MAMBO

Inspector Frank Pagan of Scotland Yard (JIG, White Light) returns to do battle with the many people who plan to put an end to the Castro regime in Cuba. Not that Frank Pagan is any friend of Fidel's, but the international outlaws who long for the old freewheeling Cuba have hired the world's most coldblooded and loathsome professional assassin, Gunther Ruhr, to see to their bit of business. Ruhr starts out in Pagan's grasp, having been caught in flagrante delicto when the prostitute he is with takes exception to his truly revolting sexual habits and screams her head off. But Ruhr is snatched away from Pagan (thanks to a leak somewhere in Scotland Yard), and the terrorist links up with his team and proceeds to hijack a cruise missile and an aircraft to transport it in, stopping just long enough to kidnap a schoolgirl and hold her for insurance. And worse. Pagan, badly wounded in the fight that freed Ruhr, defies his doctors and begins a fast and relentless search for the German. But the oddest thing keeps happening: every time the detective narrows in on one of the international criminal bankers who bankroll Ruhr, somebody blows the banker away. Even more confusing, what is Pagan's gorgeous lost Cuban-American love, Magdalena, doing in England? And why is Magdalena's highly placed Cuban boyfriend consorting with the disappearing bankers? The trail leads to Miami, Cuba, and, after much more blood is spilled, back to the UK, where that leak has to be stopped. The child menacing may prove more than many thriller fans can take in this otherwise good effort.