Review: The Coyotes of Carthage by Steven Wright

Click cover to view on Amazon

The cover blurb puts this book in the world of political thrillers. I think this is misleading because this book doesn't have the elements that we associate with thrillers such as being a fast-paced, edge-of-the-seat story building to a climax. I wouldn't even call it the close cousin of the thriller, a suspense novel. I would call it a study of a character in an existential crises set in the high-pressure, high-risk world of the political consultant.

Toussaint Andre Ross (Dre) is a senior associate for the political consulting firm of Martin, Fitzpatrick & DeVille. A serious miscalculation during a campaign makes continued employment questionable. But founding partner Fiona Fitzpatrick, Dre's mentor and the person who pulled him, a black man, out of the juvenile justice system, throws hime a lifeline. She wants Dre to run a dark money campaign in rural Carthage County, South Carolina. The campaign is to pass a ballot initiative that would allow an international precious metals conglomerate to rape a pristine area ofAppalachian rain forest to extract gold. The budget is small and the job beneath his talents but Dre knows he has no choice but to make the most of the opportunity.

Dre arrives to find out that it worse than he imagined. He only has one assistant, Brendan Fitzpatrick, grandson to Fiona. Being a black man in white bread South Carolina, Dre has to keep a low profile.

If you weren't cynical about politics before, this book will do it for you. The author takes the reader through the process of running a campaign that is not in the best interests of the people who live in Carthage County: collecting and analyzing data, finding a straw man to be the public face, twisting the narrative to make the appear to be something it isn't not worrying about the human cost of the campaign. Wright has the background that makes me believe that what he describes is pretty accurate, particularly after the recent elections.

Parallel to the campaign is Dre's existential crises about his own identity, his downward spiral as he alienates everyone around him, questions about himself, his future.

The only aspect of the book that bothered me is that there isn't an organized opposition which doesn't seem likely given the environment activism prevalent today. I don't think it is so small that it would slip notice. But I could be wrong. In any case, The Coyotes of Carthage is a fine story on all levels and well worth reading. 

Here are a few choice quotes:

The personal information to which the campaign will have access is virtually limitless.

[About Martin, Fitzpatrick & DeVille]  The firm ultimately sought employees with a flexible moral code, political mercenaries happy to manipulate entire communities to earn a buck

"Aren't elections about getting people to like you?" "That's a common misconception. Elections are about getting voters to hate others."

"...You're asking them to support an initiative that's against their own interest." 

Self-interest. Desperate people are terrible at assessing their own self-interest

In his experience, Americans enjoy nothing more than denying their neighbors happiness.

 Voters have neither the time nor the expertise to weigh the costs and benefits of a complicated policy proposal. Instead, voters cast their ballot based upon instinct, based on their gut.

Keywords: politics, fictional political campaigns, political consultants, environmental issues