FORGOTTEN BOOK: ARE SNAKES NECESSARY?

 Are Snakes Necessary? by Brian De Palma & Susan Lehman (2016)

This book by film director Brian De Palma (Carrie, Dressed to Kill, The Untouchables, Mission:  Impossible) and Susan Lehman (De Palma's partner both in work and life) was first published in France in 2018 (although the copyright date is given as 2016) as Les serpents sont-ils necessaires?; it was reprinted in English in 2020 by Hard Case Crime.  The pair have written a second novel, Terry, which remains unpublished.

This is a tricky novel to read and much of it rests on De Palma's film background.  In fact, much of it reminds me of a decent, uninspired film where most of the action is telegraphed.

Various characters weave in and out (sometimes with no seeming connections to one another) in a story that, ultimately deals with an important senatorial race.  And if politics are being discussed, it follows that some hot and heavy sex is to follow...

Among the characters are:

• A glib, successful, and ultimately shallow United States senator seeking reelection
• His beautiful devoted, rich wife, who is dying slowly from Parkinson's
• His political fixer, who will stop at nothing to ensure his candidate's success
• A down-on-his luck news photographer who let one-time success get away from him
• A wealthy, immoral Las Vegas businessman with heavy mob connections
• His trophy wife, who seeks love elsewhere, and ultimately is a vehicle for vengeance
• The senator's former lover, who he has not seen for many years
• Her lovely, gullible 18-year-old daughter, a political junky and aspiring videographer
• The photographer's one-time college lover, bow a successful actress
• A series of beaten and abused, down-on-their luck women, corresponding to a newspaper advice columnist

 Add to this a French remake of Hitchcock's Vertigo, and oblique references to Washington intern Chandra Levy,(who disappeared in 2001 and whose body was found in Rock creek Park) and Natalie Holloway (who disappeared in Aruba, and whose body was never found), and you have a potent mix of fast-paced reading.

Not a great book, really, but at times as exciting and enjoyable as some of De Palma's films