cover image Wright for America

Wright for America

Robin Lamont. Grayling Press, $14.95 paper (260p) ISBN 978-0-9858485-0-7

Snappy dialogue and a madcap pace propel this lighthearted caper past moments of implausibility and occasional polemical digressions. Underemployed actress Maren Garrity, who augments her income by working undercover for a private investigation firm specializing in shutting down couture counterfeiters, concocts a scheme to take down right-wing radio personality Pryor Wright, whose blowhard pontifications were quoted by the attacker of her homosexual twin brother. Utilizing friends from her day job%E2%80%94as well as fellow cast members from an off-off-Broadway musical version of Antigone%E2%80%94she goes undercover as an intern at Wright's show, while also attracting the attention of an earnest, albeit inept, FBI agent, who thinks she might be a terrorist. Complications and collisions abound, as Maren and her theatrical friends frantically ad-lib Tea Party dogma at meetings, dinners, and cocktail parties, while dodging the Feds. Lamont, who has performed on Broadway and worked as an assistant district attorney, clearly knows the territory, and her fast-paced, highly enjoyable novel is all the better for it.