John Laine’s A Kiss for the President is a bada-bing, electrifying novel set in the 1950s during the rule of Castro.           

In 1958, the Mafia had millions invested in Havana casinos and the bosses were very happy with the way things were run. 

Fidel Castro put a big dent in the mob’s profits when he closed all the casinos and organized crime’s assets were seized.  Sal Morano was one of those mob bosses affected and he wasn’t happy.  

Morano learns through one of his contacts, a New York congressman, that the CIA plans to invade Cuba and restore American property, but they’re in need of funding in order to put their covert operation into action.  Who better to finance than those who can leave no paper trail and who have everything to gain?   

Morano puts together a team of the mafia’s most elite and “connected” members to finance the invasion and the election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.  Everything seems to be going according to plan when Kennedy becomes President.  But there’s a glitch in the plan when JFK fails to oust Castro.   

The boys aren’t happy—Sal, along with other higher powers, are taking JFK’s failed promise very personally.  Everyone knows you don’t renege on a promise to the mafia—especially to Sal Morano.  Sal has connections all right; some of which are very close to the President. 

Laine takes the reader on a whirlwind of a ride with an absorbing plotline that moves seamlessly to the upper echelons of dirty politics to the mafia’s hard-core tactics.

About the Author

John Laine is a writer and active military. Mr. Laine is married and has served in the U.S. Army for over 34 years and wrote A Kiss for the President during three tours in Iraq. He lives in California.