A first rate satire. | Missionary Stew

excellent | Missionary Stew | Ross Thomas

books:


	• Missionary Stew Ross Thomas St. Martin's Griffin, 2004 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Quality Ross Thomas work

I'm a sucker for Ross Thomas and this is a fine example of his work. Starts with an interesting look at the former Central African Empire from the perspecutive of our hero who is a prisoner in one of their jails. It then moves to the usual Thomas complex but understandable political plot. Thomas just has a feel for topics that blend a foreign event with domestic political dirty tricks. It's just a good read.

A first rate satire.

Missionary Stew by Ross Thomas is a wickedly irreverent satiric novel that is both fast paced and hilarious.
There are two main characters, Draper Haere and Morgan Citron. Haere makes his living in the world of politics. He's not a politician himself. Rather he operates behind the scenes to advance the agendas of politicians he works for. Morgan Citron is an investigative reporter who has been traumatized by a rather unpleasant 13 month stay in an African jail and is conflicted about returning to work.
An incident of some sort has ocurred in a Central American country. The details of this incident are sketchy, but it seems that whenever someone learns what has happened, that person winds up dead.
Haere's current client is Baldwin Veatch, the governor-elect of California and a presidential hopeful. Haere has reason to believe that the incident being covered up constitutes an embarassing scandal for the sitting President. Therefore, if he can expose the secret, his client's chances of becoming President will be greatly enhanced. So, Haere hires Citron to use his investigative skills to unravel the mystery.
The plot of Missionary Stew is exceedingly complex. As the narrative advances, the reader learns of all manner of complications. Playing key roles are: a redneck Floridian drug runner, the CEO of a National Inquirer type tabloid who happens to be Citron's own mother, a corrupt Central American general, as well as various and sundry members and ex-members of the intelligence community.
Suffice it to say that the book's characters are all very interesting and delightfully eccentric. Moreover, the dialogue is quite snappy and has an understated wit about it that is genuinely entertaining.
If you like your political novels to have byzantine plots, quirky characters, clever dialogue and cynical points of view, by all means read this book. You'll love it.

for more information click here

excellent

This book is extremely interesting -- not at all in the style of most mysteries, it offers a surprisingly introspective look at the key characters. The beginning is rather bizarre. Get through it, and you will really enjoy the rest.

for more information click here

Fast and oh, so smooth...

This is my favorite Ross Thomas novel and that's really saying something, the competition is fierce. The writing is spare and tight and the dialog is first-rate, nobody writes (wrote?) with such a keen ear for the way people speak. Thomas is funny and cynical, this complex story unfolds at breakneck speed. Thomas had an interesting history, working for a union, in business and as political consultant (slipping in time to write some fine novels and a couple of screenplays, one for the interesting movie Bad Company). How did he accomplish so much in this novel in only 70,000-odd words? Pure magic.

Ken Coffman is the author of Steel Waters, Alligator Alley, Twisted Shadow and other novels.

for more information click here

Keeping a lot of balls in the air

Ross Thomas just had the knack of creating unusual situations, and unusual characters, and then having everything interact toward a satisfying conclusion. This book is another one of his well-crafted thriller-type writings, where you are introduced to a disparate cast of characters who seem totally unrelated to each other but, by the end of the book, all fit nicely into the confines of the plot. This one is a bit more gruesome than some of his, for there are several deaths, but they are all in the service of advancing the plot line. Read this book and see a master of the genre at work!

for more information click here

Missionary Stew follows political fundraiser Draper Haere on a quest to uncover the secret behind a right-wing coup in an unnamed Central american country. Haere seeks the information in order to get dirt on his boss's opponent in the 1984 US Presidential election. Haere's pursuit of the truth repeatedly puts Haere's life in danger, as the powers-that-be stop at nothing to keep the episode buried. Along the way, Haere carries on an affair with the wife of his candidate and enlists the aid of Morgan Citron, an almost-Pullitzer winning journalist who has recently been released from an African prison where the prisoners where fed human flesh--the titular missionary stew. Together Citron and Haere face up against cocaine traffickers, Latin American generals, corrupt US officials, and Citron's estranged, tabloid-publisher mother.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2

hot