PADURA, LEONARDO
u003cpu003e"The finest crime-fiction writer in the Spanish language..."u003ciu003e--The London Timesu003c/iu003eu003c/pu003e u003cpu003e"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."u003ciu003e--The Independentu003c/iu003eu003c/pu003e u003cpu003e"Police work is not merely a vocation but a metaphor for a futile yearning to solve the island's deepest crimes and misdemeanours."--u003ciu003eTimes Literary Supplementu003c/iu003eu003c/pu003e u003cpu003eMario 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 anevocation of the Havana of Batista, the city of a hundred night clubs where the paths of Marlon Brando and Meyer Lansky crossed.u003c/pu003e u003cpu003eProbablyu003cbu003eLeonardo Padurau003c/bu003e's best book,u003ciu003eHavana Feveru003c/iu003e is many things: a suspenseful crime novel, a cruel family saga, and an ode to literature and his beloved, ravaged island.u003c/pu003e