UP IN HONEY'S ROOM, by Elmore Leonard

Set during World War Two, when Detroit was a center of war production and a hotbed of German spies, both domestic and imported. Meet Ukranian faux-Countess Vera Mezwa  and head of a German spy ring, and her faux-gay sidekick, the Romanian cross-dresser Bohdan. Enter the Hot Kid, U. S. Marshall Carl Webster, whose aim rarely fails, whose nerves are of steel, and whose publicity never stops. Tulsa-based Webster, whose father owns a thousand of acres of pecan trees harvested by prisoners from the nearby German POW camp, comes to know Jurgen, a charming German Afrika Corps tank officer. Click below for more no-spoiler review...
When Jurgen goes AWOL - laughably easy - Webster tracks him to Detroit where he meets the free-wheeling, superbly self-confident Honey Deal, ex-wife to Walter Schoen, a humorless German-American who's a dead-ringer for the notorious Heinrich Himmler, Hitler's death camp overseer. Honey's not too keen on Carl's married state, but Carl's wife Louly - now teaching Marines how to fire their weapons - is the girl he's vowed to be faithful to. It's amazing that Leonard (he's the author in case all the names have got you confused) has managed to keep the story on an even keel, but that's just one of the many things the master of the mystery does so well.  Did so well. Leonard passed away in August, 2013, leaving behind a body of work that could be the basis for an MFA in writing. It's a 4.
Find the author at www.elmoreleonard.com
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