Fever City

James Ellroy fans will appreciate Australian-born Baker’s ambitious debut with its nervous, jittery style, large cast of characters, and cynical, nihilistic attitude. Set mainly during the early 1960s, the story focuses on the ransom kidnapping of the adopted son of one of America’s richest men and the approaching assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, though the action at times shifts back to the 1940s and forward to 2014. A parade of sadistic thugs, former movie stars, hopelessly corrupt police, revenge-seeking private eyes, and power-hungry billionaires mix with such familiar faces and famous names as Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, Sam Giancana, Howard Hughes, Jimmy Hoffa, Bobby Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon Johnson. Crammed with violence, sadism, torture, and sex, this audacious novel is sure to appeal to champions of Oliver Stone’s 1991 film JFK, though some readers may grow weary of all the excesses long before the end. Agent: Tom Witcomb, Blake Friedmann Agency (U.K.). (May)