THE BETRAYAL GAME
David L. Robbins
Bantam
Thriller
ISBN: 9780553804423

Talk about timing. David L. Robbins has it, and not just in the literary sense. Robbins lays down his new book, THE BETRAYAL GAME --- dealing with a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro in 1961 --- and guess who retires within a couple of weeks after it hits the shelves? If there is any connection between Castro’s abdication of his dictatorship and this fine novel, arguably it would be that the bearded one decided he wanted some time off to read this riveting work.

In his introduction, Robbins describes THE BETRAYAL GAME as “thinly fictionalized fact.” Indeed, it centers on a plot to end Castro’s life on the eve of a clandestine invasion by a U.S.-backed force. Though it is not conclusively documented, evidence would indicate that the coordinated assassination attempt was a joint effort conducted by the CIA and certain members of organized crime syndicates, the latter motivated by the nationalization of mob-owned businesses and industries in Cuba following Castro’s takeover.

Robbins drops Mikhal Lammeck, professor of history and retired special forces instructor, into this cauldron as observer and historical force. Lammeck’s welcome return --- he was first introduced in THE ASSASSIN’S GALLERY --- is fraught with danger, as he finds himself caught between opposing forces in post-revolutionary Cuba. First approached by (Pablo de Santana) Johan (Guerrero), the pleasant but enigmatic captain of Castro’s security force, then by Bud Calendar, a CIA agent inflamed with his own sense of history and destiny, Lammeck finds himself being used as a pawn in a game he can’t win. Ostensibly in Cuba to study historical assassinations, he is recruited by Johan to keep his ear to the ground for word of a potential assassination attempt.

Lammeck is still puzzling over his “recruitment” when he is approached by Calendar with an offer he can’t refuse. Calendar wants Lammeck, a renowned weapons expert, to evaluate and train a former Marine sniper who has been tasked by the CIA to kill Castro. Lammeck walks a fine line, bouncing between what he can do and what he must do, and torn between doing what is right and what may well be wrong. His ability to judge the correct path becomes increasingly complicated as the motives of all parties involved grow more and more cloudy as the time for the assassination approaches, and he must make a choice that will change both his life and history forever.

Robbins lobs a major grenade into the proceedings here with a plausible supposition concerning one of the major players in THE BETRAYAL GAME, one that makes Lammeck’s final path of action all the more ironic. Those readers who were of age in the early 1960s, as well as diligent students of events of the period, will see what is coming almost immediately. But such foreknowledge by no means spoils what occurs at the conclusion, given that it provides an interesting theory regarding one of modern history’s most enduring puzzles. Those with only a passing familiarity of the era, on the other hand, will be stunned. If Robbins is going where I think he is, watch for Lammeck --- and at least two other characters --- to return in short order.

    --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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