Are Snakes Necessary?

by Brian De Palma, Susan Lehman

Overview

"It's like having a new Brian De Palma picture." - Martin Scorsese, Academy Award-winning director

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF SCARFACE AND DRESSED TO KILL —
A FEMALE REVENGE STORY

When the beautiful young videographer offered to join his campaign, Senator Lee Rogers should've known better. But saying no would have taken a stronger man than Rogers, with his ailing wife and his robust libido. Enter Barton Brock, the senator's fixer. He's already gotten rid of one troublesome young woman — how hard could this new one turn out to be?

Pursued from Washington D.C. to the streets of Paris, 18-year-old Fanny Cours knows her reputation and budding career are on the line. But what she doesn't realize is that her life might be as well...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789091205
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	03/17/2020
Series:	Hard Case Crime
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,137,327
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

BRIAN DE PALMA is the world-famous director of more than thirty films, including Carrie, Scarface, The Untouchables, Dressed to Kill, Body Double, Blow Out, and the original Mission: Impossible. The subject of the 2015 documentary De Palma, he is considered one of the most accomplished filmmakers of the last fifty years, a peer to directors such as Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese and an inspiration to next-generation directors such as Quentin Tarantino.

SUSAN LEHMAN is a former editor of the New York Times and author whose writing has appeared in the Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, The New Yorker, and Spy magazine. An attorney by training, she also served as communications director at the Brennan Center for Justice.

Editorial Reviews

01/06/2020

The 2016 reelection campaign of Sen. Lee Rogers of Pennsylvania, a philandering scoundrel, drives this disappointing political thriller from filmmaker De Palma and former New York Times editor Lehman. At a chance encounter with a former flame, Jenny Cours, Rogers meets her 18-year-old daughter, Fanny, who’s a political junkie eager to help his campaign. Known as the Hunk of the Hill on Capitol Hill, Rogers agrees to hire Fanny, who’s “in the full flush of carnality,” as a videographer. He soon lures her into his bed. Their relationship proves dangerous for Rogers after Fanny vanishes, and Jenny’s persistent search for her daughter places the politician in law enforcement’s crosshairs. A subplot involving a remake of the Hitchcock film Vertigo set at the Eiffel Tower sets the stage for a risible climax. The predictable and tired plot twists aren’t helped by the authors’ portrayal of present-day politics as if the 2016 presidential campaign never happened. This would have worked better as an intentional parody of the genre. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

02/28/2020

DEBUT In this first book by director De Palma (Blow Out; Carrie; Scarface) and former New York Times editor Lehman, parallel narratives follow caddish, smooth-talking Sen. Lee Rogers, as he runs for office and seduces his young and comely campaign videographer, Fanny Cours; and Las Vegas trophy wife Elizabeth DeCarlo Diamond, who longs to escape her life in a gilded cage. The senator and the trophy wife have someone in common: unscrupulous, conniving Barton Brock, Rogers's fixer. Barton betrayed Elizabeth years ago, an act that landed him the job as Lee's hatchet man. He'll need all his dirty tricks and more when Fanny goes missing, and her mother, an earlier conquest of Lee's, is determined to find her. The action culminates in Paris, high atop the Eiffel Tower, where a film crew is shooting a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. You just know somebody's going over that railing. Meanwhile, in a remote Maine cabin, Elizabeth is restless again. Her gig as an anonymous advice columnist to put-upon women isn't enough, and she yearns to help her correspondents in a more proactive way. VERDICT De Palma and Lehman stuff their book with cinematic tropes, unrealistic characters, and predictable plot twists, but somehow it's still an overall exciting read.—Liz French, Library Journal

Library Journal

It’s like having a new Brian De Palma picture.” – Martin Scorsese, Academy Award-winning director

“Brilliant, lurid, twisty fun…compulsively readable and fiendishly constructed.” – David Koepp, screenwriter of Jurassic Park

“One of the world's greatest filmmakers has helped produce a fast-moving page turner, breathlessly paced…irresistible for any De Palma fan." – Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho

"lurid and pulpy goodness" - Associated Press  

"Deliciously deceptive....right at home in a De Palma movie (something in the mode of Dressed to Kill or Body Double)...a wonderful, immensely satisfying thriller." — Booklist Starred Review

"A pastiche of hard-boiled crime fiction that doesn’t scrimp on the lurid pleasures of the genre."  - The Washington Post

"This is De Palma echoing Hitchcock yet again, just as he’s done so many times on screen." - Mystery Tribune 

"A doozy...With this inventive, fast-paced page turner in your hands you will also be meeting your next fun and exciting read." - Cinema Retro

"A good read for an airplane ride or your first day on the beach." - Bookgasm

"a high-octane political thriller...Fans of De Palma’s movies know what to expect: suspense, thrills, and a surprising conclusion!"- George Kelley blog review


"Fans will no doubt relish all the things in it that they have come to know and love from his films [...including] a wild finale that practically unfolds in slow-motion on the page, in the best possible way. - Roger Ebert.com
“moves like a shot” - RogerEbert.com 

“Combines conspiracy and political intrigue with Hollywood hubris... acolytes of De Palma’s work would be remiss not to add a copy of Are Snakes Necessary? to their pulp fiction libraries” - Adventures in Poor Taste 

"239 pages of sick — and welcome — escapism." - Head Butler

"This naughty pulp cocktail goes down deliciously easy." - Slant Magazine 

“Brilliant plotting, breathless pacing... this is a must-read for noir fans” - The Crime Review

"Many of us are looking for a fast-paced, escapist page-turner that will help us tear our eyes away from the spiraling numbers on that Johns Hopkins map. Early reviews suggest that Are Snakes Necessary?, the first novel by Brian De Palma and his partner, Susan Lehman, is just the ticket. So far, critics agree that the blurb on the cover from Martin Scorsese is no lie: “It’s like having a new Brian De Palma picture.”  - The Criterion

“De Palma at his raunchiest, but it is also deeply moral, as his raunchiest films have been.” - Electric Ghost


"This swift page-turner left me cackling with delight right through to its epilogue, the final twist being one of those easily predicted developments that De Palma allows you to savor for the whole time you can see it coming. Maybe not exactly “Necessary,” but enormously enjoyable all the same. "  - WBUR The ARTery
"It reads like a De Palma movie you’re watching in your head." - WBUR The ARTery
"To quote my friend the late, great Jim Ridley’s review of De Palma’s glorious 2002 “Femme Fatale,” it is “the work of a happy, horny man.” - WBUR The ARTery 

"ARE SNAKES NECESSARY? is controlled chaos. It’s fun, startling, funny in spots and not so funny in others.... This is a quick, smart read that will leave you wanting more from this collaborative writing team."   -Book Reporter

From the Publisher