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Cast a Yellow Shadow (Mac McCorkle, #2)

Ross Thomas

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Feb 17, 2014 Nooilforpacifists rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, thriller

Ross Thomas remains the greatest political/mystery writer you’ve never heard of. He’s been dead for decades. Some of his books are out of print because they’re unfashionable—his best uses the “N” word, and this one uses “negro” throughout.

Don’t be put out by the language. Thomas’s better books capture not the doings of the officeholder but the mis-deeds of bag men and spooks behind them. Plus, the D.C.-centric books display a District long disappeared: often pre-air conditioning; slow-paced; def ...more

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Mar 07, 2023 Sam Reaves rated it liked it

Early Ross Thomas from 1967, the second of his series featuring partners McCorkle and Padillo. (The Cold War Swap, which introduces them, was Thomas's first novel.) McCorkle is running a saloon in Washington D.C., having written off Padillo, whom he last saw falling into the Rhine at the end of the first book. To McCorkle's surprise, Padillo turns up in the care of a D.C. gangster named Hardman, nursing his wounds from a scrape in which he came to the aid of one of Hardman's men on the Baltimore Early Ross Thomas from 1967, the second of his series featuring partners McCorkle and Padillo. (The Cold War Swap, which introduces them, was Thomas's first novel.) McCorkle is running a saloon in Washington D.C., having written off Padillo, whom he last saw falling into the Rhine at the end of the first book. To McCorkle's surprise, Padillo turns up in the care of a D.C. gangster named Hardman, nursing his wounds from a scrape in which he came to the aid of one of Hardman's men on the Baltimore docks, having just disembarked from a tramp steamer from Africa. As usual, Padillo brings trouble with him.
That's the series hook: Padillo is a former top CIA troubleshooter, fluent in six languages and "handy with either a gun or a knife", who has tired of the game and is trying to retire but finding it difficult. As per an old Arab proverb, he "casts a yellow shadow", meaning he carries bad luck with him.
The bad luck here involves a complicated and somewhat contrived plot on the part of the ruling clique, all white, of a Rhodesia-like fictional African country resisting majority rule; the elderly president, who is dying of cancer, wants to arrange his own assassination during a visit to Washington in order to gain world sympathy for the beleaguered whites of his nation. His men have picked Padillo for the job and kidnapped McCorkle's wife to insure compliance. To wriggle out of this one Padillo will have to call in favors from some supremely shady characters.
As I said, it's a bit contrived, more so than most of Thomas's novels, which are completely believable because rooted in Thomas's long experience of dirty politics as a journalist and political operative. It's also in places just a shade less wickedly ironic than most of his work, which skewers the manners and morals of the commercial and political classes. What is does have is the usual snappy dialogue, sharp characterizations and head-snapping betrayals, reverses and nasty surprises that make a Thomas novel so entertaining. If not his best work, still very much worth reading for fans. ...more

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Mar 22, 2009 Sandi rated it liked it

Shelves: crime-mystery-thriller-suspense, read-2007

Jul 06, 2015 poorguy added it

Sep 15, 2018 Yash Desai marked it as to-read

Shelves: spy-espionage, thriller-adventure

Mar 20, 2019 Brian Christy marked it as books-i-have

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