Carl Webster

Carlos Webster was fifteen in the fall of 1921 the first time he came face-to-face with a nationally known criminal. A few weeks later, he killed his first man - a cattle thief who was rustling his dad's stock. Now Carlos, called Carl, is the hot kid of the U.S. Marshals Service, one of the elite man hunters currently chasing the likes of Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd across America's Depression-ravaged heartland. Carl wants to be the country's most famous lawman. Jack Belmont, the bent son of an oil millionaire, wants to be public enemy number one. Tony Antonelli of True Detective magazine wants to write about this world of cops and robbers, molls and speakeasies from perilously close up. Then there are the hot dames - Louly and Elodie - hooking their schemes and dreams onto dangerous men. And before the gunsmoke clears, everybody just might end up getting exactly what he or she wished for.

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. Honey Deal, Walter's American wife, doesn't know that Walter is a member of a spy ring that sends U.S. war production data to Germany and gives shelter to escaped German prisoners of war. But she's tired of telling him jokes he doesn't understand-it's time to 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's pretty sure Walter's involved with keeping Schrenk hidden, so Carl gets to know Honey, hoping she'll take him to Walter. Carl then 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 much care that he's married. But all Carl wants is to get Jurgen Schrenk 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.

"An excellent read….Concrete evidence of a master crime writer still at the top of his game."-Russel D. McLean, author of The Good Son. "The reigning King Daddy of crime writers" (Seattle Times), Elmore Leonard first introduced quick-triggered legendary lawman Carl Webster in the New York Times bestseller, The Hot Kid, and brought him back for an encore Up in Honey's Room. In Comfort to the Enemy and Other Carl Webster Stories, the loose cannon U.S. marshal struts his stuff once more in three electrifying new tales. Comfort to the Enemy is more indisputable proof that Elmore Leonard is indeed, as Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island) puts it, "The greatest crime writer who ever lived."