Strongly reminiscent of Carl Hiaasen and Tom Robbins, this sixth satirical novel by the ribald, irreverent Sandlin takes leave of GroVont, Wyo. (setting of Sandlin's GroVont trilogy), to visit a mismatched cast of oddball denizens of Washington, D.C. Returning in the wee hours of the morning from a botched assignment in Europe, Daily News
journalist RC Nash shares a cab from Dulles Airport with Jimmy Sebastiano, a dim-witted Mafia bagman couriering $656,000 to his boss, Rat's Ass Olivetti, the godfather of Philadelphia. Jimmy sneaks into his Foggy Bottom pad the back way to avoid two federal agents parked out front and catches his mistress, ex-Texas high school cheerleader Honey DuPont, having sex with the president. The startled president trips on his thong bikini and dies instantly when he strikes his head on an ornamental iron flamingo. Sneaking the corpse out in a beanbag chair, they take it to the house of Honey's ex–high school flame, Farlow Stubbs, a gay Redskins defensive back, and put it in his freezer. Looking to land an interview with Farlow, RC stumbles upon the corpse; meanwhile, Mafia hit men come looking for Jimmy, who still has the mob's money. Wacky subplots feature a pubertal grandson of the Mafia boss who has a crush on Honey; the ex-first lady (a former Jazzercise instructor from Wisconsin); the devious White House chief of staff; the boneheaded v-p (now president); a cadre of assorted Feds; RC's former editor; her lover (an adulterous senator); and a cast of other Washington types caught up in the zany chase. This madcap farce is a surefire bet to have readers laughing out loud. 8-city author tour. (June)
