Up in Honey's Room [Mass Market Paperback]

Elmore Leonard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2008

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 . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the waning days of WWII, bestseller Leonard's disappointing 40th novel finds gunslinging U.S. marshal Carl Webster, introduced in 2005's The Hot Kid, on the trail of Jurgen Schrenk and Otto Penzler, German POWs escaped from their Okmulgee, Okla., detention camp. The pair wind up in Detroit in the care of Walter Schoen, a butcher and Himmler look-alike, with whose ex-wife, wisecracking bottle-blonde Honey Deal, Carl soon finds himself smitten. While married Carl contemplates breaking his marriage vows (Honey does anything but dissuade him), Otto disappears and a dysfunctional German spy ring—led by hard-drinking Vera Mezwa and her cross-dressing manservant, Bohdan—cozies up with Jurgen. Vera and Bohdan, meanwhile, are secretly planning to disappear, but Bohdan wants to put in the ground anyone who could later give them up to the Feds. Leonard's writing—line by line—is as sharp as ever, but the plotting is uncharacteristically clunky and the pacing is stuck in low gear. Leonard has written a lot of great books, but this isn't one of them. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Though in his 80s, Elmore Leonard proves, in his 40th-something novel and sequel to The Hot Kid, that he's still at the top of his game. As in previous novels, character dominates plot: "What happens next is not really the point," notes the Boston Globe. Critics particularly praised the wonderful interaction between Carl and Honey, the crisp dialogue, and the chaotic threads that meld together into a coherent whole. The lack of narration, however, threw off a few critics, as did some exaggerated details and Carl's relatively uninteresting personality (he's now married, after all). But in the end, "Up in Honey's Room is a perfect example of a master storyteller spinning a tall one" (Philadelphia Inquirer). And, perhaps, a movie script.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Harper (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060724269
• ISBN-13: 978-0060724269
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #153,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( L ) > Leonard, Elmore

More About the Author

Elmore Leonard has written more than forty novels, including bestsellers Up in Honey's Room, The Hot Kid, Mr. Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, Pagan Babies, and Glitz. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. He lives with his wife, Christine, in Bloomfield Village, Michigan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Leonard's best work, July 18, 2007

By 

Richard Mabry "author, retired physician" (Frisco, TX, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Up in Honey's Room: A Novel (Hardcover)

I was disappointed in this one. The first several chapters spent way too much time and space reviewing the plot from the previous Leonard book that this sequel follows. As always, he has created a cast of characters that are worth watching, but there's too much backstory and too many scenes that don't really contribute to the flow of action. I'm truly sorry, because I've always been an Elmore Leonard fan. I hope the next one is better.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Octogenarian Marvel, September 4, 2007

By 

Bart King (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Up in Honey's Room: A Novel (Hardcover)

I remember reading an interview with Elmore Leonard in which he said that if a writer is constantly casting about for different ways to use the verb "said" he's wasting his time. The key is the dialogue itself, not how one describes its utterance.

As I marveled at Up in Honey's Room's succinct, unexpected, witty dialogue, I was reminded of Leonard's statement again and again. Sure, this novel features characters that are a bit too outrageous, and sure, a few of the plot developments are worthy of an eye roll or two. Is it his best work? No, but please, make no mistake: This is a lean, funny book.

I hope that I can appreciate good writing like this when I'm 82... which is how old Leonard was when he wrote this novel!

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too many viewpoints, not much happening, June 28, 2007

By 

Dave Schwinghammer "Dave Schwinghammer" (Little Falls, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Up in Honey's Room: A Novel (Hardcover)

World War II is winding toward a conclusion in this semi-farcical Leonard mystery. Two German prisoners have escaped and U.S. Marshall Carl Webster is hot on their trail. Webster tracks them to Detroit, where he's pretty sure they've connected with Nazi "provocateur" Walter Schoen.

Leonard uses multi-viewpoints to tell the story, and that's part of the problem with the book. Not very many of this cast of clowns are very likable or interesting. The title character, Honey Deal, Walter's former spouse, is the worst of the lot. Why in the world would a woman who looks like a Miss America contestant marry somebody like Walter Schoen, a Heinrich Himmler look-a-like? She also has the morals of an alley cat, unable to make up her mind whether she wants Carl Webster or former tank commander Jurgen Schrenk.

Carl Webster's background is also a bit hard to accept. The "Hot Kid" has a reputation as a hard-nosed G-Man, but he lets one of the incompetent Nazi spies get the drop on him. Even his wife is larger than life. She's a marine who teaches gunners how to fire a machine gun out of the back of a plane. Then there's Bohdan Kravchenko, the crazy transvestite. Sigh!

The plot isn't much to speak of either. Walter's co-conspirators, led by Vera Mezwa, just don't seem to have their hearts in it. Jurgen Shrenk is more interested in becoming a rodeo bull rider than he is in any kind of sabotage. The closest they get to undermining the American war effort is a deluded plot to kill the president, and only one of them is interested. Leonard seems to realize nothing much is happening, so he throws in a couple of distracting murders, the motivation for which is completely baffling.

Leonard does seem to be having fun at times. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the German word for pretty or beautiful is close to Schoen. Himmler was one of the ugliest men in record history. Also one of the escaped prisoners is named Otto Penzler, an editor at Mysterious Press. I sort of perked up when Penzler was seduced by an American con woman who needed a partner to help sell smuggled nazi contraband, but Leonard quickly drops this thread for the pedestrian stuff.

I've read about a half dozen Leonard novels. He's usually quite good at hooking the reader, then gets loose in the middle, before finishing strong. Nothing works here.