Summer 2008 Political Fiction, Real World and Otherwise

Well it’s that time of year again. Some of us are planning vacations. Some of us just need a good book beside us on the garden chair as we sit in the sun. This sampling is a bit of a potpourri. Some of them, the fantasy novels, are based on my own preferred genre tastes. Others are books I just kind of ended up with. I don't know why these books all have politics as a subtext. Maybe it’s because it's a political year and maybe some strange force led me to read them. Most of the political books are also about murder. Why are political novels always about murder? Anyway, here goes:

I figure I’ll organize them according to genre:

The first are political novels based in the "real world."

For those who like light romantic fiction, there is Genie Davis’ Five o’ Clock Shadow. I generally don’t like light romantic fiction. I’ll say that up front. But I liked Genie’s other books. She’s a screenwriter in Hollywood and her books are a fun cinematic romp. Five O’Clock Shadow is no different. It’s about a woman who decides to run for office. Okay, it’s not the presidential office. It’s for local office but sure enough there are conspiracies and suspense and well, romance. And like her other novel, The Model Man, there are a lot of Hollywood flakes and eccentrics floating around. A very good romantic suspense novel.

Another political novel is Robert Fleming’s Fever in the Blood. This one, distinguished by its African-American characterizations, is about a youthful serial killer. It’s very dark and we’re always in the killer’s mind. We watch as he rationalizes who he will murder and when and why. So where does the politics come in? Well, when he was taken away from his crack-addict mother, he was raised by a prominent Harlem politician. A harrowing read, by a solid former New York City journalist.

I also tackled Robert Lopresti’s Such a Killing Crime. This one was published in 2005 but I just got to it. I had to be in the mood for a book about the folk music scene and the 1960’s counter-culture. The action takes place in Greenwich Village coffee houses and folk clubs. Musicians, hippies, creativity, and politics abound. There are also a lot of poor musicians roaming about in this book. And yeah, there are corpses. This was a fun nostalgic read but I’ll admit it was strange seeing the word Negro used to describe black folks.

True Believer, Part One written by a black Welsh writer named Tony Higgins is the oddest book of the lot. It’s a self-published book so I didn’t really expect much from it. Okay, call me a cynic but I don’t much trust self-published books. I was totally surprised at how good, airtight and well-written this book -- and the other self-published books on this list — was. This one takes place in Los Angeles. (Do events in conspiracy-centered political novels tend to happen only in California and New York City?) In the story, a detective ends up in trouble and discovers a secret government organization. Am I giving anything away when I say that this crime novel has Richard Nixon as involved in a cover-up? (No, not Watergate.) This was a totally fun book. Again, it wasn’t one I would’ve picked up on my own but one which turned out to be downright fun and enjoyable.

Article Author: Carole McDonnell

Carole McDonnell's short stories and essays appear online and in print, in speculative fiction, ethnic, and Christian publications. She lives in New York with her husband, two sons, and their pets. Wind Follower, published by Juno Books in June 2007, …

Visit Carole McDonnell's author page — Carole McDonnell's Blog