Suspicion of Rage
Barbara Parker
Dutton, Feb 2004, $24.95, 352 pp.
ISBN 0525948058

After a quickie marriage, Miami lawyers Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana plan to travel to Havana via Mexico so she can meet the Cuban branch of her new husband's family. They plan to stay at his sister Marta's house; she is married to General Ramirez Vega, a rising star in Castro's government. Anthony is also friends with political dissidents so he tries not to talk politics while he is there.

This trip proves impossible because before he leaves a government investigator wants Anthony to persuade his brother-in-law to defect; they want him to verify what Major Omar Cespedes Ruzi, a Cuban defector, told them when he arrived in the United States. Gail and Anthony find that General Garcia, Romero's boss, wants Anthony to find out what Cespedes told government officials and he won't let them return home until he gets some answers. While these events are transpiring, dissidents in an underground cell plans to assassinate General Vega and one of these rebels has a very special relationship to Anthony.

Unlike the previous books in this series, this novel takes place on Cuban soil and readers see how life is like for those who support the government and those who oppose it. Much against his will, Anthony is forced into the role of spy in order to keep America from invading Cuba. There is plenty of action in this romantic thriller but the heart of the story lies in Anthony's love for a Cuba that he was forced to leave when he was thirteen years old. SUSPICION OF RAGE is a fantastic thriller that will grab and keep reader interest.

Harriet Klausner