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A mystery that makes the reader think about larger issues is very satisfying. The present novel continues to haunt me. In particular, it raises the specter of the increasing power a certain fascist mentality seems to be gaining at the highest levels in the United States. The point is never belabored, however; rather the evidence slowly accrues throughout the novel, and the reader is left to draw her/his own conclusions. The Reverend Maurice Jones has been found shot through the heart in his native Louisiana, his penis stuffed in his mouth, a metal swastika left under his body, and semen deposited in his rectum. Because he was at the time of his death a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the FBI is on the case. Because of the implications of the evidence, the hard-nosed and homophobic (as well as racist) assistant director Dedmon D Daniels assigns a bisexual agent, Adam Stephen, to handle the case. And because of his own political aspirations, Daniels wants full credit for solving it; he orders Adam to investigate clandestinely with no contact with other agents based in Louisiana. Upon examining the evidence for himself, the agent immediately senses that something does not quite ring true. Moreover, the leads are too many and too diverse. Could the perpetrator be someone in Jones's own church, disgusted by his charlatanism and his known heterosexual promiscuity? Could it be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, including some of the local law officials, angry at the power an African American politician is amassing? Or could it be a member of the Lake Charles dockworkers union upset because Jones has reneged on his campaign promises to support them? Perhaps it is a result of machinations among the gangsters involved with the local casinos? Is it indeed one of the LSU gay skinheads who is doing something more than playacting as a Nazi? Or is it some yet more sinister force at work? Adam calls upon two women for special help: Adaline Fonenot, a wealthy and quite elderly New Orleans socialite he meets by accident on the plane from Washington, and Verda Hamilton, Daniels's much-suffering African American secretary. The answer to the mystery turns out to lie in an unexpected, but quite public document the former provides and in records the latter digs out. But it is Adam who puts the facts all together and forces the showdown. In an unusual move, the novel is narrated from multiple perspectives, including those of friends and of some of the possible perpetrators. The young agent himself is unusual in several ways. He practices his own version of Native American spirituality; the novel includes a number of his prayers and healing chants. After apparently being consumed by his job for too long, Adam begins to need human companionship. He befriends a poor family belonging to Jones's church, and he learns a lesson in compassion from his widow. He seeks out an old fraternity brother, and at a party as his home, Adam meets Sean, a young primitive art dealer and patron based in Lafayette, who promises the possibility of a more intimate relationship. Comic relief is provided by a behaviorally-challenged bloodhound named Homer. Adam acquires him to sniff out possible dangers after receiving a bomb threat. Readers who detest canine and feline mysteries need not fear, however; Homer has a quite different role to play than the usual. The term 'something new' gets overused in blurbs for novels, but in this case it may be entirely appropriate.
Reviewed by Drewey Wayne Gunn, February 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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