ARE SNAKES NECESSARY? - Brian DePalma and Susan Lehman


 Lee Rogers is a governor, now running for a Senate seat. He has a history of infidelity. And like any politician who manages to be successful despite some checkered behavior he has a good political fixer working behind the scenes.  For Lee, that's Barton Brock.

Brock is currently working hard on Rogers' campaign when the Senator runs into an old flame and her stunning 18 year old daughter who wants to get experience as a videographer and would also like to work on Rogers' campaign. Barton doesn't think it's a good idea, for some obvious reasons (it'll likely make his job much more difficult), but Rogers will get his way.

Brock Barton will have his own interactions with a beautiful young woman when he meets Elizabeth deCarlo in a McDonald's and he takes her away from the fast food franchise as he suspects she's better suited to political machinations. A couple of double-crosses proves him correct.

Things don't bode well for the women in this political thriller, but when Elizabeth decides she's had enough and goes into seclusion without telling anyone, the impression is that she's gone missing and the Rogers political camp may have had something to do with it.

I'll be honest, it was Brian DePalma's name on this book that first caught my interest.  Then it was that stunning, throwback cover art that drew me in. And I've been really interested in reading some classic noir fiction and I thought that this would be a really great time.

DePalma certainly has experience in storytelling and the book sure feels like a screenplay that's been adapted to a book format.  Not that I have a problem with that, but it would be fun to see DePalma write straight for the novel. Part of writing for the screen is moving the story along quickly because you have a very specific amount of time to tell the story and drive the action, and this carries over. The storylines move along quickly and we don't spend much time developing characters - they are pretty much who we think they are when we first meet them.

That beautiful cover art doesn't really fit the tone of the book.  This isn't a noir thriller ... it's a political thriller, and there's definitely a difference in form and style. Still, this was a fun, quick read.

Looking for a good book? Are Snakes Necessary? by Brian DePalma and Susan Lehman is a fast-paced political thriller with some stereotyped characters and some clever plotting.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

3-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

Are Snakes Necessary?

authors: Brian DePalma and Susan Lehman

publisher: Hard Case Crime

ISBN: 9781789091205

hardcover, 224 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MURDLE VOLUME 1 - G. T. Karber

Image
 I enjoy puzzles of many different varieties. I had not heard of 'Murdle' before this but essentially this is a combination of the game of Clue and a Sherlock Holmes micro story. With suspects, possible murder weapons, potential locations, and/or motives plus some very brief hints, readers are meant to combine the logic of what's know with deductive reasoning to identify the killer (or killers?) in 100 different mystery word puzzles. I will admit right off the bat that I did not do all 100.  I didn't even do half of these, but I did so some random sampling through all the categories (Elementary, Occult Medium, Hard Boiled, and Impossible). I did not get any correct in the Impossible category (of course not ... they were impossible!) and only one correct in the Hard Boiled (of five). The Elementary puzzles were, as expected, pretty easy and the Hard Boiled only a little bit more difficult. Each mini mystery comes with a grid printed in the book to help the reader-detecti
Read more

THE YOUNGER GODS - Michael R. Underwood

Image
 Jacob Greene is a child of cultists - extremists with a deep connection to powerful gods.  To stay in good favor and receive great powers from these gods Jacob's family (both biological family and cult group family) must occasion a sacrifice now then. Jacob doesn't seem to question this (it's how he's been raised, after all) until the time he brings his best friend home to be brutally sacrificed. Jacob believes that his friend is a willing participant, honored to be chosen, informed of what was about to take place by Jacob's father.   Of course nothing could be further from the truth and the friend does NOT go willingly. This shatters Jacob's belief and has him question his faith and he leaves his family and cult in order to think things through. But it's not easy to escape powerful gods, and despite being in the city of New York, all signs point to the fact that the gods know where he is and that something big is about to go down. Although the description
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - wherein he acq
Read more