Set in 1965, Klein's fourth diverting Elvis mystery (after 2003's Viva Las Vengeance
) takes us to the center of the King's self-doubt. Mortified by the mediocrity of his recent song and movie output, and still on the fence about Priscilla, Elvis realizes that the only thing that makes him feel good is eating. So he decides to try to persuade Terry Southern (whose Dr. Strangelove
script he admires) to be his screenwriter for a classy, original movie about meat loaf (one of his favorite foods). Enter an underage ex-virgin with her angry father who claims it was Elvis who did the deed. To avoid a potential Jerry Lee Lewis flameout, Colonel Tom Parker wants a pay-off, but Elvis, more concerned with truth, wants the culprit. Two more underage victims and a dead photographer shift the unlikely duo of Elvis and Tom into high gear, skidding through car, truck, motorcycle and dung-spreader chases, river raft trips (think Huck Finn), small-town Elvis lookalike contests and an antediluvian boarding school. They also hit all the predictable tropes of the South (barbecue, sheriffs, jails, racism). So many characters and subplots make it easy to lose track, and the amusing, soul-searching story is more a road odyssey than a mystery, but finally, who cares. The King still rules. (Aug. 18)
