Killing Castro (Hard Case Crime (Mass Market Paperback))

by Lawrence Block

2009

Status

Checked out

Genres

Mystery

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Standard Shelves

Publication

Hard Case Crime (2009), Edition: Reprint, 204 pages

Description

There were five of them, each prepared to kill, each with his own reasons for accepting what might well be a suicide mission. The pay? $20,000 apiece. The mission? Find a way into Cuba and kill Castro. This breathtaking thriller, originally published the year before the Cuban Missile Crisis under a pen name Lawrence Block never used before or since, is the rarest of Block's books-and still a work of chilling relevance all these years later, with Castro and Cuba once again commanding headlines.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Wova4

Long out of print, Killing Castro is a must for Lawrence Block completists. Published between the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile crisis, the book serves as a fascinating look into the American view of Cuba during the early sixties. The book never seems to ask itself whether Castro will manage to

stay in power--treating his death as an inevitability. Of the five protagonists, Fenton stands out as the most sympathetic and the only one who got what he came to Cuba for. Certain plot elements are telecast and inevitable, especially Matt Garth's predicament. Still, several plot arcs and characters are interesting so it's a fast read worth checking out.

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LibraryThing member idkidd

This is not a bad book but I would not recommend it: it's not among the strongest offerings I've read from Hardcase Crime. The first half of the books moves quite slow and the only real action that occurs takes place in the last 20-30 pages. The 5 protagonists end up being pretty well fleshed out

as characters and you do get inside their heads to see what brought each of them to the place where they'd be up for taking on such a dangerous mission. Unless you are a hardcore Lawrence Block fan, I would put this book on the backburner.

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LibraryThing member TTAISI-Editor

This is good 1960s pulp made even better by the incredible, (then) fresh overlay of Fidel Castro's rise to power. Block weaves in a version of Fidel's story with the story of the planned assassination, and that's what makes the book, at least from an historical perspective. It also follows solid

pulp writing guidelines in avoiding too much of a happy ending.

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LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco

I enjoyed this book much more than I though I would! Basically, the title says it all - "they" are out to kill Castro, in two teams of two, and one solo. The chapters switch off - the story about the attempt, and the history behind Castro's rise to power. The story was much better than the history,

but the history gives it all context. The crazy thing to me is that this book was written not long after Castro took power, and before the Cuban missile crisis! What did Lawrence Block know? Weird...

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LibraryThing member DaveWilde

Written in 1961, when Castro's takeover of Cuba was on everyone's mind, the story still holds up well fifty years later. Five men are recruited with one goal --assassinating Fidel Castro. It is never made clear whether the force behind the recruitment is a band of Cuban rebels or the CIA, but it

doesn't matter. One of them is on the run after executing his girlfriend and her lover. He caught them in the act and pulled out his knife and acted. One is out to avenge his brother who was shot on Castro's orders. One is dying of cancer. The other two are tough hard types useful in this kind of thing. They are dropped into
Cuba in various ways. Well-told and well-executed. Their voices and characters ring true. And, yes, the woman in fatigues on the paperback cover plays an important role in the story. This is a first rate book.

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