Obvious in Hindsight

In this quirky and erratic riff on the future of flying cars, venture capitalist Tusk (The Fixer) glibly imagines a national fiasco. Susan Howard, CEO of Flight Deck, has promised billionaire investors that she will launch the first flying car by the end of her first quarter. She hires strategist Nick Denevito to help clear political hurdles along the way, but when a flock of protestors wearing bird costumes shout down Howard in New York, many elected officials back away from the project. Denevito and his ambitious protégé, Lisa Lim, dash to Austin and Los Angeles hoping to rally support for Howard—even as her prototypes keep crashing. Despite shady and elaborate side deals with teamsters and mobsters, Denevito and Lim can’t move mountains. And when two FBI agents conducting surveillance from a food truck approach Lim with information indicating that Denevito has been defrauding clients, she’s thrust further into a murky political underworld. Though Tusk’s satire is at times hilarious and insightful, the story has so many plot twists and characters that it can become tedious. The author’s tendency to lump environmentalists, liberals, socialists, and basically anyone not motivated by big money into a catch-all category of dumb idealists doesn’t help. This cynical, futuristic twist on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang doesn’t quite get off the ground. Agent: Kirsten Neuahus, Ultra Literary. (Nov.)