The newspaper The Providence Dispatch is barely hanging on by a thread. A shadow
of its former self pretty much in name only it is now owned by a media
conglomerate known to all as “General Communications Holdings International” or
GCHI. A media conglomerate bent on wringing out every last penny as the bottom
line drives everything. Investigative reporter Liam Mulligan is quite possibly
the last dinosaur as he is hanging on to his job by a thread. It has been a
long time since the Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and his newspaper were
allowed to what they do best. These days he
has to punch a time clock and write
press releases for a managing editor that never edits because everything at
GCHI is sent to an “International Editing Center” in Wichita where idiots
manage to screw up everything.
Every now and then he gets sent out
to report on something. In this case a body that was floating in the Blackstone
River above the falls in Pawtucket. That body, as well as another one on a small plane that
crashed at a nearby airport, are just two
small pieces of a very large puzzle involving gambling interests, major league
sports of all types, murder, conspiracy, politics, and more in this latest very good read from award
winning author Bruce DeSilva.
Along with chronicling the end of
traditional newspapers as we know them, the author takes on the hypocrisy that
involves sports gambling as well as money in politics especially in the form of
super PACs. While those details occasionally stray very close to the line of
ranting A Scourge of Vipers the anger is very much justified in all
cases for those readers that have been paying attention to the reality of all
levels of government the last decade plus.
Those relevant observations do not
overshadow the complex mystery at the heart of the book. Fourth in the series
featuring Liam Mulligan, the read references earlier reads in the series while
also representing a turning point in multiple ways for the classic wise
cracking reporter. It will be very interesting to see how this series evolves
going forward as it appears this one a major turning point for Liam as well as
several other characters.
If you are new to the series really
should read them in order starting with Rogue
Island before moving on to Cliff
Walk and Providence
Rag. A Scourge of Vipers is
another mighty good one in the series and very well worth your time.
A Scourge Of Vipers: A Mulligan
Novel
Bruce DeSilva
Tom Doherty Associates Book (Forge)
April 2015
ISBN# 978-0-7653-7431-8
Hardback (also available in e-book
and audio)
320 Pages
$25.99
Material supplied by the good folks
of the Plano Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2015
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