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Red Rag Blues
Pit two unstoppable conmen against each other, throw in a truckload of dollars, add enough political paranoia to send all America looking under its beds for Reds, cue in the CIA, the KGB, MI6 and the Mafia, all dressed to kill, and you have "Red Rag Blues". This is the USA, 1953. One conman is senator Joe McCarthy, high priest of America's holy war on Red treachery. The other conman is Luis Cabrillo. Once he made a fortune as a freelance in counter-intelligence. Now he's flat broke. The two men embrace each other like clams. Luis sells Joe a steady stream of bogus Commie treachery. Both men prosper. But Luis's dodgy past is catching up with him...Also Julie Conroy, Luis's girlfriend, a corker of a New Yorker; Soviet spy Kim Philby, recently tipped to head MI6; and young Bobby Kennedy, who really did serve and admire Joe McCarthy in 1953. "Red Rag Blues" is a black comedy inspired by the true state of America as the McCarthy witch-hunt reached its climax of ranting and raving, when it was nothing to laugh about.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
315 pages, Hardcover
First published April 27, 2006
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About the author
Derek Robinson
71 books81 followersDerek Robinson is a British author best known for his military aviation novels full of black humour. He has also written several books on some of the more sordid events in the history of Bristol, his home town, as well as guides to rugby. He was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1971 for his first novel, 'Goshawk Squadron.'
After attending Cotham Grammar School, Robinson served in the Royal Air Force as a fighter plotter, during his National Service. He has a History degree from Cambridge University, where he attended Downing College, has worked in advertising in the UK and the US and as a broadcaster on radio and television. He was a qualified rugby referee for over thirty years and is a life member of Bristol Society of Rugby Referees. He was married in 1964
After attending Cotham Grammar School, Robinson served in the Royal Air Force as a fighter plotter, during his National Service. He has a History degree from Cambridge University, where he attended Downing College, has worked in advertising in the UK and the US and as a broadcaster on radio and television. He was a qualified rugby referee for over thirty years and is a life member of Bristol Society of Rugby Referees. He was married in 1964
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May 23, 2025
Luis Cabrillo, amoral conman and part-time double-agent, takes on the Cold War.
In his first book, The Eldorado Network, Cabrillo got his start in Spain in the Second World War; the German Abwehr trained him as a spy and sent him to London, but he stopped in Lisbon and sent them bogus reports instead. His method is fairly simple: figure out what someone wants, then give it to them, for a price. By the end of the sequel he's won the Iron Cross for his efforts, even though they were all lies.
By the time of Red Rag Blues it's 1953, and Luis has moved to New York to look up his old paramour, and moral compass, Julie Conroy. It's the height of Senator Joe McCarthy's reign of terror, there are Reds under the bed, and Julie's on the Blacklist. Luis decides to work his old tricks on McCarthy. The FBI, MI6, the KGB, and the Mafia are all along for the ride, for better or worse.
Derek Robinson is an exceptionally funny writer, and in this one he lets loose. There's a hard core of seriousness, but he strips away the stoic veneer of history to reveal the absurdity beneath. No one escapes: politicians, law enforcement, spies, and gangsters, all get skewered. His prose recreates the clipped, hard-boiled voice of Raymond Chandler, but with an eye for irony and an limitless vocabulary that are altogether unique. Robinson's style, as ever, is dry, laconic, and ruthless -- he is even-handed and oddly humanistic in his treatment of even the most minor characters; the carjacker who meets a sticky end in a showdown with a trigger-happy Mafioso is as rounded and real as Tail-Gunner Joe himself.
Robinson's earlier novels about fighter pilots in the World Wars were darker and heavier affairs, equal parts heartbreaking and hilarious. Red Rag Blues is more of a ripping yarn, with panache and a razor-sharp wit.
In his first book, The Eldorado Network, Cabrillo got his start in Spain in the Second World War; the German Abwehr trained him as a spy and sent him to London, but he stopped in Lisbon and sent them bogus reports instead. His method is fairly simple: figure out what someone wants, then give it to them, for a price. By the end of the sequel he's won the Iron Cross for his efforts, even though they were all lies.
By the time of Red Rag Blues it's 1953, and Luis has moved to New York to look up his old paramour, and moral compass, Julie Conroy. It's the height of Senator Joe McCarthy's reign of terror, there are Reds under the bed, and Julie's on the Blacklist. Luis decides to work his old tricks on McCarthy. The FBI, MI6, the KGB, and the Mafia are all along for the ride, for better or worse.
Derek Robinson is an exceptionally funny writer, and in this one he lets loose. There's a hard core of seriousness, but he strips away the stoic veneer of history to reveal the absurdity beneath. No one escapes: politicians, law enforcement, spies, and gangsters, all get skewered. His prose recreates the clipped, hard-boiled voice of Raymond Chandler, but with an eye for irony and an limitless vocabulary that are altogether unique. Robinson's style, as ever, is dry, laconic, and ruthless -- he is even-handed and oddly humanistic in his treatment of even the most minor characters; the carjacker who meets a sticky end in a showdown with a trigger-happy Mafioso is as rounded and real as Tail-Gunner Joe himself.
Robinson's earlier novels about fighter pilots in the World Wars were darker and heavier affairs, equal parts heartbreaking and hilarious. Red Rag Blues is more of a ripping yarn, with panache and a razor-sharp wit.
Displaying 1 of 1 review