Havana Black
Leonardo Padura
Bitter Lemon, Jun 2006, $14.95
ISBN: 1904738152

Havana Police Lieutenant Mario Conde just wants to do the right thing on the job though the Party makes that difficult. However, he is irate and bitter over the forced replacement of his professional supervisor by a party hack; he deems the job is not worth the political correctness that previously was overwhelming, but now is impossible to navigate without connections. This Conde decides to join many other professionals by hiding behind rum and cigarettes, preferably imported from another Caribbean island or the States.

However, a fascinating case comes his way so he agrees to put aside the rum, but not the cigarettes to investigate the homicide of a former minister whose job was to seize pre-revolutionary art. The victim was castrated before he had his head smashed to smithereens. Besides the violence, Conde wonders why someone living safely in a relatively luxurious lifestyle in Florida would return to Cuba where he had many enemies. Conde assumes if he can learn that he can figure out the motivation and consequently identify the culprit though a Communist hack accompanies him to insure he investigates in accordance with State policy as the unwritten ones arehe most dangerous all before a hurricane hits.

HAVANA BLACK, the sequel to the superb HAVANA RED, is an excellent Cuban police procedural that provides readers with a terrific investigation while guiding the audience around Havana three decades after the Communist revolution. The case is top rate as it provides insight into the Florida exile community, the impoverish masses left behind on the island, and the Party hacks. Few writers can paint a picture of optimism and pessimism with the same stroke as Leonard Padura does through his hero. The Two colorful Havana tales are winners worth reading unless you are an exile or a Fidel-phile.

Harriet Klausner