Caracas Caper: Formerly Carbon Caper

While enjoying the Idaho back country, Rico Morgan and his sidekick Mole encounter a brutal murder deep in the wilderness. Three corpses, one a movie star, one a beautiful TV hostess, and one looking like a bum, are lying in the dirt with no clue as to why they were there or why they were killed. One of them is a CIA agent! The story takes Rico and Mole to Caracas, murder capitol of the world, looking for rogue CIA killers and whatever they stole that involves the Caracas head of state. An unexpected meeting with Rico's former lover Roxy puts spice in the mix. The Russians get after 'em and a biker gang chases them down a back alley. Can they fight their way out?

An INTERVIEW with Ray Ordorica:

So Rico and Mole are at it again, eh? Why Caracas?

The story evolved from news events at the time of my writing it. Caracas is the hot spot for world-threatening nasty politics. The Venezuelan scene is even more turbulent than in the book. The bit of carbon featured in the book was also a big news item. Most of the news events in the story are true, though I took some liberty with the leaders in VeeZee.

What's going on in Venezuela now? Does it change things in the book?

One of the hardest parts of writing this book was keeping up with the daily changes in the real world of Caracas. I'd write some detail, then the Russians showed up and I'd have to go back to change stuff and add different details the next day. While parts of this book are about current happenings and situations in Caracas, in a year the events there will be totally different. It'll be interesting to compare it then with the details in this book, which are concerned to some extent with the misery there today.

Have you been to Caracas? It sounds lovely.

I have not been there. The available photos of it from a year or two ago show it to have been a fabulously beautiful city, one of the finest in the world. Huge and very modern. To see it at night now when it's all blacked out is like looking at a ghost town. There are some really spooky images of the blacked-out city online. It's also the murder capitol of the world, with 98% never solved.

That bit about the big Linebaugh revolver...True?

Yes. The 475 and 500 Linebaughs have indeed killed elephant. I had one for some years and sold it for the reasons discussed in the book. If you hold a hugely powerful gun like the big Linebaugh wrong you're going to get badly hurt. Current loadings for it are even more scary than what's presented in the book.

What about that Chayanne guy in Mexico? Does he exist? And that music hall?

He is a well-known singer, popular with most Latinos. He was in fact playing at that beautiful music hall in Mexico City as I wrote about it. His wife is indeed from Venezuela, and probably does know Daniela C. in real life.

Where does Rico go from here?

I have no idea. You'll have to ask him...or maybe Yeats. Just don't mention Roxy!

[Rumor has it Rico's in Africa! Rico, book 3, coming soon!]