Elvis in Aspic (West Coast Crime)

Rating:
Summary: Paranoid Runs Amok! Writes Novel!
Review: Author Gordon De Marco probably isn't really paranoid, but you may be after you've read this delightful exploration of the fringes of American politics and journalism. Steve Toast's once promising journalism career has sunk to the level of writing about "Terrorist Trees!" (they ruin lawns and drip sap on cars) for the tabloid National Sun. Then his editor assigns him to interview a man who claims the CIA killed Elvis, and life gets ... interesting. In cheap coffee and doughnut shops throughout LA, Toast drags the story bit by bit from his frightened informant, and we find ourselves being drawn into the insidious logic of the conspiracy theorist : a meeting of anti-Castro Cubans in a restaurant in 1977, a CIA plot to assassinate Jimmy Carter, James Earl Ray's brief prison escape. Historical fact, rumor and speculation are deftly blended until even this devoted skeptic was beginning to say "Hmmm..." In between interviews, Toast is pursued and shot at by a mysterious "big, fast Mercury", evangelized by gun-toting worshippers of Jesus's twin brother Judas Thomas, and tantalized by the return of a former lover dangling a dream job offer at the Washington Post. Writing in a first-person, semi-hard-boiled narrative, the author manages to regard the conspiracy tale, and the tabloid world, with detached humor, yet respect. Anyone who is at all intrigued by the odd byways of American politics explored by Mark Lane and Oliver Stone, or by the headlines spotted in supermarket checkout lines, will find this a refreshing read.

Rating:
Summary: Paranoid Runs Amok! Writes Novel!
Review: Author Gordon De Marco probably isn't really paranoid, but you may be after you've read this delightful exploration of the fringes of American politics and journalism. Steve Toast's once promising journalism career has sunk to the level of writing about "Terrorist Trees!" (they ruin lawns and drip sap on cars) for the tabloid National Sun. Then his editor assigns him to interview a man who claims the CIA killed Elvis, and life gets ... interesting. In cheap coffee and doughnut shops throughout LA, Toast drags the story bit by bit from his frightened informant, and we find ourselves being drawn into the insidious logic of the conspiracy theorist : a meeting of anti-Castro Cubans in a restaurant in 1977, a CIA plot to assassinate Jimmy Carter, James Earl Ray's brief prison escape. Historical fact, rumor and speculation are deftly blended until even this devoted skeptic was beginning to say "Hmmm..." In between interviews, Toast is pursued and shot at by a mysterious "big, fast Mercury", evangelized by gun-toting worshippers of Jesus's twin brother Judas Thomas, and tantalized by the return of a former lover dangling a dream job offer at the Washington Post. Writing in a first-person, semi-hard-boiled narrative, the author manages to regard the conspiracy tale, and the tabloid world, with detached humor, yet respect. Anyone who is at all intrigued by the odd byways of American politics explored by Mark Lane and Oliver Stone, or by the headlines spotted in supermarket checkout lines, will find this a refreshing read.