Customer Reviews

Bayou of Pigs: The True Story of an Audacious Plot to Turn a Tropical Island into a Criminal Paradise

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Unbelievably good read.

Its rare to find books on the subject. That rarity coupled with the authors writing style makes this a must-have. The amazing thing about the book is how vast the conspiracy stretched - from New Orleans to Canada - from a mercenary in Houston to a future presidential candidate (or possibly two - I'll let you decide). All to overtake an island of about 60K people for profit.

I spent part of my childhood in Dominica, and still have much family there. The book shed light on the events that I remember hearing about on the radio as a child after leaving Dominica for the Virgin Islands. After I read it I sent a copy to my mother, who is from Dominica and grew up with some of the characters involved. Even she was not aware of the intricacies involved in the plot. Very well done!

The good guys were a handful of patriotic American and Dominican citizens - mostly informants and law enforcement types. The criminals were a gaggle of American, Dominican and Canadian creeps - would-be soldiers-of-fortune, Rastafarians and a few unusual politicians as well as their operatives. The story is literary nonfiction as good as it gets, in this case Bell's gripping journalistic account of a ludicrous scheme to turn the island of Dominica into a base for international criminal enterprise.

The story's timeline moves from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, while places oscillate to and from New Orleans, Houston, Toronto, Granada and Dominica. Action includes the communist takeover of Granada and a series of attempts by groups of Nazis, KKKs and drug dealers to take over the democratically elected government of Dominica. In the end, Granada and the American medical students are rescued, the Dominican government is protected, and ignorance is checked.

Were they not tragic, the scoundrels and their evil schemes would provide a series of belly laughs. Bell's style reveals their greed, their ignorance, and that tragedy as well as the heroism of a few honest men and women.

This is not Cuba, guys! It is such a delight to get a book like this. We tend tyo think that criminals are smart after watching far too much TV. Thos book takes us to the real criminals, who make mistake after mistake - thankfully...