(PatrioticPost.com)- Despite excelling at fiction in his day job, CNN’s Jake Tapper isn’t getting rave reviews for his latest thriller “The Devil May Dance.”
The Associated Press ran a scathing review of Tapper’s novel written by critic Bruce DeSilva.
Tapper sets his thriller during the Kennedy Administration. The story centers around Charles Marder, a New York Republican Congressman, who is asked by Attorney General Robert Kennedy to investigate Frank Sinatra’s possible mob connections. RFK is worried that Sinatra’s mob ties might blow back on his brother the President. In order to get the Congressman to agree, RFK has Marder’s father imprisoned on trumped-up charges — only agreeing to release him if Congressman Marder cooperates.
“Why Robert Kennedy would want a congressman to play detective when he could hire a real one remains a mystery.” DeSilva writes in his unflattering review. “Readers may also wonder why the attorney general fails to realize that that [sic] extorting a congressman from the opposing political party risks scandal as well.”
“Nevertheless,” DeSilva continues, “Marder and his feisty wife Margaret resentfully travel to Hollywood to ingratiate themselves with the Sinatra and his Rat Pack.”
DeSilva’s mocking tone is difficult to miss as he describes Tapper’s “research” into Hollywood in the 1960s.
“Nine pages of source material cited in the back of the book indicate that Tapper, best known as a CNN anchor, researched 1960s Hollywood to give the tale an air of authenticity. It didn’t, although it did result in a blizzard of name dropping.”
Ouch.
Desilva doesn’t think much of Tapper’s skill as a writer either — saying Tapper’s “prose rarely rises above graceless” and calling the plot “so farfetched and convoluted that it is difficult to follow.”
Perhaps Jake should stick to peddling fiction on CNN.
