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A moody slice of Cuban noir from the acclaimed author of ‘A masterful book … passionate, frightening and extremely violent’ Independent on Sunday Years ago, a fleeing Batista supporter reportedly stashed an incredibly valuable collection of diamonds in a Havanan apartment. Now a pair of Americans (posing as Canadians) have come to Cuba to find the jewels on behalf of the man’s blind son, who promised them a share of the fortune if they can make it back to New York. Arriving at the apartment, they have to negotiate its present occupants – a mismatched brother and he a Cuban wide boy scraping a living out of selling girls, pornography and drugs to foreigners; she an upright, vulnerable, beautiful woman with a tragic past. (Their father, the hero of the Cuban revolution, is in gaol after shooting his wife’s lover.) Add to this is a hitman the Americans unwisely hired to get rid of one of the obstacles in their path, who now wants a piece of the action himself, and the pressure is on to find the diamonds and get out of Havana – before someone else gets their hands on them.
Two American treasure hunters arrive in Havana to recover a hidden cache of diamonds, only to find themselves ensnared in a volatile web of local criminals and desperate opportunists. The protagonists must navigate the decaying urban landscape of Cuba while contending with a pair of mismatched siblings who occupy the target apartment and a ruthless hitman who has turned against his employers. The narrative follows a high-stakes, claustrophobic timeline where every alliance is temporary and every character harbors a hidden agenda. Through a gritty, third-person perspective, the story explores the intersection of greed, political history, and the harsh realities of survival in a post-revolutionary environment.
This work is characterized by its lean, hard-boiled style that effectively captures the tension of its Cuban setting. The narrative structure relies on the collision of disparate interests, creating a sense of mounting pressure as the characters compete for the hidden fortune. Readers often note the author's ability to weave local political history into the framework of a classic crime thriller without sacrificing the pace of the plot. The book functions as a gritty examination of human desperation, where the environment itself acts as a primary antagonist to the protagonists' goals. The prose maintains a consistent, cynical tone that aligns with the conventions of the noir genre, ensuring the stakes remain high until the final resolution.
Page Count:
304
Publication Date:
2002-10-07
Publisher:
HarperCollins
ISBN-10:
0007144199
ISBN-13:
9780007144198
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