The Hot Kid returns in Leonard's new novel

Books now read in ’07: 45
Title: Up In Honey’s Room
Author: Elmore Leonard
Genre: Thriller
Date Completed: 5-20
Pages: 292

The Hot Kid, federal marshal Carl Webster, is back in Elmore Leonard’s new book, Up In Honey’s Room. Webster, in Detroit in pursuit of two escaped German prisoners of war, stumbles on a German spy ring that includes a butcher who believes he is Heinrich Himmler’s twin brother.

I suspect Leonard enjoys writing about the Hot Kid more than most of his fans enjoy reading the books. They’re O.K., if not vintage Leonard; nobody uses dialogue to advance a plot like Elmore Leonard. But I’d prefer a more contemporary setting, which seems more appropriate for the cool, ironic tone of Leonard’s best work.