Customer Reviews

MONIMBO

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sound like a Cold War newspaper headline? Sound too good to be true? Well, I have news for you, my friend, IT'S TRUE! Robert Hockney's back. This time he's married to Julia Cummings and they're expecting a baby. Monimbo's the code-name of a Cuban plan to bring the United States to its knees. It begins with a conference in Monimbo, Nicragua, and one of the people there, an eighteen-year-old Nicaraguan named Monkey Diaz, defects to the United States and warns the new President of this plan but nobody believes him. Except for Hockney, who's now the Washington editor of the New York World, a couple of Miami cops, and an FBI agent in San Juan, Puerto Rico. A U.S. Senator's kidnapped and assassinated by Puerto Rican nationalists. Then there are a series of blackouts up and down the east coast from Miami to New York. According to the book, the Mariel Boat Lift of 1980 was part of this plan. A CI for the Miami police and Julia Hockney are both killed in the rioting in Miami when the blackout hits that city. The same thing happens in New York.

I've never read anything by the authors before, having been given this book 2nd hand to me as a gift, but I will be sure to look for more of their work.

The book reads almost like a conspiracy theory - revolutionary powers, principally led by Fidel Castro, seek to destroy or at least severely destabilize the USA through the cunning manipulation of race riots, murder and sabotage. The one person doggedly following the story is Robert Hockney, a journalist. When his pregnant wife is savagely raped and murdered, he becomes determined to see the masterminds behind it brought to justice, even if not in a legal sense.

The riots are limited to two cities - Miami and New York. Oddly enough, part of the plan in NYC involves an attack on the World Trade Center. The book was originally written in 1984, but now, 5 years after 9/11, it's eerie to read the fictitious terrorist attack on that same building, reading of someone jumping to their death afraid of the flames on their floor.

Again, it's a well crafted thriller. It took me about a quarter of the way to get into it and start following the seemingly random loose ends, but I assure you the last third is nothing short of gripping, which I had difficulty putting down.

One worthy of the 5 stars, and definitely one I'd recommend reading.