Red Snapper - Paperback

by Terry Murray (Illustrator), Samuel J. Parker (Author)

Red Snapper is an explosive political thriller set on the Caribbean island of Jamaica in the run up to the violent election of 1980 - an election in which nearly 900 people were murdered. The story is set against a background of political change sweeping the Caribbean. Fidel Castro is the catalyst for this change and has inspired leaders such as Maurice Bishop Grenada], Forbes Burnham Guyana] and Michael Manley Jamaica] to reject the imperialists such as the USA and Britain and embrace the socialist ideology. America appears unwilling to confront this change as it is still convulsed by the anti-Vietnam war sentiment sweeping the country. The President, Jimmy Carter, is more committed to dialogue than military action. The CIA is more committed to covert action to destabilise these regimes than dialogue. The Story The story starts with the CIA field agent, Carlton Davies, witnessing the violent revolution in Grenada and is one of the last foreigners to leave before Maurice Bishop and his revolutionaries take over the country. Carlton Davies, his cover provided by the US Department of Commerce, gathers evidence that Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica, is planning to take Jamaica down a similar route to Grenada. Manley and Castro are closely aligned and when Castro is appointed Chairman of the Non Aligned Movement the CIA decides it is time to put a stop to any further Cuban inspired change. Jamaica is the battleground. So worried are the CIA about the situation in Jamaica they appoint Wynton McKenna, Carlton Davies's boss, as the man to put a stop to Cuban influence in Jamaica. An election is approaching and there is mounting evidence the Cuban's are destabilising the country - undermining the police, the defence force, infiltrating key government departments, issuing propaganda to discredit the opposition Jamaican Labour Party, perpetrating violent acts against activists and so on. Tactics designed to frighten the electorate into voting for the PNP. All the classic tactics normally used by the CIA. McKenna, hands tied by Carter's conciliatory mentality, engages the anti-Castro brigades operating out of Miami. These are the men who fled the country after the revolution in Cuba, veterans of the Bay of Pigs fiasco and dedicated to overthrowing Castro. They have also been classified as terrorists by Carter. But McKenna needs them because he is operating outside of official government policy. Both the CIA and the anti-Castro brigade have links to the Mafia. All have designs on Jamaica, all need each other, all have different agendas and Red Snapper is about how these different relationships play out. The story is further complicated by a love affair between Carlton Davies and the married daughter of the leader of the anti-Castro brigade Roberto Santos. The story builds to a climax when on 30th October 1980 the Jamaicans go to the polls to vote in their next government. An election that resulted in over 900 murders - many at the hands of Cuban and CIA backed activists. No one knows the true scale of these external influences but Red Snapper is a story of what might have happened.