THE DEVIL TO PAY

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 1960

Whether this book is factual, as it purports to be, or not, is at the very least debatable. What is not debatable is that the writing is preposterous. Robin Moore has made the story of a pilot, one Jack Youngblood, a self-professed soldier of fortune in Cuba, into a sort of private-eye-in-the-sky potboiler. It is Mickey Spillane- type stuff and bad Mickey Spillane at that. Moore has chosen to write the story in reconstructed dialogue, making it almost totally unbelievable. Youngblood, who ""will do anything for money"", belts Scotch and breaks heads with equal abandon, beds down with the inevitable blonde nymphomaniac, outshoots Fidel Castro in a pistol marksmanship match over a garbage pit (Youngblood's score: four bullseyes and a buzzard out of five shots), doublecrosses Dictator Batista, saves Raul Castro's life (""'Thanks', he said grudgingly""), tells off ""Che"" Guevara, makes arms deals worth millions over fine Havana cigars in shadowy Cuban bars, winds up broke and so on, ad nauseum. Summing up -- trash, strictly for the readers of the more lurid men's magazines and the more gullible ones at that.

Pub Date: March 10, 1960

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward-McCann

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1960

Categories: NONFICTION