"The finest crime-fiction writer in the Spanish language..."--The
London Times
"Full of atmosphere and descriptions to savour, this is as much a
life-affirming tribute to Havana as a fine novel of death and
detection."--The Independent
"Police work is not merely a vocation but a metaphor for a futile
yearning to solve the island's deepest crimes and
misdemeanours."--Times Literary Supplement
Mario Conde has retired from the police force and makes a living trading
in antique books. Havana is now flooded with dollars, populated by
pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, and other hunters of the night. In the
book collection of a rich Cuban who fled after the fall of Batista,
Conde discovers an article about Violeta del Rio, a beautiful bolero
singer of the 1950s who disappeared mysteriously. A murder soon follows.
This is a crime story set in today's darker Cuba, but it is also an
evocation of the Havana of Batista, the city of a hundred night clubs
where the paths of Marlon Brando and Meyer Lansky crossed.
Probably Leonardo Padura's best book, Havana Fever is many things:
a suspenseful crime novel, a cruel family saga, and an ode to literature
and his beloved, ravaged island.