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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 26 april 2018
Jake Tapper turns to fiction for 'The Hellfire Club'

By HILLEL ITALIE nalists, "a matter of carrying think it's fair to say I was
NEW YORK (AP) — Jake around a laptop for all free thinking about checks and
Tapper, veteran newsman moments — trains, planes, balances and the current
and debut novelist, isn't waiting rooms," Tapper era when I wrote" that pas-
quite used to being on the says. sage.
receiving end of questions. Thanks in part to blurbs from Marder isn't a stand-in for
"When people come to my David Baldacci and Har- the author, Tapper says,
set and I'm about to do an lan Coben, among others; although they do share
interview, I generally don't shout-outs on social me- a love of history and a
think at all that they're ner- dia from colleagues (Dana heightened sense of smell.
vous," the CNN anchor said Bash) and rivals (NBC's Sa- But Tapper does relate to
during a recent telephone vannah Guthrie); and Tap- his character as someone
interview. "But then it's you per's active promotion of who, no matter how expe-
in the chair yourself and the book, "The Hellfire Club" rienced, can be disheart-
you think, 'Wow, this is ter- has reached the top 30 on ened by the behavior of
rifying.'" Amazon.com and Barne- politicians.
Tapper's novel is called sandNoble.com. Reviewers "I don't think I'm an innocent In this May 17, 2017 file photo, CNN News anchor Jake Tapper
"The Hellfire Club," and it's have likened it to the ex- man but I am constantly attends the Turner Network 2017 Upfront presentation in New
York.
meant as a diversion — for otic and conspiratorial nar- surprised by the decisions Associated Press
the author and his read- ratives of Dan Brown ("'The people make, based on
ers. It's a thriller set in 1950s Hellfire Club' is most enjoy- avarice and impulses not apart to death by a thou- good. And they find them-
Washington featuring an able when it's most groan- necessarily based on the sand compromises. That's selves compromising them-
imaginary congressman, worthy," The Washington public good," he says. how I see it go with a lot selves. And that's what I
Charlie Marder, and a sup- Post observed), and Tapper "Charlie goes into the job of people who come to wanted to capture, how
porting cast of very real said he wanted "The Hellfire wanting to do good and Washington. They want to Washington can erode
public figures, from Dwight Club" to be a "fun book." ends up being picked do good. They mean to do principles."q
Eisenhower to John F. Ken- But he also acknowledged
nedy to Joe McCarthy. that Washington in the '50s
The book's title comes from "rhymes" with events now.
an exclusive meeting place "The Hellfire Club" fea-
where Marder discovers a tures a fiery confrontation
world far darker and more about greed and patrio-
complicated than even tism between Marder and
he, a World War II veteran, McCarthy aide Roy Cohn,
had encountered. Tapper who became a mentor
said he had been fascinat- to Donald Trump. And it's
ed by a Hellfire Club from easy to see the blustering
Benjamin Franklin's time and intimidating McCarthy
and was trying to figure out as a precursor to President
how to use it for a novel. He Trump, who has labeled
thought of a story based in Tapper's employer a lead-
the 1700s but settled into ing carrier of "Fake News"
an era more familiar and and, tweeting about Tap-
one he thought had been per, referred to "the hatred
overlooked and misunder- and unfairness of this CNN
stood. flunky." Tapper, meanwhile,
"The '50s get romanticized has stated, "There are ba-
so much and depicted sic lines of human decen-
as serene so often when cy, norms to which society
there's so much lurking be- generally agrees and to
neath the surface," he says, which we adhere, and we
"whether it's anti-commu- continue to see the Trump
nism and McCarthy, the presidency eroding these
Cold War, the atomic race lines." (Trump hasn't at-
or racism." tacked "The Hellfire Club,"
Tapper's background is in Tapper reasoned during his
nonfiction, whether in his interview, because he's not
day job or in the books he mentioned by name in it.)
has written before — "The One scene finds Marder in
Outpost: An Untold Story the Oval Office, fretting to
of American Valor" and President Eisenhower that
"Down & Dirty: The Plot to he sees no end to the politi-
Steal the Presidency." But cal persecutions McCarthy
he found the invented part has inspired. The president
of his new book — "Making reassures Marder that the
things up was fun," he says "combinations of checks
— less of a task than merg- and balances and a free
ing fiction and history, cre- press and our democrati-
ating an "alternate reality." cally elected representa-
The novel is also a story of tives ultimately will expose
time management for one charlatans."
of the country's busiest jour- Tapper commented: "I