Mongoose, R.I.P. : a Blackford Oakes novel /

Arguably, this is the best of the Blackford Oakes series. Since we first met him at a callow 26, in Saving the Queen, Oakes has maturedhe's become more worn around the edges, less abrasive and, as a result, more likable. It is now 1963; Castro and Khrushchev are bickering. With the help of the CIA (Operation Mongoose), President Kennedy is involved in three separate plots to assassinate Castro. The first twopresenting Castro with a toxic wetsuit and supplying his mistress with poison pills (both were actually attempted)fail. The third, providing a disillusioned Castro protege with a rifle (also a real CIA plan) looks the most promising. Oakes is sent to Cuba to help coordinate the uprising that will inevitably follow. Suddenly the CIA discovers that Castro is about to launch a medium-range missile (left from the Cuban missile crisis) at Dallas, Tex., and the president. It's up to Oakes to prevent an escalation of the Cold War. Buckley has abandoned straightforward narration for a series of rapid-fire, cinematic scenes that are sometimes confusing as they jump from Washington, D.C., to Moscow to Havana. On the plus side, this high-flying thriller is grounded in reality, thanks to Dorothy McCartney, research editor of the National Review, whose help Buckley acknowledges. Readers will enjoy the sheer exuberance of this all too plausible caper. Major ad/promo; Troll Book Club Main selection. (January 6) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Blackford Oakes plays a relatively quiescent part in this retelling of the Kennedy assassination, which links Oswald to the Castro regime. Learning that the Soviets have secretly left behind a single missile after the U.S. challenge, Castro masterminds a scenario that will see Kennedy dead whether by bullet or ballistic missile. Vital to the story's plot are various documented attempts on Castro's life, one Oakes's assignment, and the love affair between Blacky and Sally Partridge. With a deft ear for the Cuban phrase and respect for technical detail, Buckley has again loosed the fox among the pigeons with satisfying results. Troll Book Club main selection. Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Buckley's best Blackford Oakes thriller, written seemingly by a new William F. Buckley--abstemious, ambitious, inoffensive, hardworking. It is, perhaps, his subject that has leveled Buckley's usual roseate gaiety, for here he wades into the shadows of the Kennedy assassination and gives us a somber eye throughout. Not that a basso profundo death-note is struck truly, but we do see Blacky reeling. Among other shocks that Blacky suffers is the defection of his longtime bedmate Sally Partridge: while Blacky is in midassignment, setting up Operation Mongoose in Miami and Cuba, she marries a wealthy Mexican! Blacky, sent reeling, sails solo into the ocean, where he's so besotted with sadness that he can't even swill the fifth of gin he's brought along but just sips a beer or two. Meanwhile, he's trying to focus on Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's direct order to him: assassinate Fidel Castro. Though Blacky is the leading character, he often fades from view as Buckley hops about various sites of villainy in Cuba, Mexico, Miami, and Moscow, giving a very big picture whose storm center eventually becomes Castro's anger when two assassination attempts against him fail, and he decides to lend his enthusiasm to Lee Harvey Oswald, who has come knocking on his door. At the same time, Castro has a hidden Soviet missile aimed at Dallas, which he plans to launch if Oswald fails--all of which places Blacky in the most excruciating double bind of his career. . . Mid-brow melodrama that is a strong recovery after Buckley's recent Blackford Oakes blandishments--and far more gripping than his twitterings as bon vivant of the high seas. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.