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Havana World Series
Non-series
José Latour
Grove/Atlantic (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0-8021-1754-6 (0802117546)
Publication Date: February, 2004
List Price: $23.00
Synopsis (from the publisher): It is the fall of 1958 and all of Cuba is riveted by the World Series-Mickey Mantle's New York Yankees are playing the Milwaukee Braves and bets are coming in fast and furious. Thanks to his friends in the country's troubled dictatorship, the infamous Meyer Lansky's gambling empire is raking in millions, much to the envy of rival mafia boss Joe Bonanno. With a team of Cuba's boldest and most ingenious criminals, Bonanno plans to hijack the small fortune Lansky stands to gain from a Yankees win. The heist goes off brilliantly until Bonanno's point man is double-crossed and shot dead. As Lansky's man in the police department investigates the murder, he suspects the involvement of career criminal Mariano Contreras - and to get Bonanno out of the Cuban racket once and for all, Lansky will stop at nothing to track Contreras down.
Review: Havana World Series is José Latour's eighth novel, and his third to be written in English.
Havana World Series is a crime caper. The reader knows at all times the motivations of the characters, who is doing what to whom and, usually, why. The appeal of this book, and it is a very good book, is the setting and locale (late 1950's Havana), and the author's ability to construct a plausible and interesting story using a large cast of characters.
There are no "good guys" in Havana World Series. The principal characters are thieves, gangsters, or corrupt government officials. But Latour doesn't portray them as "bad guys" either. The thieves are generally family men, the gangsters are businessmen looking to make a semi-legitimate profit, and the government officials see themselves as less corrupt than men higher up in their own organizations.
Despite the rogue cast of characters, violence is minimal with emphasis instead placed on a complex plot and character development. Havana World Series, which concludes in a satisfactory, if somewhat unexpected, manner, is an entertaining novel.
Special thanks to Grove/Atlantic for providing the ARC of Havana World Series for this review.
Review Copyright © 2004 Hidden Staircase Mystery Books
Other mysteries by Jose Latour:
Outcast
Non-series
HarperCollins (2001)
ISBN: 0060184884
Comrades
in Miami
Non-series
Grove/Atlantic (2005)
ISBN: 0802118100
