Rikki Thunder, drummer for hot new '80s metal band Whyte Python, is about to get it all: global fame... a dream girlfriend-and an unwitting role as an international spy.
"A rock-n-roll thrill ride... Heavy Metal icon Rikki Thunder's satirical memoir is sweeter than Cherry Pie and better than a prescription from Dr. Feelgood! You need to read it."-Ernest Cline
It's Los Angeles, 1986, and metal rules the world. For aspiring drummer Rikki Thunder, life is good-even if he is sleeping in a condemned paint store and playing with a band that's going nowhere. But when he gets a shot to join L.A.'s hottest up-and-coming band, Whyte Python, Rikki's young life turns up to 11. Soon he has a hit single scorching up the charts, and the new love of his life in the audience. Rikki couldn't ask for anything more.
But good fortune can be deceiving. With the Cold War breathing its last gasps and American music blasting through the Iron Curtain, a youth revolution is taking hold – and a hair band is unknowingly playing host to the final battle for the hearts and minds of the Eastern Bloc. Rikki Thunder soon realizes there is a deeper web of influence propelling Whyte Python, and the stakes for his mission-to spread peace, love, and epic shredding across the globe-are far more dangerous than he could ever imagine.
Raucously funny and refreshing, The Whyte Python World Tour is a head-banger of a debut, steeped in '80s music culture nostalgia and international suspense. TRAVIS KENNEDY is the grand prize winner of Screencraft's 2021 Cinematic Book Contest for Sharks in the Valley, to be published as Welcome to Redemption. His work has been recognized in the Best American Mystery Stories anthology (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019). He has been featured in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and multiple editions of the Best New England Crime Stories anthology, among other publications. He lives in Scarborough, Maine, with his wife and their two children.
