Written and set about twenty years after the height of the peace-and-love Sixties, Elmore Leonard’s Freaky Deaky is populated with former protesters and idealists, now beaten down by the realities of the word and looking out for themselves. Robin and Skip were so invested in the movement they would up doing federal time for blowing up a government building. Now Skip works on creating explosions on movie sets and Robin writes romance novels under a pen name, but when they put together who it was that sold them out to the Feds years ago they embark on a course for vengeance. Their targets are the Ricks brothers, who were once rich-kid poseurs giving their mommy’s money to causes like the Black Panthers. Mark and Woody both had a thing for Robin back in the day, and she’s willing to use her wiles and Skip’s explosives acumen to get her hands on some of their family fortune. Standing in their way is Woody Ricks’s driver, valet, and jack of all trades Donnell Lewis, a former Black Panther funneling alcohol into Woody’s system to keep him pliable and compliant.
Another complication is Chris Mankowski of the Detroit Police, or rather, formerly of the Detroit Police. After a woman named Greta, or Ginger, depending on who’s asking, alleges that she was raped by Woody Ricks, Chris acts impulsively and gets him suspended indefinitely. But he refuses to leave the case, or Greta, alone. Knowing that a man as rich as Woody will never face justice, Chris wants to help her chisel a settlement out of the deal. But in doing so he comes into the orbit of Robin, Skip, and their dynamite.
There are lots of moving pieces to Freaky Deaky, but unlike most Leonard novels, it doesn’t crackle with wit or delight in absurdity. Mankowski isn’t much of a protagonist, and his relationship with Greta is both poorly handled and fairly icky. Similarly, Woody is an unworthy antagonist, his alcoholic stupor rendering him a static character without much to offer the reader. With those limitations, Leonard’s standard plot complications, double-crosses, and criminals being idiots fail to pack their usual punch.
Freaky Deaky still has pleasures to offer to the reader, but from an author who sets such a high standard, it can’t help but be a disappointment.