Beat the DevilsJosh WeissLabel: Grand Central PublishingDescription: USA 1958. President Joseph McCarthy sits in the White House elected on a wave of populist xenophobia and barely-concealed anti-Semitism. The country is in the firm grip of McCarthy's Hueys a secret police force evolved from the House Un-American Activities Committee. Hollywood's sparkling vision of the American dream has been suppressed; its remaining talents forced to turn out endless anti-communist propaganda.LAPD detective Morris Baker-a Holocaust survivor who drowns his fractured memories of the unspeakable in schnapps and work-is called to the scene of a horrific double-homicide. The victims are John Huston a once-promising but now forgotten film director and an up-and-coming young journalist named Walter Cronkite. Clutched in the hand of one of the dead men is a cryptic note containing the phrase beat the devils followed by a single name: Baker. Did the two men die in an attack fueled by better-dead-than-red sentiment as the Hueys are quick to conclude or were they murdered in a cover-up designed to protect-or even set in motion-a secret plot connected to Baker's past?In a country where terror grows stronger by the day and paranoia rises unchecked Baker is determined to find justice for two men who raised their voices in a time when free speech comes at the ultimate cost. In the course of his investigation Baker stumbles into a conspiracy that reaches deep into the halls of power and uncovers a secret that could destroy the City of Angels-and the American ideal itself.
