Havana Black: A Lieutenant Mario Conde Mystery (Mario Conde Investigates)

Each book in the Havana Quartet is related to a season. Havana Black has a strong autumnal feeling. Mario Conde is shedding his policeman face and going into a kind of hibernation to write the "moving and squalid" tales of the Havana Quartet. And all through this book a hurricane is on the way - to wreak destruction, purify the world, and encourage the emergence of something new.But resigning from the police is not easily done. Mario has a new boss will only let him leave if he solves one more case. It's a political hot potato because the murdered man defected years ago and is murdered upon coming back to see his sick father. The Cuban government is likely to be blamed if the murderer is not found.The investigation is engaging. The victim was in charge of confiscating the costly houses and possessions left behind when the wealthy bourgeoisie fled Cuba when the communists took over. I was fascinated to learn about this dicey period of Cuban history.There are rum-soaked evenings with Mario and his old school buddies. Oddly, there are no hot seduction scenes in this book. I've come to expect them from previous books, but there are some funny reminiscences about boyhood self-pleasuring.I've found the books of the Havana Quartet strangely addicting, despite the macho attitudes of Lieutenant Inspector Mario Conde, and his incessant boozing and self-pity. I recommend the Quartet to readers who like their mysteries with a literary flavor. Leonardo Padura writes quite lyrically about Cuba, the bonds of friendship, and the human appetites - with delicious dashes of humor.

Padura is wonderful. I withhold a star because of the translation, which is often clumsy. It was done by a Brit, so has a lot of Britishisms, which is fine, but he could at least have checked the baseball parts with an American or a Cuban or anyone who knows baseball. He just butchered those parts. There are other very clumsy parts, and the voice just doesn't do a good job of evoking Cuba. I have read 2 other Padura novels in English and did not have that problem at all.

Another tour through the dark side of todays Cuba with our battered hero Lt Conde of the PNR. One can almost smell the aroma of eye-popping cuban coffee and the sweet stench of non filtered Populares cigarettes. The paragraphs, while a bit florid in english, are still as smooth as a hand rolled cigar. A good read.

Ordered this book to read in class. Little did I know that I would become a Padura fan. A thriller located in Special Period Havana. With all of its twists and turns we are constantly reminded that the biggest mystery of all is Havana itself. The book was sent in a very timely fashion and I strongly recommend using the distributor again.

Padura is just as good when read between the lines as when reading his lines themselves.

There is no question that thhe author mr Padura is a prolific writer. But perhaps, from my point of view, that becomes a problem for he adds to many elements to the adventures of Mario Conde and the reader, me, get softer lost among the historical facts, the philosophical,comments and the personal troubles os so many friends of Mr. Conde.I found very truthful the sorry character of the new lmembers of the Cuban revolution and also found predictable the discovery of the detective work

A pageturning police investigation, set against the backdrop of a dilapidated Havana, threatened by the ominous arrival of Hurricane Felix.I love the homages to some of Padura's favorite writers Hammett and Vazquez Montalban, the latter's easily recognizable with a full page recipe for a steak, bacon and gruyere feast.

What Leonardo Padura has done with his Havana Quartet of novels is staggering. The British translation and publication helps...because they have masterfully kept these books quickly entertaining and page-turning, but without question to the reader true works of literary art.

Up to his usual high standard of eclectic detective work evoking the atmosphere of Havan

quite special atmosphere

Natural Law, Science, and the Social Construction of Reality After spending two holidays in Cuba it was great reading a novel set there.This is the last novel in what is known as the Havana Quartet; four novels, each set in a different season over the course of a year--1989-1990.The main character is a detective and we get to see Mario Conde, or the Count as he is known, go through police procedures to solve crimes.But while they are detective novels, they are really novels about Mario's day to day life. We learn about his school days, we meet his close friends, we see how he lives. We see how important rum is.Mario is divorced. We learn little about his marriage. But we do learn about other women in his life.But mostly we see the Count with his friends. There is Skinny, who used to be skinny but is now confined to a wheel chair due to a wound received when he was with Cuban troops in Angola. Skinny's mother always has lots of food and the implication is she gets it on the black market. Skinny's mother, Josephine, is like a mother to Conde. She is always feeding him.We see that the Havana of that period was not the greatest time. But we see the characters living full lives. Money may be in short supply, but friendship and camaraderie are plentiful. Friendships make the characters.And the crimes are crimes. There is murder, there is corruption, there is rivalry. But while a crime is a crime, the setting makes these books that much more interesting.It is always fun reading a book set somewhere you have been and you can picture yourself on the same streets being described in the book. You can say that you saw the crime scene.The Count is a complex character, always wondering why he joined the force. he really doesn't enjoy being a police officer, but he doesn't know what else he wants either. And he is a very good detective, using regular police procedures and his insight.A very enjoyable character driven series in a different locale. Natural Law, Science, and the Social Construction of Reality

I have read the four books in the seasons in Havana series and loved everyone of them,the author is one of the best i,ve ever read.The only thing that bothered me was sequence the were in.You can read them any way you want and it would make no difference except Havana Black should be read last and not the second book.

As described