"The Russians were not detonating their bombs near populated areas. The Americans were."
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To Kill the Duke by Sam Moffie
book review by Michael Radon
A slice of 20th-century silver screen Americana and alternate Cold War history, Sam Moffie's To Kill the Duke fictionalizes a Hollywood story that is already strangely true. The book largely follows the production of critical flop film The Conqueror, which cast John Wayne as Genghis Khan under the direction of former actor Dick Powell and with the financial backing of eccentric and iconic American figure Howard Hughes. Moffie ties this moment in American cinema with a story about the end of the Stalin era in the USSR and overseas Soviet espionage during some of the earlier moments of the Cold War. When a low-level bureaucrat substitutes for his superior as a projectionist during a private film festival party hosted by Josef Stalin on the night of his death, he is plunged into the world of spies to honor one of Stalin's most personal desires: to shock America by killing John Wayne.
Moffie's style really shines by creating memorable scenes with characters that have become entrenched in American history and those that don't quite get the mainstream respect they deserve. Of particular note is the author's interpretation of Howard Hughes, whose oddities and vanity come right off the page, a mixture of dry wit and shameless debauchery. Some of the language and situations in the book can be pretty racy, contrasting with the Happy Days-style reminiscing that most tend to associate with the time period. Regardless, To Kill the Duke tells an entertaining fictional story grounded in a fascinating real-life occurrence.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review