Prior to the disastrous CIA-led invasion of Cuba’s Bay of Pigs in 1961, the U.S.
made many unsuccessful attempts to assassinate or discredit Fidel Castro.
David L. Robbins, in his new “alternate history” thriller, THE BETRAYAL
GAME, throws his hero, Dr. Mikhal Lammeck, into the midst of this potent period
in world history.
Robbins says, “The CIA thought if they killed Castro the Cuban people would rise up against the socialist government. That’s why I think the book might seem timely—you know, back to the future.”
He also notes that it wasn’t just that the CIA attempted to kill Castro that caught his attention, but “the quality of the attempts. They were kind of like the Keystone Kops—right out of 007. They had exploding seashells and poison ink pens and they put chemical salts in Castro’s shoes to make his hair fall out because they thought his beard was the key to his charismatic power. The remarkable depth and breadth of these plots against Fidel, when you look back at them, seem almost comical. I portray some of that in the book.”
Robbins, who lives in Richmond, Virginia, researches his historical thrillers meticulously. “Not just for this book, but for all my books, I go to the location. I have visited every principle location in all of my works. I’ve been several times to the Russian steppe, to Berlin, to the death camps, to Caribbean islands and Cuba.”
In THE BETRAYAL GAME, Robbins has done one thing
that he said he’d never do—he wrote a sequel. This new book features the main
character from his previous novel, THE ASSASSINS GALLERY, only it takes place
about fifteen years later. The character, Mikhal Lammeck, is a professor of
political science whose particular area of academic interest is the political
history of assassination.
Robbins says, “Lammeck spent time in the first book training multi-national military teams, allied saboteur teams out of Scotland. But he’s the world’s leading expert on assassination theory. He analyzes the currents of history and asks: ‘How is history affected by the efforts of an individual? Is there a shift in the momentum of great events? Can an individual change these around?’ He looks at assassination as a means of determining that.”
In THE BETRAYAL GAME, Lammeck thinks that Castro is, in Robbins’ words, “that one in a generation, that one individual who through courage and will and his message, is ripe for assassination.” So Lammeck travels to Havana to see for himself and gets caught up in the CIA’s plots to assassinate Castro.
The plot also revolves around the well-documented relationship between the CIA and the American mafia. Robbins says, “What really drew my attention wasn’t just the quality of their attempt to assassinate a world leader, but their relationship with the mafia as a partner. I thought, oh, well, oh-for-two. It’s a fun adventure and as historically accurate as my research can make it, but there’s also the ethical quandary of whether the U.S. government should be involved in such nefarious endeavors as assassinations and drugging. Should we be having relationships with the mafia? It resonates today: should we be torturing, should we be having relationships with other countries that do our torture and other dirty jobs by proxy?”
Robbins notes that in addition to “trying to tell a wankin’ good story with a great ending and twists and turns and betrayals,” he tries to follow the example of the late William Styron. “Styron once told me that his mission as a writer and one I’ve tried to take on myself, is to do three things: educate, elevate and entertain. I try to do all three in my work. Not just to entertain, but to write as well as I possibly can.”
Mark Terry is an ITW contributing editor
and the author of the Derek Stillwater thriller series. His newest thriller,
THE SERPENT’S KISS, is available in
stores and online.
