Wrap It in Flags

Iluminado Castillo, a young Colombian army captain, is sent to the Pentagon, ostensibly to attend Counter Coup School. In fact, the trip has been engineered by his lover, wife of the leader of the current junta, so that he might learn the ways of sophisticated women. On arrival, he is mistaken for his father, who is supposed to be in Washington negotiating bribes on arms contracts, and through a strange combination of events, Iluminado becomes the linchpin of an important defense appropriations bill. The result is savagely funny, sometimes out of control (at one point, Iluminado bounces the Joint Chiefs of Staff around in the bucket of a payloader)a farce on the order of the ""Three Stooges Meet Dr. Strangelove.'' Terrall, author of more than 50 novels (including 24 Mike Shayne mysteries), proves himself a satirist who is bound to raise hackles around the Beltway and beyond. January