The Fools in Town are on Our Side
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"Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?" -- Mark Twain
When Lucifer Dye is released from three months in a Hong Kong prison, debriefed, handed a false passport, a new wardrobe and a $20,000 check, his haughty control makes it clear that Dye's career with his country has been permanently terminated. But a good agent is always in demand, and just a few hours later Dye is being interviewed for a highly ingenious position. Victor Orcutt, although a not very good imitation of a British pre-war gent, has creative talents of his own. He has his sights a small southern city, with the ordinary run-of-the-mill corruption one would expect in such a place. The canny Orcott knows there's no profit in that. His creed is "To get better, it must be much worse." He and his two associates have looked up Dye's history, and he now offers the ex-spy a mission: for two and a half times the government's bounty, Dye is to thoroughly corrupt the town. And the sly Dye takes the offer.Customer Reviews
Rated 5 starsI can't believe I've MISSED Ross Thomas until now.....
Being a voracious reader - and particularly loving books from the suspense and thriller genres - I can't believe that I've missed Ross Thomas until now! But, now that I've found him, I can't wait to read his other books. For those of you who like your characters fully fleshed out; who enjoy complex plots and intricate stories; who like your good guys with flaws and your bad guys flouted in the end - this book is for you...
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Rated 5 starsCraftsman's Work!
THE FOOLS IN TOWN ARE ON OUR SIDE is an amazing piece of writing. The late Ross Thomas not only carved out one of the best thrillers in print but he did so with interesting, unforgetable characters and in an entertaining style and spot on dialogue that make the pages fly. No hack writing here, just a nicely entangled plot, sleazy bad and good guys, and the kind of corruption in secret government agencies that make you wonder...
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Rated 5 starsVery engaging, dripping with cynicism.
Victor Orcutt of Victor Orcutt Associates has discovered an ingenious way of earning large amounts of money. If a community becomes disgusted with rampant corruption in the ranks of its civic leaders, Victor will come in and clean things up. But Victor has found that before bad government can be reformed it has to first become even more corrupt. When the good citizens of Swankerton, a southern gulfcoast city, hire his firm...
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Rated 5 starsRiveting!!!
At eight years of age, Lucifer Dye could "shill a crap game, pimp for a whore house, speak six or seven languages, roll drunks, and hustle the rubes," but could neither read nor write. Dye is the central character in "The Fools in Town Are on Our Side" (1970) by Ross Thomas. It is a complex, unique, compulsively entertaining small town corruption novel. After Dye completes his education on a "scholarship" granted by a clandestine...
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Rated 5 starsOne of the books that made Ross Thomas' reputation
It's been said that what Elmore Leonard ("Freaky Deaky," "Get Shorty," etc.) did for crime novels in urban environments, Ross Thomas did for crime novels in suburban environments. Thomas' novels aren't so much gritty as they are witty, and less about openly violent crimes as about deep corruption beneath the veneer of civilization."The Fools in Town Are On Our Side" is one of the best Thomas novels. It's really about three...
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