Larry Beinhart’s 1994 novel American Hero became the film “Wag the Dog” and his The Librarian made a librarian an unlikely hero who reveals a plot by a conspiracy of right-wingers to rule the world. A previous novel, No One Rides for Free received an Edgar Award. Beinhart’s nonfiction book, Fog Facts, considered the failures of commercial media to honestly, openly critique the most obvious of what pass for cultural truths. And somewhere in there he also wrote a book on how to write mysteries. Beinhart was the Raymond Chandler Fulbright Fellow at Wadham College and his commentaries have appeared widely, including on the Huffington Post. Beinhart’s latest novel, Salvation Boulevard, is a detective crime thriller about a murdered atheist professor, a suspect Islamic college student and, yes, a born-again Christian shamus who attends an evangelical mega-church. Beinhart’s writing, fast, smart --- especially his dialog --- makes this gripper so satisfyingly more --- a novel of ideas --- indeed a noir existential tough-guy tale where a missing manuscript turns our sleuth’s world upside down. Turns out that people kill other people for ideas, leaving the detective hero of Salvation Boulevard to uncover a tricky thing called truth. Monday at noon on KPFK 90.7 FM and http://www.kpfk.org/.
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