Review of "The Betrayal Game" by David L. Robbins

David Robbins takes us back almost 50 years to the CIAs ill-conceived attempt to assasinate Cuban president Fidel Castro with his own vision of the lead-up to the Bay of Pigs invasion in a manner he calls "thinly fictionalized fact". Professor Mikhal Lammeck is a historian who is fascinated with assasinations - political assasinations and the ancient question "Can one man change history?" He gets himself entangled in one of the many plots by the CIA to assasinate Castro and finds he is no longer facing an academic question.

The book is thoroughly researched and steeped in the history of South America, particularly Cuba, and its relations with the US. The cast of characters includes the most prominent Mafia dons and other historical figures. The plot lines are the stuff of conspiracy theories of the era, but I couldn't help feel that the book was a cross between "Godfather II" and "The In-Laws" (the first one with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin), but without the humor.