In 2018, I reviewed Jake Tapper’s book The Hellfire Club, and was introduced to Charlie Marder, a young Congressman (thanks to his father’s influence when a seat became vacant). He and his wife Margaret, a zoologist, have a ton of interesting experiences in and around Washington, D.C., and I loved the way the issues and people of the time were interwoven into the plot.

2021’s The Devil May Dance brought back the couple, this time involved with famous 50s characters (think Rat Pack,  Sinatra, etc.) and like The Hellfire Club, I noted in my review that this one is also “ very Mad Men-ish, with lots of cocktails, smoking, and the rampant racism and sexism that were so accepted at the time. “ One of my favorite lines: “Amoral, vacuous, meaningless, exploitative–sure. And? Was this virility not what America embraced?”

Both books were fun and interesting, filled with Tapper’s voluminous research and meticulous attention to detail. So I was super happy to receive a copy of the third novel featuring Charlie Marder (and his family), All The Demons Are Here, from Little, Brown & Company and NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. This time, the story takes place in the late 1970s, and includes Charlie and Margaret’s grown children, Ike and Lucy. Ike is a Marine who has gone AWOL following a mission that went horribly wrong and is in Montana working for Evel Knievel, while Lucy is a star reporter for a D.C. tabloid owned by a rich British family…once again art imitating life, or a roman a clef…either way, it’s lots of fun watching the events unfold. As I have come to expect from Tapper, this one has an interesting plot, fully developed  characters, and is filled with incredibly detailed research. Aside from wondering where he finds the time to write, I continue to be impressed with his novels. This is again four stars, rounded down from five, which may be unfair…but the news is bringing me down these days. Never mind–five stars!

Publication Date July 11 2023