It’s 1985, what will soon become known as “The Year of the Spy,” and fourteen-year-old Peter Bennett is convinced his mom’s new boyfriend is a Russian agent. “Gary” isn’t in the phone book, has an unidentifiable European accent, and keeps a gun in the glove box of his convertible Porsche. Peter thinks Gary only wants to get close to his mom because she works at Scientific Atlanta, a lab with big government contracts. But who is going to believe him? He’s just a kid into BMX and MTV.
But after another woman who works at the lab is killed, Peter recruits an unlikely pair of allies—a has-been pulp writer and muckraker named Dennis Hotchner and his drag performer buddy and heavy, Jackie Demure. Both soon become the target of an unhinged Russian hitman (Is it Gary? Maybe!) with a serious Phil Collins obsession.
Meanwhile, Sylvia Weaver, a young, Black FBI agent, investigates Scientific Atlanta in the wake of the employee’s murder and discovers a nest of Russian spies in the Southern “city too busy to hate.” Little does she know her investigation is being thwarted by a seriously compromised colleague in Washington, D.C., who is in league with a lovesick, hypochondriac KGB defector who is playing both sides of the Cold War to his benefit.
As Ronald Reagan and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev prepare for a historic nuclear summit in Geneva, what happens in Atlanta might change the course of the Cold War, the twentieth century, and Peter Bennett’s freshman year of high school.
In Everyone Wants to Rule the World by Ace Atkins, Peter Bennett is not at all fond of his mother’s new boyfriend. In fact, Peter is convinced the man is a KGB agent hiding in plain sight. Determined to prove it, Peter teams up with a couple of friends and sets out to uncover who his mother’s boyfriend really is.
Running alongside Peter’s story is another thread involving Vidali, who wants to defect to the United States. At first, it may seem unclear why Vidali’s story is included, but it becomes evident that it ties into the novel’s satirical take on the mid-1980s. Filled with music references and Cold War intrigue, the book captures the era with humor and style. Add in Sylvia Weaver, a young Black FBI agent with a serious agenda, and all these elements come together with clever narration to make this an entertaining and engaging read.
