In Josh Weiss’ alternate history of post- WWII America, Joseph Raymond McCarthy ascended to the presidency in the early fifties, and is looking for ways to serve a third term. Anti-communism is all the rage, but antisemitism is also prevalent, just less overt.

Members of McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee now act as a quasi-military force, providing muscle in support of their president’s prejudice and racism. Operating in this toxic environment is Nazi concentration camp survivor Morris Baker, an LAPD detective who gets through his days by obsessing over his caseload and imbibing copious amounts of alcohol. Baker catches the case of his career when he receives a call about a double homicide involving failed movie director John Huston and an obscure journalist named Walter Cronkite. A note found on Cronkite’s corpse compels Baker to undertake a dark journey, where he is forced to confront the tragic events of his, and his adopted country’s, past.

Tight, well-paced, inventive, and inspirational, Weiss’ splendid debut is classic noir tinged with the slightest pinch of science fiction; readers can thrill to the bits of dissonant history they recognize, even as they revel in the mayhem and suspense that permeate the text.

Calling to mind works such as Robert Harris’ Fatherland and Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, Weiss’ novel works as a traditional mystery, a loving and respectful tribute to his forebears, and as a way of casting light on the dark underbelly of the American gestalt, allowing readers to ponder many of the divisive issues which plague the country even to the present day.