Our Man in Washington
by By Hoopes, Roy
Category: Fiction , Historical

Hoopes's first work of fiction is a historical novel featuring James M. Cain, later the master of "hard-boiled" mystery novels, and H. L. Mencken, the famous iconoclastic journalist, as amateur detectives. Two Baltimore reporters (friends at that time and later in real life), they are investigating the deaths and sex scandals in the Harding administration in 1923, just before the big Teapot Dome scandal breaks.There is a remarkable relevance of 1920s scandals to today's political environment, but that remains behind the book as Mencken and Cain, two bright literary men playing Holmes and Watson, take the train to D.C. to get the real scoop. They drink a lot, meet a mysterious, sexy redhead named Roxy (a real-life influence on Cain) and a rogue named Gaston B. Means, and get a lot more than they bargained for. With hard-boiled enthusiasm they expose some of the roots of the corruption infecting our capital. All the speaking roles are real historical characters.