The Whyte Python World Tour
A Cold War Rock Thriller of Fame, Espionage, and the Power of Music
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
'A rock-n-roll thrill ride… Heavy Metal icon Rikki Thunder’s satirical memoir is sweeter than Cherry Pie and better than a prescription from Dr. Feelgood! You need to read it' Ernest Cline
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It’s Los Angeles, 1986, and metal rules the world. For aspiring drummer Rikki Thunder, life is good - even if he is sleeping in a condemned paint store and playing with a band that’s going nowhere.
But when he gets a shot to join L.A.’s hottest up-and-coming band, Whyte Python, Rikki’s young life turns up to 11. Soon he has a hit single scorching up the charts, and the new love of his life in the audience. Rikki couldn’t ask for anything more.
But good fortune can be deceiving. With the Cold War breathing its last gasps and American music blasting through the Iron Curtain, a youth revolution is taking hold - and a hair band is unknowingly playing host to the final battle for the hearts and minds of the Eastern Bloc.
Rikki Thunder soon realizes there is a deeper web of influence propelling Whyte Python, and the stakes for his mission - to spread peace, love, and epic shredding across the globe - are far more dangerous than he could ever imagine.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
During the waning years of the Cold War, the CIA—in the person of blonde, bodacious junior agent Amanda Price—gets into bed with an up-and-coming L.A. metal band as part of a covert op to foment pro-democracy rebellion behind the Iron Curtain, in Kennedy's bold if uneven debut. Undercover as Tawny Spice, staffer for a nonexistent music magazine, Amanda targets Rikki Thunder, a talented but emotionally starved drummer. Within weeks of their first hookup, Amanda manages to squeeze Rikki into the lineup of buzzy band Whyte Python. While Amanda and Rikki's faux-romance blossoms, behind the scenes there's a dead-serious CIA team toiling on every aspect of an operation designed to catapult Whyte Python to the top of the charts and send them on an arena tour of the eastern bloc. Newcomer Kennedy nimbly heightens suspense via numerous twists, including the apparent presence of a mole close to the band, without neglecting the story's ample comic possibilities. Still, the tone aims for something like the gonzo heights of Tim O'Brien's America Fantastica and comes up short. A diverting dive into the paranoid past, this picaresque rolls merrily along without ever really rocking.
