Ghosts of Panama by Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll Jr.

Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Ghosts of Panama:

Turns out you shouldn’t trust drug dealers.

Quick synopsis:

The story of the U.S. invasion of Panama.  

Fact for Non-History People:

Manuel Noriega was into the occult and had a “witch” on staff.

Fact for History Nerds:

During the 1970s, 63% of the School of the Americas student population was from countries with actual or de facto dictatorships.

My Take on Ghosts of Panama:

Authors Leon Carroll and Mark Harmon tell the story of how the U.S. broke up with General Manual Noriega and set Panama free. The story follows various characters but mainly focuses on NIS (no, not NCIS, they didn’t get named that yet) Special Agent Rick Yell. Yell and his wife Annya serve as the focal point, but there are a lot of other people mentioned including CIA agents.

Carroll is a former NCIS agent and, of course, Harmon is the former lead of the very popular NCIS TV show. This book unfolds very much like their first book, Ghosts of Honolulu, which was centered on the attack on Pearl Harbor. Both books are written for general audiences. They are short, to the point, and don’t linger too long on any one person or event.

The writing style depends on your personal preference. For something like Panama, I would have preferred a bit more background since I am not well versed on Operation Just Cause. If you are looking for something you can knock out in a few hours with little fuss, then this is right up your alley. I should mention for the history nerds, there are sections where the authors mention they “recreated” some dialogue. This is not something I am a fan of and have railed against in the past. However, it happens very little, and the conversations are not entirely made up but pulled from documents which were not written as conversations. The rest of the book is well sourced. I would tell readers that this book would work well for most audiences, but for history nerds you may need another book after this to fill in some gaps.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Harper Select.)

Verdict:

A good read. Buy it here!

If You Liked This Try:

• Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll Jr., Ghosts of Honolulu