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Ross Thomas

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Cast a Yellow Shadow Kindle Edition

by Ross Thomas (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 207 ratings

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An old CIA connection brings trouble for a Washington, DC, barman in this thriller from “America’s best storyteller” (The New York Times Book Review).
As the saying goes, you can’t pick your friends. If you could, Mac McCorkle would disown Padilla. They owned a bar together in Bonn, the West German capital, and stayed partners even after Padilla’s sideline as a CIA operative got the bar blown up. Padilla was thought to be dead and erased from the CIA’s files—but now he’s back on the agency’s turf. Mac moved to Washington, DC, after the trouble in Bonn to get married and open his bar anew. His new bride is beautiful, the bar is a success, and Padilla’s reappearance threatens everything. A group of African terrorists want Padilla to assassinate the prime minister of their small sub-Saharan republic—and they’ve kidnapped Mac’s wife to use as leverage.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Ross Thomas is without peer in American suspense.” — The Los Angeles Times “What Elmore Leonard does for crime in the streets, Ross Thomas does for crime in the suites.” —The Village Voice “Ross Thomas is that rare phenomenon, a writer of suspense whose novels can be read with pleasure more than once.” —Eric Ambler, author of The Mask of Dimitrios

About the Author

The winner of the inaugural Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award, Ross Thomas (1926–1995) was a prolific author whose political thrillers drew praise for their blend of wit and suspense. Born in Oklahoma City, Thomas grew up during the Great Depression, and served in the Philippines during World War II. After the war, he worked as a foreign correspondent, public relations official, and political strategist before publishing his first novel, The Cold War Swap (1967), based on his experience working in Bonn, Germany. The novel was a hit, winning Thomas an Edgar Award for Best First Novel and establishing the characters Mac McCorkle and Mike Padillo. Thomas followed it up with three more novels about McCorkle and Padillo, the last of which was published in 1990. He wrote nearly a book a year for twenty-five years, occasionally under the pen name Oliver Bleeck, and won the Edgar Award for Best Novel with Briarpatch (1984). Thomas died of lung cancer in California in 1995, a year after publishing his final novel, Ah, Treachery!

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005PFN77I
Publisher ‏ : ‎ MysteriousPress.com/Open Road (October 4, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 4, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5264 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 262 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #243,205 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #724 in Terrorism Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- #772 in Assassination Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- #782 in Political Thrillers & Suspense

Customer Reviews:
4.3 207 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

207 global ratings

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Mick Clark

Ross Thomas is an excellent writer

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2024

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Ross is one of my favorite authors. His books are starting to get expensive since his death a few years ago.

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ivanino

An amazing author, not his best....

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2014

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If this is your first Ross Thomas, maybe you can start at the beginning of the series, Twilight at Macs Place, is a tough act to follow. This is good, Ross Tomas is so creative in making fun characters with interesting personalities and names. There is always the double cross and nothing is all that predictable. I also really enjoy his sense of humor. I just could not give it five stars as it is so hard to be perfect with every undertaking. I would not want my rating to mislead a consumer considering giving him a chance with another of his great stories. So I say get this book, but, maybe as a second or third book so you will come away thinking that you would keep reading as Ross Thomas stands as one of my favorites, and I hope yours as well. He wrote such original stuff as compared to the many other authors I have read and I love his style.

One person found this helpful

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Dan Berger

Fredl gets kidnapped as Padillo juggles a weird assassination plot

Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2023

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It’s the early 1960s, about a year after we meet McCorkle and Padillo running their bar in Bonn in “The Cold War Swap.”

McCorkle finds out Padillo is alive— last been seen tumbling wounded off a boat into a canal during a gunfight—and someplace in West Africa. McCorkle has meanwhile taken the insurance money from their destroyed Bonn bar and opened up Mac’s Place in Washington DC, taking with him his German bride Fredl. The missing Padillo is part owner.

As we open here, Padillo finally shows up, bleeding and wounded after taking a tramp steamer to the U.S. People are trying to kill him.

McCorkle gets dragged into matters when the baddies kidnap Fredl. They demand Padillo carry out a nefarious but unusual (we expect no less in a Ross Thomas novel) assassination plot for them, or else Fredl dies.

Padillo and McCorkle suspect they’ll kill Fredl anyway, as well as the two of them. Time for one of Padillo’s brilliant gambits.

It’ll depend on Thomas’s usual motley crew of utterly untrustworthy characters rounded up by Padillo to play individual parts. The question isn’t which will betray them, rather which one won’t. The black Washington ganglord who’s got a soft spot for Fredl? The gorgeous female op still trying to seduce Padillo? The Polish sniper? Or the smooth British agent?

It’s told with Thomas’s usual panache. Neither McCorkle nor Padillo wants to do anything in life besides run a bar, but the world just won’t leave them alone. McCorkle reflects on how little life will be worth living if he loses Fredl. Padillo has some love flicker along the way but you know it can’t last.

One person found this helpful

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C. J. Holdzkom

Not Ross Thomas at His Best

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2009

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Of the ten or so Ross Thomas books I've read, this one would come in 10th place. It's just not an inspired work. It's not particularly clever, or witty, or intriquing as I expect his novels to be. If this had been the first one of his I'd read, I wouldn't bother to read another. In fact, I didn't finished it even though I had only a few pages to go; I just didn't care. In short, pass on this one.

One person found this helpful

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MJHolt

Ross Thomas is more relevant than when he wrote this.

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2022

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If there is a hero in a Ross Thomas book, he is an antihero. This book, as are all of his books, deeply political, and this book is as much of mirror of politics today than when it was written.

One person found this helpful

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Edward White Jr.

If you like "Cold War Swap" you'll like "Cast a Yellow Shadow"

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2016

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If you like "Cold War Swap" you'll like "Cast a Yellow Shadow"....Mac and Padillo are back and defining 60's era cool as well as ever.

One person found this helpful

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Mary

What a Ride

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2013

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The fast-paced plot and amazing primary and secondary characters make this book. The twists and turns are thrilling. The main characters are just flawed enough (or just hero enough) to make them feel real. These are not guys that you want to grab a beer with after work, but you might be willing to share a bottle of whisky, pack of smokes, and give up your safe house to help them out of a jam.

2 people found this helpful

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Barry J Thomas

Fun read

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2013

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This author knows how to spin a good yarn. I've almost read all his others now. And kindle makes it easy to indulge oneself!