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Book details
  • Genre:FICTION
  • SubGenre:Mystery & Detective / Historical
  • Language:English
  • Series title:Valáiria Hernández Mysteries
  • Series Number:1
  • Pages:242
  • eBook ISBN:9781098324223
  • Paperback ISBN:9781098324216

That Time in Havana

A Valáiria Hernández Mystery

by Carolina Cositore

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Overview
That Time in Havana is an intriguing and culturally enriching who-done-it . The protagonist, Laira (Válairia Hernández), is a divorced Cuban social worker content with her life and happy with her country in the summer of 2005 in Havana, Cuba. She is the type of Cuban that folks in the United States don't tend to encounter. When you meet her in That Time in Havana, she will make it plain to you why she is loyal to her country and not so incidentally take you along with her new U.S. tourist friend to help solve a murder.
Description
A slice of the Cuban capital and its beaches in the summer of 2005 told from a revolutionary perspective through the experiences and voices of the characters as they become embroiled in a murder. The incident that sparks That Time in Havana is a people smuggling murder. It is told through four frames of reference that soon intertwine, that of: the divorced Cuban social worker protagonist Laira (Válairia Hernández) and her family, U.S. tourist Bill Richards and two fellow travelers, Cuban reporter Paco Valdes and his family and a few Cubans who often live outside the law, Mongo Perez, Estrella Gonzalez and their familiars. Laira's detecting assistance is initially requested by her older and over-weaning detective brother Camilo while she is working therapeutically with the bereaved families, but he very soon repents of involving his independent minded sister. She is emotionally supported by her twin physician brother Ladi, her father Juan and her twelve-year-old son Miguel, meanwhile reluctantly meeting her first foreign tourists and becoming entangled in another murder or two. Aside from the political perspective, the plot and characters will hold your interest, and you'll learn a bit about Cuba.
About the author
A longtime activist and avid mystery reader, Carolina despaired of finding truly progressive, i.e. very left, who-done-its. So she wrote one, three now actually. That Time in Havana was the first. She lived and worked happily in Havana, Cuba for ten years and this book reflects her learnings and experiences there. Besides the politics, it's a good read.