The saying, “Don’t judge a book but its cover,†can be applied literally to the work of Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins, “The Consummata.†With the sexually explicit name of the book and a provocative cover with a half-naked woman lies a deeper meaning of the tense political struggle of the exiles from Cuba.
The two mystery masters create a world of the sex, violence, drugs and human trafficking during Castro’s rule. The vivid description and great historical details makes you think that the book is not a fantasy constructed around the real events, but the real life which is complicated with human struggles and a great desire to remain alive in the world indicated by survival of the fittest.
The plot is built around a Robin Hood for our time. The concept of taking from rich and giving to poor is not quite virtuous and noble in the Morgan’s character. He needs something in exchange, money preferably.
A former political activist, who fought against the Castor’s regime, Morgan the Raider was forced to flee from his home. He gained respect for protecting men and women from being murdered, raped or tortured. However, he has powerful enemies such as CIA and local police.
A year before, he got involved with a beautiful woman, working undercover for CIA. Eventually, he fell in love with her, but couldn’t complete matrimonio consumado, marriage by consummating or sex. On the top of that, he is suspected in stealing millions of dollars.
That must be a tough life, with no wife, no sex and no money.
But instead of searching for his bucks, he gets involved with a Cubans, his own people, in Florida who is in need of his killer’s skills.
Money is always an issue. $75,000 is nothing for Morgan, but for Cuban exiles, it’s a lot of money, which supposed to sent to their relatives back to destroyed country. It was stolen by one of their kind, bastardo, who needs to pay a high price for his betrayal.
It’s not new for Morgan to have sex in the middle of the street and kill people at the same time. If he wants to survive he needs to find old friends, even the ones who tried to kill him couple of times in the past. Whores become a great source of information and some of the putas become his best friends.
It has been a while since he saw his wife. Love and a sense of incompleteness, a desire for consummation, drives him nuts. His flesh burns with a craving for the eager consummation and his soul need to find peace in a woman’s cuddle. The prostitutes’ surroundings give him an access to the object of his longing—sex, but his is too busy with killing men and looking for money.
The killing race and hunt for a traitor is interrupted by an unknown dame arrival to Florida, who is known as Consummata. “It has several meanings. One is…crowning touch. The other you might guess.†The legends about her S&M professionalism and services she offers, reaches Morgan’s ears and his inner feeing alerts him.
Yet, he cannot put piece of the jigsaw puzzle together.
During his journey, he recalls horrified scenes form his past, when he was fought during the revolution on Cuba. No wonder that so many Latin girls are putas. Having a lovely daddy teaching you the craft of sex at the age of ten, or the gang rape by soldiers, who just killed your parents in front or your eyes, will make the difference in your life.
Morgan’s .45 becomes his gringo and the only one who saves his ass plenty of times.
The author keeps increasing tension up to the last pages of the book. Señor Morgan finally reveals itself and the mindset of the killer can be fully grasped. The gripping mystery-thriller reads with the lightning speed, but doesn’t let you escape form the illusory world of sex, whores, murders and Cuban cigars.
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