Thought I'd get some deeper backstory on Bob Lee Swagger with a book about his daddy.As you may recall, Bob Lee is an Arkansas native who became the #2 sniper in Vietnam. His dad was a state policeman and winner of the CMH plus a bunch of other medals for heroism on Iwo Jima and other hellholes in Pacific. Havana begins with Earl teaching a young Bob Lee the intricacies of deer hunting. In a bit of irony, young Bob Lee has a deer in his sights (shades of his sniper future) but decides not to pull the trigger.
It's 1953. And lots of people have noticed a young lawyer with a charismatic aura and is a fiery orator. The Cuban Secret Police is out to stamp out any anti-government voice. The Soviets see a potential pigeon to head a new communist satellite. The US government wants to keep the status quo going for big business like sugar, coffee, bananas, tourism, and more. And the mob wants to keep the money faucet open from gambling, prostitution, and drugs.
The Soviets pull an old operative out of a Siberian gulag and charge him with grooming the young Castro. The CIA is worried about Castro and decides to take off the gloves by hiring Earl Swagger to carry out the hit. The mob is also concerned and posts a nutcase NYC hitter to join a secret police enforcer known as Beautiful Eyes (for his creative interrogation techniques using a scalpel - use your imagination). What results is a complex interaction of the various players with inopportune alliances all conspiring against Earl.
Earl is tasked as part of a Congressman's delegation. Problem is the Arkansas representative has a taste for some nasty sex which Earl steps in and protects the victim hooker. What follows includes an ambush on the drive to Guantanamo, an opportunity for Earl to take out both Castro and his Soviet handler in the jungle, and a massive shootout on the streets of the Havana red light district before escaping, with the help of his Soviet counterpart, to Key West.
What was interesting is that when Earl has Castro and the Soviet in his sites for the kill, he doesn't pull the trigger. Killing face to face during war is one thing, but this hunting a man and killing him while he drinks water just ain't right (son Bob Lee won't have any problem with it when he grows up).
In the end, everyone's kind of happy. Castro ends up in prison so the secret police, the US, and the Cuban government are happy. The CIA has managed to get rid of a sadistic policeman and rearrange the local spy hierarchy. And the mob has survived a potentially thorny problem to keep the money flowing. Earl gets back home. Only the Soviets are disappointed.
Cool to read about Bob Lee's daddy. Earl isn't a remorseless killer. He has standards, ethics, and a conscious that balances a life of war and right or wrong. As mysteries go, this one has a wider scope than most others I've read. I have an even earlier Earl Swagger novel coming from the library so we'll be checking in with Earl again before too long.
East Coast Don
ECD,
ReplyDeleteI too liked the background on daddy Earl. The cat-and-mouse action between him and the Soviet agent, Speshnev, was the heart of this book. Their relationship was curious, fun to read, and totally improbable. I know all of the stuff about Castro was fanciful, but I hope some of Hunter's stuff was true, like hiding in a truck full of manure in order to escape the manhunt for him.
yeah, that would be a nice bit of righteous indignation.
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