Only ninety miles of open water separate Florida from Cuba. But after more than forty-five years of Communist rule, the two tropical paradises couldn’t be more different. José Latour, who has been lavishly praised by Martin Cruz Smith, brilliantly brings both worlds to life in Comrades in Miami. In Havana, spymaster Victoria Valiente, head of Cuban Intelligence’s vital Miami Desk, and her husband, Manuel Pardo, a computer expert, are tired of their sacrifices. They try to pull the wool over the Chief ’s eyes and escape to freedom after an electronic heist, but their actions take place in a world of espionage as cutthroat as anything from the height of the Cold War. Both governments draw out all the players, including a gardener with more abilities than just a green thumb, secret foreign operatives, the FBI, and an unsuspecting former English teacher. Comrades in Miami is a tour de force, an exquisitely crafted novel of sex, politics, and...

With Havana World Series, one of Latin America's premier crime writers offers a blend of baseball, American mobsters, and corrupt cops. It is the fall of 1958 and all of Cuba is riveted to the World Series-the New York Yankees are playing the Milwaukee Braves and the infamous Meyer Lansky's gambling empire is raking in millions in bets. With a team of Cuba's boldest and most ingenious criminals, rival mob boss Joe Bonnano plans to hijack Lanksy's fortune. The heist goes off brilliantly until Bonnano'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 Bonnano out of the Cuban racket once and for all, Lansky will stop at nothing to track Contreras down. Alive with vibrant detail and a fantastic cast of misfit characters, Havana World Series is an entertaining and suspenseful story.

Canadian debut publication by one of the Spanish-speaking world’s top crime-fiction writers Elena Miranda and her brother, Pablo, have lived in the same spacious Havana apartment since they were children, not knowing that a $10-million treasure in diamonds is hidden behind a tile in their bathroom. Now the son of the man who buried them there wants them, and he knows the ideal person for the job: his ruthless former comrade-in-arms during the Vietnam War. Equipped with a Spanish-speaking “wife” and Canadian passports, the vet flies to Cuba to sweet-talk his way into Elena and Pablo’s lives and get his hands on the diamonds. But Cuba has a way of confusing even the best-laid plans, and soon the treasure hunters find themselves being hunted.A complex, hard-boiled novel of betrayal, deceit, and cunning, Havana Best Friends takes place in a Cuba that tourists rarely see. Stunning plot twists rocket the story forward, but not once does the action overpower the story’s heart — the emotional lives of the people whose worlds are changed forever by these so-called best friends.From the Trade Paperback edition.Review“Roll out the red carpet for a new and exciting voice in Canadian crime fiction. José Latour’s thriller Havana Best Friends takes you behind the scenes of tourist Cuba as it sets in motion a high-stakes con that quickly evolves into a race against time. With its believable characters and finely-tuned plot, this is a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page. Not to be missed.”—Peter Robinson“A master of Cuban noir.” — Martin Cruz Smith“Cuba has been a closed world for most of us for decades now, and Cuban crime fiction has remained a well-kept secret. It’s alive and well, and brilliantly represented by José Latour.” — Lawrence Block“Latour’s superbly atmospheric thriller . . . is one of the most original and exciting crime novels I’ve read in ages.” — Mail on Sunday“Different, colourful, and utterly beguiling, Havana Best Friends is a delight. Latour is a great new talent in crime fiction.” — Irish IndependentAbout the AuthorJosé Latour’s novels have been published in Britain, the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Brazil and the Netherlands. He is a former vice president of the Inter-national Association of Crime Writers. In 2002, he left Cuba for Spain and immigrated to Canada in the fall of 2004. He lives in Toronto.