Book Review: Heartless and Salvation Boulevard

by Alison Gaylin and Larry Beinhart

by Kim Wozencraft, August 25, 2008

A Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, and an atheist are involved in a murder. Waiting for the punch line? It’s called Salvation Boulevard, Woodstock resident and Chronogram columnist Larry Beinhart’s latest novel. And yes, it packs a punch.

Beinhart’s 1994 political novel American Hero became the film Wag the Dog, starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, and Anne Heche. Mandalay Independent Pictures has already acquired the screen rights to Salvation Boulevard.

Nathaniel MacLeod, avowed atheist and professor of philosophy at the University of the Southwest, is discovered dead from a single bullet through his head. Pastor Plowright, the founder, minister, and CEO of the Cathedral of the Third Millennium (and as such, a man who knows the value of publicity in calling lambs to the shepherd), asks the six o’clock news anchor, “Is anyone surprised that an atheist committed suicide?”

The police, initially happy to rule the death self-inflicted, suddenly have a suspect in custody. University student Ahmad Nazami, who studied with the dead professor, has confessed to the crime.

Manny Goldfarb practices law at one of the largest firms in the city, but he has a taste for pro bono criminal work. Certain that Ahmad is innocent, Manny calls in private investigator Carl Van Wagener to help investigate. A born-again Christian and faithful follower of Pastor Plowright, Van Wagener enters the case doubting Ahmad’s innocence, but soon turns to finding who really killed Professor MacLeod and recovering the professor’s missing manuscript, rumored to disprove the existence of God.

Van Wagener’s investigation entangles him in a web of deception: yea, he walks through the valley of death, encountering Christian and non-Christian thugs (including a couple who claim to be from Homeland Security), members of a Mexican drug cartel, the professor’s steamy and neurotic widow, and Van Wagener’s own faithful wife. Like any good PI, he questions everything—including whether his faith can sustain him through an existential crisis.