Love the Concept, Execution Needs Work

The New Republic launches a new column called "Pulps," which looks closely at the books people are actually reading. But not, based on Sacha Zimmerman's first two sentences, that closely:

There are a million stories in the naked city, but there appears to be only one story in Washington, D.C. Have you ever read a book set in the capital that was not related to government?

Why, yes, as a matter of fact I have--several of them, actually, along with every other George Pelecanos fan. Including Hard Revolution, which has been getting major review attention recently enough that an attentive book review reader would have noticed. And then there's Paul Kafka-Gibbon's novel from 2001, Dupont Circle (to which Jonathan Yardley had mixed reactions), which might well answer Zimmerman's followup question, "When was the last time you read a romance set in the cafés of Dupont Circle, with no conspiracy in the background?"

All of this is prelude to a tearing apart of Brad Meltzer's The Zero Game that goes into plenty of detail about what Zimmerman thinks is wrong with the book but doesn't point out, as I observed back in February, that Meltzer resorts to lying (or misdirection, if you prefer) in the flap copy to generate suspense over the death of a major character. Zimmerman also confuses a henchman for the evil mastermind, but ultimately hits upon the "terror in the heartland" meme that gives the thriller its oomph, and even looks upon it with approval--apparently it makes The Zero Game "bad but germane." Which is just a little more harshly than I'd assess the debut of "Pulps."