Night of the Avenging Blowfish: A Novel of Covert Operations, Love, and Luncheon Meat

by John Welter

Overview

Secret Service agent Doyle Coldiron gets into hot water before you can say, "Just the facts, ma'am." Soon he's swept up in an outrageous flood of events in this cockeyed look at Washington life and at the confusing business of falling in love in the 1990s. "Among the wittiest American novelists writing today."--Joseph Heller, author of CATCH-22; "Run, don't walk, to your nearest store for NIGHT OF THE AVENGING BLOWFISH."--Milwaukee Journal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781565120501
Publisher:	Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Publication date:	01/05/1994
Pages:	322
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

John Welter began his writing career as a newspaper copy boy, buying cigarettes for the city editor. Since then he has worked as a reporter at newspapers in the Midwest and the South and published humor sketches in The Atlantic. His first book, Begin to Exit Here: A Novel of the Wayward Press, was widely praised and selected by Library Journal as a "Word of Mouth" recommendation for 1991. He lives in North Carolina, where he writes a humor column for The Chapel Hill Herald and is a manager for a mail-order company. He has never been a Secret Service agent, but sometimes wears dark glasses.

What People are Saying About This

Joseph Heller

Among the wittiest American novelists writing today.

Editorial Reviews

Humor may be the most personal of all tastes, so it's difficult to forecast how many readers will construe same in Welter's second novel (after Begin to Exit Here ). One problem for many will be the oddly old-fashioned romance between narrator/Secret Service agent Doyle Coldiron and a White House secretary, not to mention Coldiron's mawkish musings on loneliness occasioned by that ill-fated relationship. And that's a big problem because, if the story here is about anything, it is about that romance, seemingly doomed because Natelle, the object of the agent's affections, is a married woman. The rest of the goings-on have to do with a phantom baseball game between the Secret Service and the CIA, and with Coldiron's fall into disfavor when he fails to stop the White House chef from serving Spam to the President and an honored guest (the chef is upset because the President, after eating a hot dog at a baseball game, suggested that he didn't receive such high quality food in the White House). Some of Welter's commentary on the national scene is dead-on. After the fired chef goes on national TV to suggest that the President thinks he's too good for ``ordinary food,'' for instance, the Leader of the Free World embarks on a public diet of Vienna sausages, wieners and the like: ``If it came from a dead animal and was held in low culinary esteem, the President made sure he was seen eating it.'' The overall effort, however, is strained. Suffice it to say that Weltner's humor is most likely an acquired taste. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Doyle Coldiron, a wisecracking but sensitive U.S. Secret Service agent, deplores his unhappily unmarried status. Miserably in love with Natelle, an already-married secretary to the president, Doyle consoles himself with drinking at the Nevermore Bar & Grill and planning covert ``spookball'' games between the Secret Service and the CIA. When demoted for failing to prevent the White House chef from serving Spam at a State dinner, Doyle confides in Natelle, who responds by revealing the semi-detached state of her marriage. Although predictable and peopled with characters who function primarily as foils for Doyle's ironic wit, this novel is frolicsome, sexy, and reflective. Similar in tone to Welter's well-received debut, Begin To Exit Here (LJ 3/1/92), it will be in demand by readers of popular fiction. Recommended.-Sheila Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C.

Library Journal