Mambo

✍ Scribed by Armstrong, Campbell

• Book ID: 108873013
• Publisher: HarperPrism
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 923 KB
• Series: Frank Pagan 3
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9781504007085

✦ Synopsis

In international bestselling author Campbell Armstrong’s pulse-pounding thriller, the hunt for a ruthless bomb maker takes Frank Pagan to Cuba and into the midst of a startling conspiracy

Gunther Ruhr, a.k.a. the Claw, is a terrorist responsible for hundreds, possibly thousands, of deaths. A passenger jet, a busload of soccer players, and an entire hotel full of tourists have all been targets of his extravagant, almost artistically designed explosions. He will kill anywhere and for anyone if the price is right.

Now it’s up to Detective Frank Pagan to track down the depraved killer and escort him to prison. Along the way, from Glasgow to London and on to Miami and Havana, Pagan will have to shore up a leak in Scotland Yard; get reacquainted with his old flame, Magdalena; and uncover a plot involving a cruise missile, Fidel Castro, and an international banking syndicate.

From Publishers Weekly

Completing a trilogy begun with Jig and Mazurka , Armstrong presents a conspiracy against an aging, isolated Fidel Castro. Exiles and resisters dream of a free, democratic Cuba, while a secret cartel of businessmen plans for an island once more made safe for capitalism. At the heart of the plot are Rafael Rosabal, a Fidelista cabinet minister with his own private agenda; Gunther Ruhr, "The Claw," a ruthless German terrorist-for-hire; and Scotland Yard's Frank Pagan, who confronts, unravels and foils the scheme. Armstrong (the pseudonym of Campbell Black) has written a fast-moving page-turner whose episodes are more satisfying than the whole. Implausibilities abound, including Pagan's metamorphosis from policeman to secret agent, and the conspirators' elaborate hijacking of a U.S. cruise missile. An extended subplot involving The Claw's graphic sexual abuse of a young girl seems gratuitious. A work that delivers less than it promises. $80,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“A fast-moving page-turner.” — Publishers Weekly

“A full-throttle adventure thriller.” — The Guardian

“Dynamic, pacey and full of unexpected twists—the work of a real master of the genre.” — Scotland on Sunday