Review: CNN anchor Jake Tapper fails in covering a thriller
In “The Devil May Dance,” a thriller by CNN anchor Jake Tapper, Attorney General Robert Kennedy forces a reluctant congressman to discreetly investigate the link between the mob and Frank Sinatra in 1960
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
Devil May Dance,” by Jake Tapper (Little, Brown)
As Jake Tapper’s new thriller, “The Devil May Dance,” opens in the year 1960, New York Republican Congressman Charlie Marder is being extorted by none other than the U.S. attorney general.
Robert Kennedy is concerned that his brother, President John F. Kennedy, likes to pal around with Frank Sinatra who in turn likes to pal around with mobsters. Fearing scandal, Robert Kennedy wants Marder to discreetly investigate Sinatra’s mob connections. To persuade him, he has the congressman’s father imprisoned on trumped up charges and won’t release him unless Marder cooperates.
Why Robert Kennedy would want a congressman to play detective when he could hire a real one remains a mystery. Readers may also wonder why the attorney general fails to realize that that extorting a congressman from the opposing political party risks scandal as well.
Nevertheless, Marder and his feisty wife Margaret resentfully travel to Hollywood to ingratiate themselves with the Sinatra and his Rat Pack.
Nine pages of source material cited in the back of the book indicate that Tapper, best known as a CNN anchor, researched 1960s Hollywood to give the tale an air of authenticity. It didn’t, although it did result in a blizzard of name dropping.
When the Marders arrive in Hollywood, they encounter nearly everybody who matters from Sammy Davis Jr. and John Wayne to Alfred Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe. They also fall into a sewer of drunken parties, drug use, prostitution, pedophilia, blackmail, police corruption, backstabbing, organized crime, and murder.
Except for the Marders and actress Janet Leigh, Tapper puts the stink of the place on nearly every character to such a degree that it’s difficult to care what happens to any of them. Meanwhile, the prose rarely rises above graceless and the plot is so farfetched and convoluted that it is difficult to follow.
___
Bruce DeSilva, winner of the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award, is the author of the Mulligan crime novels including “The Dread Line.”
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.