Comfort to the Enemy (Hardcover)

This is a dazzling collection of three Elmore Leonard stories of which the third and title story, 'Comfort to the Enemy' is a novella. The stories chart the beginning, middle and mature years of legendary lawman Carl Webster's career. The title story begins with the investigation of a murder at a German POW camp in Oklahoma. The bank robbers of the 1920s are gone. Carl has married Louly, who has joined the Marines, and he has also done a tour of duty. Oklahoma is full of POW camps with crewmen and grenadiers from the Afrika Krops. Jurgen Schrenk is a young captain who escapes with some frequency, a man well-liked by many of the native Oklahomans. He's fallen in love with a girl by the name of Shemane, a sexy beauty and gangster's moll who lives at home with her mother. Jurgen makes a successful escape with the help of Shemane, and Carl promises he'll help the lovers at the end of the war. But Jurgen may be a spy, and Carl may have to pursue him to Detroit, a place where Jurgen has lived and where arms are being manufactured. With excellent dialogue, grippingly credible characters, and the glamour of sex and bad reputation, Comfort to the Enemy shows Elmore Leonard at the very top of his game.