Killing Castro

by Lawrence Block

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0843961139
• ISBN13: 9780843961133
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Hard Crime Case
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.1" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Recovered treasure

I haven't spent a lot of time in the Hard Case Crime series, checking in just for Stephen King's debut, The Colorado Kid (Hard Case Crime) and then not returning again until I found "Killing Castro" quite by accident. The phrase "Killing Castro" represents a fairly common theme in early 1960s genre fiction. Who didn't want Castro gone back then, even before the Cuban Missile Crisis? The final James Bond novel, The Man With The Golden Gun (James Bond Novels), features Fidel as an off-screen bad guy, and Ian Fleming states through his characters that he feels Fidel's days are numbered. Even Rod Serling cast Peter Falk to play an undisguised version of Castro in "The Mirror", an episode fromThe Twilight Zone: Season 3 (The Definitive Edition). What Lawrence Block does in "Killing Castro" is to take the cliche -- a brutal dictator must be paid in his own coin -- and turn it on its head in a way that Serling and Fleming didn't. A shadowy Cuban syndicate hires five Americans and sends them to the island in three assassination squads. If any one man succeeds in executing the target, each man gets $20,000. While the set-up is lean and familiar, what Block does with it is, not to engage in hyperbole, an extraordinary achievement. Each of the five would-be hit-men is given his own distinct voice. There's Garrison, the solider of fortune who prefers to work alone. Turner, the man running from the shady past looking to stake his claim beyond the reach of U.S. extradition. There's Garth, the hired muscle. And then, most interestingly, there's Hines the college kid from upstate New York, and Fenton the aging bank teller from New England. Each man confronts his own demons along the way and is changed by the mission; the suspense ramps up not from the net tightening around Castro, but rather from each man slowly losing focus. Will Castro get away? Will any of the assassins survive to claim the reward? It's not so much the plotting of "Killing Castro" that drives the story as it is the five hit men with too much time to kill. Block's writing style impressess -- he quotes liberally from other authors and poets, and each of his five characters has a sufficiently different voice so that you're not just reading the same hunter-stalks-his-prey episode five times over. Even Castro gets his own voice -- Block tells his story in alternating chapters, and although history proved him wrong about Castro outstaying his welcome, it's still a bold narrative maneuever. Most exciting of all about this book was the fact that Block was barely 23 when he wrote it. Such a sophisticated, mature voice at that age. Naturally the best was yet to come.

Old Reliable

Hard Case Crime has done it again, bringing us a 1961 pseudonymous thriller from Lawrence Block. Killing Castro focuses on one member of a ragtag ensemble cast who have accepted a commission to kill Fidel Castro. They begin in Tampa, make their separate ways to Havana and . . . well . . . don't think that later history guarantees that Fidel will make it through the final reel. The narrative is taut, the language pulpy, the plotting perfect. Drenched in booze, cigarette and cigar smoke, beans and rice and sex, the story moves to its satisfying conclusion. Along the way there are interspersed accounts of Fidel's rise to and abuse of power. And give Block special points for his knowledge of Cuba in general, Havana in particular. The book underscores Block's persistent and longstanding talent for this sort of writing. He does it now and he could do it then. And no, hitman Turner in this book is not the prototype for Block's current hitman, John Keller. He's his own man and he's got some dangerous partners. Fidel, watch your back.

Awesome

First, I sure hope there's a special place in heaven for Charles Ardai and all the HCC folks for bringing this treasures back into print. Block is a master at writing absolutely gripping stuff, and I'm always sad to turn that last page. In less than 200 pages we have no fewer than five protagonists. And a few interleaved chapters of Castro-history. To pull this off, Block's characters may not be as round as the ones who wade around in the newer slightly bloaty 300+ page thrillers, but Block is the master at the telling details. We know exactly how much we need to know--and not a bit more--to decide how we feel about the characters, and how to keep them straight in our minds. A great thrill ride, as usual for HCC!

Wow! Another stunning entry in the Block legend

In 1961, Duncan Lee/Lawrence Block wrote an obscure novel called "Killing Castro" that put forth the idea that a group of 5 killers ahd been paid $20,000 to assassinate Fidel Castro. Their challenge,find a way into Cuba, then kill him... The resulting novel is remarkable, both for content and rarity. Block writes in his trademark style, fleshing out the breakneck pace of the book, and creating an 'event' that just might have happened. Hard Case Crime gives us a true publishing jewel that is ready to be appreciated one more time. Thank you. Tim Lasiuta

Lean and mean Block

Lawrence Block has spent around fifty years writing top-notch fiction. In his younger days, he was churning out the novels rather quickly, many of which fell out of print. The result is that these books are like little treasures just waiting to be unearthed again. Killing Castro, originally published in 1961, is one such gem. As the title indicates, this short novel is about an attempt to kill Fidel Castro. At the time of the book's writing, Castro was still relatively new to power and Block (nor most others) would think that he would reign over Cuba for so long; in the early `60s, an assassination seemed likely. To make the attempt, five Americans are recruited for the task: Turner is a bit of a nomad, on the run after a killing and looking for funds to leave the country; Fenton is a middle-aged banker dying of cancer and hoping to make a mark before his life ends; Hines is a college student seeking revenge for his brother's death on Castro's orders; Garrison is a professional hit man and Garth is a professional thug. The five are split into three separate missions. Garrison, ever the loner, operates alone and plans on a sniper attack. Turner and Hines are working with explosives while Garth and Fenton join a rebel group. Each runs into snags on the way to completing a mission. Garth is interesting in raping a fellow rebel while Fenton tries to oppose him. Turner and Hines begin to have their own doubts about the mission. Garrison finds himself falling for a prostitute. Killing Castro is reminiscent of the more famous Day of the Jackal, which dealt with an assassination attempt on DeGaulle. In the Forsythe novel, the reader knows that DeGaulle wasn't really assassinated, but the suspense is still there. Here too, the reader knows that Castro was never killed, so what twists does Block have planned? Far be it from me to disclose them. While not a perfect novel (in particular, the premise for getting the characters together is a bit weak), this is still a fun, quick book that shows that even "lost" Lawrence Block is worth a read.