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Havana Sleeping
by Martin DaviesHavana in the 1850s is a city as dangerous as it is exotic. The murder of a humble night watchman at the British Consulate seems to worry neither the Consul nor the police.But one person cared for the old man. The enigmatic courtesan Leonarda will not rest until she understands the mystery of his death. In wintry England, George Backhouse is plucked from obscurity in the Foreign Office and given an unexpected promotion. His task: to travel to Cuba and take a stand against the illegal slave trade still flourishing there.But Havana is a tinderbox of intrigue. As the great powers of the region conspire against each other with increasing ruthlessness for control of the island, Backhouse comes to see that the most innocent of actions could spark a devastating war. To protect their interests, the powers-that-be in Whitehall are prepared to turn a blind eye to many things. Leonarda will not.But what of George Backhouse?
Havana Sleeping
by Martin DaviesHavana in the 1850s is a city as dangerous as it is exotic. The murder of a humble night watchman at the British Consulate seems to worry neither the Consul nor the police.But one person cared for the old man. The enigmatic courtesan Leonarda will not rest until she understands the mystery of his death. In wintry England, George Backhouse is plucked from obscurity in the Foreign Office and given an unexpected promotion. His task: to travel to Cuba and take a stand against the illegal slave trade still flourishing there.But Havana is a tinderbox of intrigue. As the great powers of the region conspire against each other with increasing ruthlessness for control of the island, Backhouse comes to see that the most innocent of actions could spark a devastating war. To protect their interests, the powers-that-be in Whitehall are prepared to turn a blind eye to many things. Leonarda will not.But what of George Backhouse?
Havana Run (John Deal Series #0)
by Les StandifordJohn Deal has spent much of his adult life trying to rebuild the Miami construction firm that his late father ruined. When the possibility of a major project in post-normalized Cuba arises, he cant help but be intrigued. But Deal quickly learns that hes been lured to Havana for another, more dangerous purpose: to help a freedom-fighting group spring an American prisoner from a Castro jail. Of course, Deal wants nothing to do with ituntil he discovers who the prisoner is. That prisoner is also the holder of secrets, highly sensitive information that Deals own government thinks worth killing for. The next chapter in the edge-of-your-seat John Deal series.
The Havana Room: A Novel
by Colin HarrisonThe Havana Room is the tale of a man from his fall from the heights of power and wealth in New York to the moment where he might well die.Bill Wyeth is a successful real-estate attorney in his late thirties with a wife and son, who, by the merest chance, loses everything: family, job, status. Unmoored and alone, Wyeth drifts toward the city's darker corners. Restoration seems unlikely, redemption impossible, when Wyeth finds himself in an old-time Manhattan steakhouse. He is intrigued by the manager, Allison Sparks--sexy, complicated, and independent in all ways. She also controls access to the restaurant's private bar. This is the Havana Room, and what goes on in there, he's told, is secret.Wyeth agrees to help Alison's friend, Jay Rainey, in concluding a last-minute midnight real-estate transaction. As soon as he sees the players and the paperwork, Wyeth knows something is wrong.Within hours, Wyeth finds himself tangled in Rainey's peculiar obsessions, which involve a Chilean businessman who feels he's been swindled, an old farmer frozen dead to a bulldozer, an outrageous black owner of a downtown hiphop club, and a fourteen-year-old English girl. Only Rainey knows the connections among these people, which are revealed when Wyeth is finally admitted to the Havana Room--where the survival of its inhabitants is most uncertain.
Havana Red
by Peter Bush Leonardo PaduraA young transvestite found strangled in a Havana park. The stifling death of a beloved Cuba.
Havana Noir (Akashic Noir)
by Achy ObejasBrand-new stories by: Leonardo Padura, Pablo Medina, Alex Abella, Arturo Arango, Lea Aschkenas, Moises Asis, Arnaldo Correa, Mabel Cuesta, Yohamna Depestre, Michel Encinosa Fu, Mylene Fernandez Pintado, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Miguel Mejides, Achy Obejas, Oscar F. Ortiz, Ena Lucia Portela, Mariela Varona Roque, and Yoss.??To most outsiders, Havana is a tropical sin city: a Roman ruin of sex and noise, a parallel universe familiar but exotic, and embargoed enough to serve as a release valve for whatever desire or pulse has been repressed or denied. Habaneros know that this is neither new--long before Havana collapsed during the Revolution's Special Period, all the way back to colonial times, it had already been the destination of choice for foreigners who wanted to indulge in what was otherwise forbidden to them--nor particularly true.In the real Havana--the lawless Havana that never appears in the postcards or tourist guides--the concept of sin has been banished by the urgency of need. And need--aching and hungry--inevitably turns the human heart darker, feral, and criminal. In this Havana, crime, though officially vanquished by revolutionary decree, is both wistfully quotidian and personally vicious.In the stories of Havana Noir, current and former residents of the city--some international sensations such as Leonardo Padura, others exciting new voices like Yohamna Depestre--uncover crimes of violence and loveless sex, of mental cruelty and greed, of self-preservation and collective hysteria.Achy Obejas is the award-winning author of Days of Awe, Memory Mambo, and We Came all the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? Her poems, stories, and essays have appeared in dozens of anthologies. A long-time contributor to the Chicago Tribune, she was part of the 2001 investigative team that earned a Pulitzer Prize for the series, "Gateway to Gridlock." Currently, she is the Sor Juana Writer-in-Residence at DePaul University in Chicago. She was born in Havana.??Praise for Havana Noir: Miami Herald, 11/25/07Sewer-dwelling dwarves who run a black market. An engineer moonlighting as a beautician to make ends meet. Street toughs pondering existentialism. An aging aristocrat with an unsolvable dilemma. A Chinese boy bent on avenging his father's death.These are the characters you will meet in this remarkable collection, the latest edition of an original noir series featuring stories set in a distinct neighborhood of a particular city. Throughout these 18 stories, current and former residents of Havana -- some well-known, some previously undiscovered -- deliver gritty tales of depravation, depravity, heroic perseverance, revolution and longing in a city mythical and widely misunderstood.This is noir of a different shade and texture, shadowy and malevolent, to be sure, but desperate, too, heartbreakingly wounded, the stories linked more by the acrid pall of a failed but seemingly interminable experiment than by genre. Ambiguities abound, and ingenuity flourishes even as morality evaporates in the daily struggle for self-preservation.In this dark light the best of these stories are also the most disturbing. What For, This Burden by Michel Encinosa Fu, a resident of Havana, is a brutal and wrenching tale of brothers involved in drug deals and child prostitution; they peddle their own sister. The Red Bridge, by Yoss, another Havana resident, depicts a violent incident in the lives of two friends with apparently great potential who, though acutely aware of the depravity of their situation, are powerless or unwilling to extract themselves from the mean streets of El Patio.Cuban engineer Mariela Varona Roque's offering, The Orchid, is a short but powerful tale of the demise of a young boy frequently entrusted to the care of a browbeaten neighbor obsessed with his solitary orchid.Isolation, poverty and despair even in the midst of friends and family, lead to unthinkable cruelty, a common thread in these and other stories. But just as prevalent are resilience, hope, honor and ferocious devotion to the island. Pablo Mendina's Johnny Ve...
Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba .... and Then Lost It to the Revolution
by T. J. EnglishTo underworld kingpins Meyer Lansky and Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Cuba was the greatest hope for the future of American organized crime in the post-Prohibition years. <p><p>In the 1950s, the Mob--with the corrupt, repressive government of brutal Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in its pocket--owned Havana's biggest luxury hotels and casinos, launching an unprecedented tourism boom complete with the most lavish entertainment, top-drawer celebrities, gorgeous women, and gambling galore. <p><p>But Mob dreams collided with those of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and others who would lead an uprising of the country's disenfranchised against Batista's hated government and its foreign partners--an epic cultural battle that bestselling author T. J. English captures here in all its sexy, decadent, ugly glory.
Havana Lunar (The Cuban Noir Novels #1)
by Robert ArellanoOne hungry, hallucinatory night in the dark heart of Havana, Mano Rodriguez, a young doctor with the revolutionary medical service, comes to the aid of a teenage jinetera named Julia. She takes refuge in his clinic to break away from the abusive chulo who prostituted her, and they form an unlikely allegiance that Mano thinks might save him from his twin burdens: the dead-end hospital assignment he was delegated after being blacklisted by the Cuban Communist Party and a Palo Monte curse on his love life commissioned by a vengeful ex-wife. But when the pimp and his bodyguards come after Julia and Mano, the violent chain-reaction plunges them all into the decadent catacombs of Havana's criminal underworld.Inspired by fifty years of Cuban literary noir, from Cold Tales by Virgilio Piñera to Reinaldo Arenas' Before Night Falls, Robert Arellano's Havana Lunar intertwines an insider testimony on the collapse of socialist Cuba with a psychological mystery.
Havana Libre (The\cuban Noir Novels Ser. #2)
by Robert Arellano"[An] exquisitely made thriller...A remarkably powerful narrative. The interrogation scene repulses while it grips...but readers are advised to stay with it for a rich reading experience."--Booklist, Starred Review"Arellano's world of clinic doctors, hotel hustlers, secret police, and neighborhood spies is as rich and vibrant a place as I've come across in fiction in a long while. His style has something of Bolaño's cynical, madcap energy, but with Graham Greene's eye for the small absurdities in life, the same absurdities that, under the right (or wrong) circumstances, spin out into an international catastrophe."--Literary Hub"This potent noir sheds light on Cuban life in the post-Soviet era...Building to an explosive ending, this atmospheric mix of proletarian literature and Graham Greene–style espionage informs as it entertains."--Publishers Weekly"At the behest of Castro's government, a Cuban doctor is sent to Miami in 1997 to find out who has been sponsoring a series of terrorist bombings in Havana in this new novel by Arellano...This novel is rich in atmosphere and political critique."--Kirkus ReviewsIncluded in CrimeReads's overview of crime fiction set in HavanaIncluded in CrimeReads's Refugees in Crime Fiction roundup"The book is a vehicle for Arellano to express his newfound understanding of and love for the Cuban people and their charm, curiosity and welcoming warmth for strangers--which is what Arellano found on his first trip there, starting in 1992."--Ashland Daily Tidings"The intrinsically linked politics and culture of Cuba and Miami combine for an unusual spy novel in Robert Arellano's second novel about Havana pediatrician Mano Rodriguez...A bit of paean to the old-fashioned spy novel."--South Florida"Bombs, terrorists, and spies populate the new book, which is set in the Cuba of 20 years ago."--The Jefferson Exchange, NPR"Amidst the action, the quiet star of Havana Lunar and Havana Libre is Arellano's rich landscapes of daily life in Cuba during the special period, including blackouts, food shortages, the intricacies of conversation under an authoritarian government, and the craftiness of locals who offer guided tours to tourists for money--all details from over a decade of Arellano's journals from his trips in the '90s."--Miami New Times"If you like political thrillers, then this is the novel for you. It's explosive, intriguing, a true page turner filled with many twists and turns. It is the story of a Cuban doctor sent to Miami with to uncover a series of terrorist bombing taking place in Havana. The time is 1997. Definitely one to put on your reading list. You won't be disappointed."--The Latino Author, One of the Top Ten Best Fiction Books for 2017"Havana Libre takes us on a journey of political intrigue and espionage, with twists and turns until the very end...Havana Libre is an enticing novel that is a must-read for those who enjoy political history and intrigue mixed with diverse culture."--Underrated ReadsIn this explosive follow-up to Havana Lunar, Dr. Mano Rodriguez takes an undercover assignment to the most dangerous city in Latin America: Miami.During the summer of 1997, a series of bombings terrorize Havana hotels. The targets are tourists, and the terrorists are exiles seeking to cripple Cuban tourism and kill the Revolution. After Mano finds himself helpless to save one of the victims, his nemesis Colonel Emilio Pérez of the National Revolutionary Police recruits him into Havana's top-secret Wasp Network of spies for a job that only he can perform--but for reasons he never would have believed or expected.
Havana Heat: A Lupe Solano Mystery (Lupe Solano #5)
by Carolina Garcia-AguileraMiami PI Lupe Solano has been hailed as “one of the genre’s most formidable protagonists” (Chicago Tribune). And with all the danger in her latest mystery, she’ll need to be…A wedding is a time of celebration and joy. But for Lupe Solano, the jubilance is cut short by a chat after a chat with the unpleasant and incredibly wealthy Lucia Miranda—a member of a prominent Cuban exile family.She wants Lupe to travel to Cuba and recover a legendary tapestry that was originally given to Christopher Columbus by Queen Isabella. But fate placed it in the possession of one of Lucia Miranda’s ancestors, who passed it down through the centuries as a priceless family heirloom until the Mirandas exiled themselves to the United States. The tapestry remains in a locked vault at the old Miranda estate in Havana.Lupe has visited Cuba before. But this time, she’ll have to somehow enter the country, pull off a daring heist, and…somehow manage to survive.Praise for Carolina Garcia-Aguilera“Lupe Solano is an enjoyably hedonistic sleuth, and Garcia-Aguilera’s chatty, congenial style will beguile readers for several pleasing hours.” —Publishers Weekly“A stunning mixture of art history, Cuban—in—exile politics, a uniquely classy Miami heroine, and riveting plot make this highly recommended.” —Library Journal“Lupe Solano has blossomed into one of the genre’s most formidable protagonists.” —Chicago Tribune
Havana Gold
by Peter Bush Leonardo PaduraScorching novel from a star of Cuban fiction. The fourth of the Havana Quartet series.
The Havana Game (A Thomas Laker Thriller #2)
by John Lutz“LUTZ OFFERS UP A HEART-POUNDING ROLLER COASTER OF A TALE.” —Jeffery Deaver ROGUE WARS With the U.S. seemingly linked to a terrorist bombing in a Baltic nation and a Russian troop buildup just over the border, the covert Gray Outfit sends Thomas Laker to untangle the mess. But after a second attack leaves him out in the cold, Laker’s on his own. Five thousand miles away in Miami, Laker’s partner and NSA codebreaker Ava North is investigating the murder of a fellow agent. When tracks lead to a Cuban-American billionaire in bed with the Jersey Mob, Ava’s superiors want her to lay off. Not a chance. Though oceans apart, Laker and Ava discover their separate missions are tied to one explosive plot. The only way out is to breach all protocol and play by their own rules . . . JOHN LUTZ IS . . . “A MAJOR TALENT.” —John Lescroart “AMONG THE BEST.” —San Diego Union “IN RARE FORM.”—New York Times Book Review Includes bonus story!
Havana Five
by Don PendletonExtreme MeasuresCuba remains volatile, a powder keg that's got the full attention of the White House. Mack Bolan's soft probe into a missing Pentagon official tracking Colombian ELN terrorist camps inside Cuba goes hard when his cover is blown. The connection between a notorious Cuban underworld cartel, Havana Five, and a growing army of leftist insurgents puts Stony Man and Washington on high alert. And with U.S. and global interests in jeopardy and a bloodbath just a hair trigger away, the situation is turning critical. Bolan, flanked by two of Stony Man's crack operatives, turns up the heat with a battle plan that hasn't failed yet--infiltrate, identify and destroy.
Havana Fever
by Peter Bush Leonardo PaduraScorching novel from a star of Cuban fiction. The return of Mario Conde.
Havana Blue
by Leonardo Padura Peter BushA scorching novel from a star of Cuban fiction. The third in the Havana Quartet series.
Havana Black
by Peter Bush Leonardo PaduraScorching novel from a star of Cuban fiction. Second Conde mystery set in languid Havana.
Havana Best Friends
by Jose LatourCanadian debut publication by one of the Spanish-speaking world's top crime-fiction writers Elena Miranda and her brother, Pablo, have lived in the same spacious Havana apartment since they were children, not knowing that a $10-million treasure in diamonds is hidden behind a tile in their bathroom. Now the son of the man who buried them there wants them, and he knows the ideal person for the job: his ruthless former comrade-in-arms during the Vietnam War. Equipped with a Spanish-speaking "wife" and Canadian passports, the vet flies to Cuba to sweet-talk his way into Elena and Pablo's lives and get his hands on the diamonds. But Cuba has a way of confusing even the best-laid plans, and soon the treasure hunters find themselves being hunted.A complex, hard-boiled novel of betrayal, deceit, and cunning, Havana Best Friends takes place in a Cuba that tourists rarely see. Stunning plot twists rocket the story forward, but not once does the action overpower the story's heart -- the emotional lives of the people whose worlds are changed forever by these so-called best friends.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Havana Bay
by Martin Cruz SmithWhen the corpse of a Russian is hauled from the oily waters of Havana Bay, Arkady Renko comes to Cuba to identify the body. Looking for the killer, he discovers a city of faded loneliness, unexpected danger, and bewildering contradictions. His investigation introduces him to a beautiful Cuban policewoman; to the rituals of Santeria; to an American fugitive and a group of ruthless mercenaries. In this place where all things Russian are despised, where Hemingway fished and the KGB flourished, where the hint of music is always in the air, Arkady finds a trail of deceit that reaches halfway around the world-and a reason to relish his own life again.From the Paperback edition.
Havana Bay: An Arkady Renko Novel (Arkady Renko Ser. #No. 4)
by Martin Cruz SmithFormer Inspector for the Moscow Militsiya, Arkady Renko, is summoned to Cuba to identify a liquefying corpse, dragged from the oily waters of Havana Bay. Renko finds himself in a decaying country, the final recess of Communism - a place where Russia is despised, exotic rituals take precedence and unexpected danger meets bewildering contradictions. After a harrowing experience that has left Renko on the verge of suicide, this new mystery leads him on a trail of deceit that reaches international proportions, and gives him a reason to relish his own life again.
Havana: An Earl Swagger Novel (Earl Swagger #3)
by Stephen HunterHavana, the sultry spring of 1953: gambling is expensive, sex is cheap, and death is free. A half-hour by air from Miami, it's the world's hottest -- and most dangerous -- city. From the plush mobster casinos in Centro to the backstreet brothels on Zanja Street, you can get anything you want, for a price. The city is the linchpin of many empires: the Mafia's, the CIA's, numerous American corporations', El Presidente's, and even the vice lords' of Old Havana. It must be protected at all costs. But now there's a threat. A young lawyer, a kid named Castro, is giving speeches. He speaks of reform, of change, of self-determination. He speaks of...of revolution even. This danger must be dealt with. So, into the steamy, sunny climate of corruption come two men, both unafraid, both skilled, both tough as ball bearings. They would be friends in a sane world, for they are so similar in their capabilities and experiences. But now they have to be enemies, because the Cold War is at its apogee: one is American, the other Russian. The American is named Earl Swagger. A Medal of Honor winner on Iwo Jima, a toughened gunman from adventures in Hot Springs and the swamps of Mississippi, Earl has been conned by two young Old Boys of the CIA to become Our Gun in Havana. The Russian, Speshnev, also a veteran of tough battles (from Spain in '36 to Berlin in '45, with a few stays in the gulag just for seasoning), has a similar assignment: he too is sent by strategic gamesters to pay attention to that same young orator. But his job is protection, not elimination. Neither man's assignment will be easy. For, like an orchid hot house, Havana's climate grows spectacular specimens: the wise old mobster king Meyer Lansky, who runs the casinos for his nervous New York sponsors; the syndicate hitman Frankie Carbine, Frankie Horsekiller of the famed Times Square massacre; the secret police officer called Ojos Bellos -- Beautiful Eyes -- for his penchant to interrogate at scalpel point; the beautiful Filipina Jean-Marie Augustine, who knows so much; and even those crew-cut, cheery young CIA fellows on the embassy's Third Floor, behind whose baby-blues and tender faces lurk all manner of deviousness. And everybody wants something. In Havana, Stephen Hunter has produced a truly epic adventure story, shot-through with violence, eroticism, and the pressures of big money and big politics, set in a legendary time and place. His hero, Earl Swagger, fights his enemies, his superiors, and his own temptations and, in the end, has to decide what is worth killing for -- and what is worth dying for. He knows only one thing for certain: that he's a pawn in somebody else's game. But a pawn with a Colt Super .38 in his shoulder holster and the skill and will to use it fast and well is a formidable man, indeed.
Haunts in the House (Sabrina the Teenage Witch #27)
by John VornholtMonsters, and tricks, and ghouls, oh my! Sabrina can't believe that MR. Kraft is eliminating all the extra-curricular activities... even cheer-leading. When she discovers that there is no money to fund the programs she comes up with a great idea... a haunted house fund raiser: The Holloween Machine. The attraction has a fun house, a maze, and special effects. Converting an old factory into a working haunted house is no problem when you have the help of a hobgoblin -- a household helper. The "hobby" does homework, balances Aunt Zelda's checkbook, polishes the silverware, and even helps Sabrina with the planning of the fundraiser -- that is until Salem upsets the supportive guest. And when you upset a hobgoblin...watch out!
The Hauntings of Hood Canal
by Jack CadyIn a rustic town in Washington State, a man's death upsets the quiet equilibrium of small-town life. A well-intentioned blacksmith performs a civic duty for the town, ridding it of a pernicious evil that has taken up residence along the canal, but the death of the predator allows a more ancient evil into the waters. The townsfolk find themselves caught a vortex of uncertainty and moral ambiguity as the investigators start to uncover hidden secrets long thought buried . . .From the author the Tulsa World says "has patented a hard-edged folksy narrative that conceals within its intricate voice the imminence of the supernatural" comes a tale of the dark side of the quintessential American small town.
Haunting with the Stars (Goosebumps SlappyWorld)
by R. L. StineThis is Slappy's world -- You only scream in it!Space-obsessed Murphy Shannon is pumped that his 6th grade class is visiting the Rayburne Observatory. Except, being a know-it-all means he's totally bored with the lectures he has to sit through. So when classmates Orly and Cleo say they should explore on their own, Murphy sneaks out with them. But when they come face-to-face with the strange Dr. Rayburne and his experiments, they realize they may be in way over their heads. A grand adventure in space may be in store for them, if they can survive…
A Haunting Refrain (Helen Bradley Mysteries, #3)
by Patricia H. RushfordEager to spend time with her husband while they remodel their home, Helen Bradley is reluctant to answer the summons of her eccentric uncle Paddy until she learns that there have been attempts on his life. Helen arrives at Paradise Island determined to protect her uncle, but fears abound. Never before in her years as a cop has Helen faced a ghost as a possible suspect. Now she must find the courage to confront her own beliefs - and to reveal whatever truth surfaces...
Haunting Rachel
by Kay HooperThomas Sheridan was Rachel Grant's childhood sweetheart. Days before their wedding, he left unexpectedly to pilot a plane to South America. He promised to return in plenty of time. But his plane never reached its destination, and no trace of it was ever found. Ten years later, Rachel returns home to settle her family estate. The homecoming is fraught with painful memories -- and stunning, eerie glimpses of a man who could be Thomas Sheridan's twin. Or his ghost. He knows her name. He has the locket she gave Thomas before he vanished. And when they finally meet face-to-face, his story raises more questions than it answers. His name is Adam Delafield, he says, and he offers the promise of three million dollars, money he owed her father. Yet there is no record of the loan -- or a shred of proof that Adam is who he claims to be. Is he an innocent man who only wants to erase a debt? Or a cold-blooded killer with a score to settle?