New Jersey Satire for Fans of South Florida Suspense

Categories: Mystery & Suspense , Fiction

I recommended Eric Dezenhall to a fan of Carl Hiaasen and Donald Westlake a few weeks ago.  If you like the Florida school of over-the-top satiric suspense, move up the coastline a little to meet New Jersey crisis management consultant (a.k.a. spin doctor) Jonah Eastman.

Eastman was introduced in Money Wanders.  A Washington political pollster whose career was in trouble, Jonah found a new client at the funeral of his grandfather, a New Jersey mobster.  Another mob boss was having image problems—Mario Vanni wanted to get a legitimate gambling license and leave a clean business to his grandkids.  But how to  rehabilitate the public image of the state’s biggest gangster?  A little polling revealed the answer—make him look tough on drugs and neighborhood crime. 

Dezenhall gleefully satirized pollsters, p.r. flacks, and public enemies in that humorous crime novel, the first in a series.  Now there’s a new Jonah Eastman adventure, Spinning Dixie.   

This time, Jonah goes to bat for an old flame, Claudine Polk, the Southern belle he once loved and lost.  She’s trying to keep her husband from using her plantation as a toxic dump.  Is there anything an out-of-work political spin doctor can do to save the day?  Of course!  A few simple rumors of Confederate gold are enough to focus public attention just where Jonah wants it.

Dezenhall is a Washington crisis management consultant himself, and getting his inside scoop on the business makes this satiric series some serious fun.