Everybody Wants to Rule the World
A Novel
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- USD 14.99
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- USD 14.99
Descripción editorial
Elmore Leonard meets Robert Ludlum in a rollicking comedic thriller set in 1985 from acclaimed author Ace Atkins, in which a suburban teen suspects his mom’s new boyfriend is the ultimate bad guy—a KGB agent.
It’s 1985, what will soon become known as “The Year of the Spy,” and fourteen-year-old Peter Bennett is convinced his mom’s new boyfriend is a Russian agent. “Gary” isn’t in the phone book, has an unidentifiable European accent, and keeps a gun in the glove box of his convertible Porsche. Peter thinks Gary only wants to get close to his mom because she works at Scientific Atlanta, a lab with big government contracts. But who is going to believe him? He’s just a kid into BMX and MTV.
But after another woman who works at the lab is killed, Peter recruits an unlikely pair of allies—a has-been pulp writer and muckraker named Dennis Hotchner and his drag performer buddy and heavy, Jackie Demure. Both soon become the target of an unhinged Russian hitman (Is it Gary? Maybe!) with a serious Phil Collins obsession.
Meanwhile, Sylvia Weaver, a young, Black FBI agent, investigates Scientific Atlanta in the wake of the employee’s murder and discovers a nest of Russian spies in the Southern “city too busy to hate.” Little does she know her investigation is being thwarted by a seriously compromised colleague in Washington, D.C., who is in league with a lovesick, hypochondriac KGB defector who is playing both sides of the Cold War to his benefit.
As Ronald Reagan and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev prepare for a historic nuclear summit in Geneva, what happens in Atlanta might change the course of the Cold War, the twentieth century, and Peter Bennett’s freshman year of high school.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A 14-year-old boy's suspicion that his mom's boyfriend might be a Russian spy ignites this busy comedic thriller from Atkins (Don't Let the Devil Ride). In 1985 Atlanta, Peter Bennett worries that his scientist mom's new flame, Gary—who has a funny accent, is not in the phone book, and keeps a gun in his car—is less interested in romance than in gaining access to her work for a government contractor. Peter knows that nobody in authority will take a high school freshman seriously, so he gets in touch with his favorite author, crime novelist Dennis "Hotch" Hotchner, whose writing career flamed out a decade ago. Hotch agrees to help, but trouble soon follows: a Russian hit man appears on the scene, a coworker of Peter's mom is found murdered, and the FBI gets involved. When Peter's kidnapped, Hotch and his sidekick, a brawny drag queen named Jackie Demure, shift into high gear. Atkins peppers the exuberant action with colorful references to '80s pop culture, but as the cast of characters expands, the book's many subplots start to stall the narrative momentum. It's hard not to admire his ambition, but Atkins has done better before.
