Red Scare

by T.R. Pearson

From the acclaimed author of A SHORT HISTORY OF A SMALL PLACE and SEAWORTHY comes a wholesale departure -- a comic/horror/romance/fantasy infested with both unsavory American politicians and venomous Venetian lizards. Awash in Pearson's singular wit, Red Scare tells the headlong story of a public school biology teacher and a National Gallery curator who join forces to thwart the dire consequences of a medieval Italian curse. This novel, though slender, is packed to overflowing with priapic senators, clueless teenagers, dubious art history, clumsy quasi-romantic repartee, garish worldwide bloodletting, corrosive humor, and enough malicious scuttling reptiles to keep you from ever planting your bare feet on a darkened floor again.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

202 pages, Paperback

First published October 26, 2008

About the author

Thomas Reid Pearson is an American novelist born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is the author of seventeen novels and four works of non-fiction under his own name, including A Short History of a Small Place, Cry Me A River, Jerusalem Gap, and Seaworthy, and has written three additional novels -- Ranchero, Beluga, and Nowhere Nice -- under the pseudonym Rick Gavin. Pearson has also ghostwritten several other books, both fiction and nonfiction, and has written or co-written various feature film and TV scripts.

Reviews

[Ralph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prior to reading this book, my experience with T.R. Pearson is with his earliest work, e.g. A Short History of a Small Place, which, as the blurb says, is "marvelously funny, bittersweet, and beautifully evocative". The book gets these attributes in spite of, or maybe because of, Pearson's rambling sentence construction.

Reading "Red Scare" is at the other end of the spectrum. The prose is economical. Succinct. Sparse. A lot of characterization and plot is packed into these 180 pages!

The story is good and the writing at times is crystalline. Recommended.

[Adam Armour · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a pretty big T.R. Pearson fan, but wouldn't call "Red Scare" one of his better books. The style is very contrary to the rambling way he's written in the past. Here, you'll find curt, declarative sentences instead of the roaming run-ons of the past. This makes for a very brief, somewhat inconsequential story. The characters are still pretty funny, but not as memorable as the cast of, say, "A Short History of a Small Place," Pearson's classic debut novel. "Red Scare" just lacks a lot of what makes the author's writing charming. It's a good read, but not the place to start if you're a Pearson newbie.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very different from the other TR Pearson books I've read. The sentences were short and the story more complex than the stories of small southern towns I'm used to from him, but I really enjoyed the story. It's a mystical tale with interesting connections between seemingly unconnected people. While the story is not believable, it was fun to just roll with it and see what unfolded. Light, short, but a fun read.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hilarious romp, set in Washington, D.C., about a toxic herptile channeling a lecherous U.S. Senator from Kentucky, for the purpose of satisfying an ancient Venetian vendetta. A plot summary sounds absurd, and in any case is pointless, as the point here is the absurdity, brought wonderfully in focus by Pearson's sharp prose and his quirky, likable characters. Highly recommended.

[andrew jensen .stella bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ten by ten curse vindicated

Lovers of La Serenissima will be delighted with this
rollicking tale of historic jealousy that results into contemporary mayhem. Scarlet skinks, rapacious U.S. senators, and bloody scalpers. From Venice to Washington, D.C. How's that for a plot line? I think readers who enjoy mystical adventures will be surprised at the twists in Red Scare.

[Robert H. McNeill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tour de force from t r pearson

The amazing talent of T R Pearson, who can do the police in different voices, as well as Mississippi redneck, their cousins from NC and VA, and write as as good comic fiction, has assayed a horror mystery and succeeded admirably.

[Clifford · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short mystery/romance, with lizards. Full review here: Review of Red Scare by T.R. Pearson