . . . and once you meet the other members of the ring you'll be sure to understand why the Allies won World War II. There's the racist, Joe Aubrey, who fathered an African-American child and looks forward to sending his son to college. The leader and most dangerous member of the ring is Vera Mezwa who is a Ukrainian who claims to have been married to a Polish count who was killed by the Nazis. Her houseman, Bohdan Kravchencko, another Ukrainian, is a triple agent who is pretending to help the FBI keep track of the ring. He's a bi-sexual who escaped from a Nazi labor camp by knifing guards. Bohdan favors dressing in women's clothes and has a violent streak when he isn't bedding Vera. There's also the Hitler-loving Dr. Taylor who provides invisible ink for the spy reports.

So who's Honey? She's Walter's ex-wife. Carl feels like he can work with Honey to get access to Walter and the rest of the spies . . . and maybe find the two escapees. Honey provides much of the contrast in the story. She's very American even though her appearance makes Walter feel like she's a perfect German. He even fails to notice that she's not a natural blond, even after being married for a year.

Honey likes men and she would just love to get closer to Carl. But Carl's determined to stay faithful to his wife. How will they do together?

I won't tell you any more, but you'll be bowled over by a very funny irony about every third page. It's great fun!

The story is a little too goofy to be taken seriously and not quite funny enough to be a total comedy. That's why I graded it at four stars rather than five. If you haven't read the Hot Kid, you may only think it's a three star book.

I usually don't care for sequels but this follow up to Leonard's "Hot Kid" I enjoyed more than the original. I would not mind seeing More Of US Marshal Carl Webster in the future! It's the final days of WWII and Gunslinging Marshal Webster is back in action trying to track down two escaped German POWs. He follows them to Detroit were they are being hidden by a German Butcher. The buthcher's exwife is a beautiful smart talking blonde named Hone Deal, who soon has straight arrow Marshal Webster considering breaking his marriage vows. The fun is in watching the interaction between Webster and Honey, while the marshal tries to find the escapees. I don't want to give away too much but this book's strength lies more in its use of humor than in actual crime plotting--Typical of this author. While "Hot Kid" was a kind of updated western, "Honey Deal" is a kind of sophisticated pot boiler mixed with some slapstick! Leonard is the master at mixing Genres.

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