If You Can't Be Good

Ross Thomas protagonists tend to be cool, urbane, witty, well-read, and have voices to match. These cool, urbane voices can be a little at odds with the depravity they describe and the nastiness they encounter. If You Can't Be Good is a real box of horrors, but Deek Lewis is the usual jaded, cynical narrator trying to make sense of events, In this case working with a journalist to find out why a Senator wrecked his career in a befuddlingly wasteful and stupid manner. It's all about motivations and reasons, and what a squirming can of worms they are. Otherwise it's the usual twisting and turning of a Thomas thriller, snappy dialogue and insider's dirt on politics, espionage, policework and journalism. When corruption is a way of life it show more takes some doing to pull of something really twisted - and that's what you get here. show less