She Treads Softly: The Whyte Python World Tour

Saturday, June 7, 2025

The Whyte Python World Tour

The Whyte Python World Tour by Travis Kennedy
6/24/25; 416 pages
Doubleday

The Whyte Python World Tour by Travis Kennedy is a very highly recommended novel that blends tales of an 80's hair metal band with a Cold War PSYOP. This entertaining, fun book really is on a "satirical knife-edge between high-suspense and head-banging hilarity."

In 1986 Drummer Rikki Thunder (Richard Henderson) met his girlfriend Tawny Spice while putting out flyers for his band in Los Angeles. She soon manages to get him on as a drummer for the up and coming band Whyte Python. Rikki is thrilled to join the members of Whyte Python - lead singer, Davy Bones, shredding guitarist, Buck Sweet, and bassist, Spencer Dooley. The the band's success takes off. They have a hit single and are selling out clubs. Their album soars on the charts and they go on tour. He has a beautiful girlfriend. Life is good.

What he doesn't know is that Tawny Spice is actually Amanda Price, an undercover CIA agent with Project Facemelt. The goal is to propel Whyte Python to fame and get them to tour in eastern bloc countries behind the Iron Curtain. The mission is to inspire a youth revolution through American music. Rikki Thunder is thrust into the role of drummer and international spy as the band spreads "peace, love, and epic shredding across the globe."

Honestly, it was surprising how much I enjoyed this headbanging, shredding comedy. And yes, it is mainly a comedy, but there are some suspenseful and serious scenes too. The plot unfolds through the point-of-view of Rikki and Tawny. Readers should take note that the action is a little slow to take off but once it does it is definitely worth the wait. Expect a lot of name dropping of bands from the 80s.

The Whyte Python World Tour would make an excellent retro 80s rock 'n' roll movie. Thanks to Doubleday for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.