Beat the devils

Los Angeles in the late 1950s. Two men have been murdered: movie director John Huston and journalist Walter Cronkite. LAPD Detective Morris Baker is in charge of the investigation--until the Hueys, U. S. President Joseph McCarthy's Gestapo-inspired secret police, take over the crime scene. But not before Baker finds a piece of paper clutched in Cronkite's dead hand. On it is the phrase "beat the devils" and a name: Baker. Dare he conduct his own investigation, even when his superior has forbidden him from doing so? Weiss' debut novel is a solidly plotted, highly imaginative alternate-history mystery. In this version of 1950s America, the country is rapidly becoming a dictatorship; the entertainment industry is government-controlled; America's Communist-cleansing program extends to other countries (Cuba's Fidel Castro is publicly executed); and racial hatred is fast becoming socially acceptable. Parallels to the Trump-era U.S. are abundant, but, even without those, the novel would still be a powerful exercise in "what if," in the same way as Robert Harris' Fatherland, which presented a 1960s Germany ruled by Adolf Hitler. A must-read for fans of alternate-history fiction.

Joseph McCarthy is the U.S. president in Weiss's misfire of a debut, set in an alternative 1950s America. Agents of the House Un-American Activities Committee (called Hueys) spread fear wherever they go, and Humphrey Bogart, who speaks like his screen gangster persona, is McCarthy's key propaganda tool in fighting communism, starring in such films as It Came from Planet Communist. Det. Morris Baker of the LAPD is called to a crime scene where two men have been fatally shot: out-of-work movie director John Huston and Walter Cronkite, "a young CBS reporter whose career was nothing special." In Cronkite's clenched fist, Baker finds a slip of paper with the words "Beat the Devils" and "Baker." When two overbearing Hueys muscle in on the case, Baker decides to investigate on his own. He ends up being wooed by a possible Russian spy, facing off with Wernher von Braun, and uncovering at least two major conspiracies. Weiss loosely cobbles together these plot elements and many more in a repetitive, overly long narrative filled with superficial characterizations of people who are often just targets for quick cheap shots. An imaginative premise can't save this one. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (Mar.)

In the alternative late-1950s America of Weiss' first novel, Commie-hater Joseph McCarthy is president, undesirables are being rounded up and deported, and it's open warfare on "individual[s] of Judaic Origins"--including LA police detective Morris Baker. A Holocaust survivor of Czech origins, Baker is hooked on peach schnapps, has dingy sex with an aspiring actress, and suffers from recurring concentration camp nightmares. His life perks up when he's assigned to the celebrity double murder of rising TV journalist Walter Cronkite and forcibly retired film director John Huston. The investigation leads him to partner up with sexy Soviet spy Sophia Vikhrov, with whom he cutely uncovers a bomb plot involving imported German scientists, including Werner von Braun. For his troubles, Baker gets his front teeth knocked out by thugs from the House Un-American Activities Committee and, in a subsequent torture scene, has more teeth pulled (no subsequent signs of dental distress are evident). Edward R. Murrow makes a surprise appearance, Humphrey Bogart a decidedly un-Bogielike one, reduced to propagandist in films like It Came From Planet Communist! Fidel Castro and Che Guevera have been publicly executed. All the pieces for an edgy piece of speculative fiction are in place. But Weiss, no Philip Roth, falls into the trap of using collective trauma as a cheap backdrop for Baker's shenanigans, and there's something creepy about his treatment of Cronkite and Huston (whose film Beat the Devil inspired the book's title). In his acknowledgments, Weiss writes, "The story is, first and foremost, about Baker and his journey of adopting a new worldview." Second and secondmost would have worked a lot better. A reimagined America that is short on fresh ideas and long on misplaced humor. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.