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 meet: 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.
- ISBN10 1845292995
- ISBN13 9781845292997
- Publish Date 27 April 2006
- Publish Status Transferred
- Out of Print 15 December 2008
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
- Imprint Constable
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 400
- Language English