A Historical Caper Revisits the Teapot Dome Era

How’s this for an intriguing book concept? In 1923, the famous iconoclast H.L. Mencken and the soon-to-be-famous novelist James M. Cain join forces to investigate reports of corruption in president Warren G. Harding’s administration and wind up in the middle of murder and scandal. If that’s not enough, throw in the theft of the cursed Hope Diamond and a sexy redhead who knows where all the bodies are buried. Finally, add cameo appearances by a variety of celebrities of the era, from Mary Roberts Rinehart, who gives the investigative duo their first lead, to Henry Luce, who has just launched Time magazine.

All this good fun is to be found in “Our Man in Washington” (Forge, $24.95, 381 pages), a rambling, entertaining amalgam of fantasy and history that marks seasoned journalist Roy Hoopes’ fiction debut. Cain, the book’s narrator, is no stranger to Hoopes, who in 1982 penned a prize-winning biography of the writer. Knowledge gleaned from that experience adds considerable dimension to the character. The loquacious Mencken, drawn from a variety of sources listed at the back of the novel, is no less rounded. And Hoopes’ reconstruction of events leading up to Harding’s death and the Teapot Dome scandal is filled with such detail that a cloak of credibility covers the whole yarn, even its wilder flights of fancy, such as a subplot that has Cain and Mencken vying for the affections of a beautiful murder suspect. Lovers of local history may find the cynical references to Edward Doheny’s involvement in Teapot Dome especially amusing. Or maybe not.

*

What’s in a name? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp made his fiction debut back in 1989 with “Fool’s Run,” a crime novel that introduced Kidd, an artist, computer hacker and modern Robin Hood who is rather like a high-tech, American version of Leslie Charteris’ famous Saint. That same year, he published a second mystery, a slightly less favored one apparently, since he elected to assign to it the pen name John Sandford. That was “Rules of Prey,” the novel that launched the best selling series about homicide detective Lucas Davenport. Camp used his real name once more for Kidd’s second caper, “The Empress File” (1991). Since then, the Davenport tales have become so popular that the new, third Kidd, “The Devil’s Code” (Putnam, $25.95, 321 pages), features the Sandford byline.

Although readers have not embraced Kidd with the warmth they’ve bestowed on Davenport, to my taste he is a much more fascinating character. The crime fiction field is overflowing with dedicated cops huffing and puffing after gore-dripping serial killers, but it doesn’t have nearly enough droll master thieves like Kidd and his stunning partner in righteous crime, LuEllen, who are willing to risk their necks for a just cause. In this instance, an old associate has been killed, supposedly in the course of robbing a high-tech firm named AmMath. The dead man’s sister doesn’t buy the story and asks Kidd to help clear her brother’s name. Of course, he will. But as he, LuEllen and their exposition-providing cybersleuth pal Bobby set about getting the goods on AmMath and its devious owner, nothing plays out exactly as planned. The fun and the suspense rest in the ways the two intelligent, romantic, versatile protagonists adjust to the glitches.

*

One of life’s little mysteries is why readers avidly follow the adventures of Stuart Woods’ singularly unbelievable and unpleasantly superficial series hero, attorney Stone Barrington. The newest, “L.A. Dead” (Putnam, $24.95, 352 pages), should test the staying power of even the least demanding fan. The novel opens with Stone deciding to marry Dolce, the lovely but homicidal daughter of a New York Mafia don. That should be the first clue to put the book down. The scene in Elaine’s famous Manhattan boite, with Elaine herself giving Stone advice on marriage, should be the second clue. Dogged readers will discover that Stone leaves the don’s daughter at the altar in Venice to jet to Hollywood, where his true love, Arrington Calder, is the main suspect in the murder of her movie star husband.

Will Dolce kill Stone before he can find the real murderer? Will he ever meet a woman he doesn’t sleep with? Will he and Elaine . . . never mind. Other authors end their cliffhangers with crimes unsolved and killers at large. Woods prefers to hook us by withholding Stone’s marriage plans. Will he or won’t he be changing his true love’s name to . . . Arrington-Barrington?

The Times reviews mystery books every other week. Next week: Rochelle O’Gorman reviews audio books.