Havana Fever

Starred review from March 16, 2009
Part biblio-mystery, part tragedy and all brilliant, Padura's follow-up to his Havana Quartet (Havana Gold
, etc.) finds Mario Conde 14 years after retiring from the police force pursuing books instead of criminals, acting as a book scout to earn enough for food and drink. His famed intuition leads him to a decrepit mansion, its old and odd inhabitants, and to the most impressive private library ever assembled in Cuba, untouched for 43 years. Stuck in between a book's pages, he discovers a 1960 magazine photo of a sultry singer, Violeta del Río, who disappeared in the 1950s. Conde's curiosity turns to obsession as he tries to unravel Violeta's sad fate. The trail takes Conde into the past when Batista ruled, revolution was near and gangsters like Meyer Lansky oversaw casinos, clubs and brothels. It will also take him into the most dangerous and terrible of Havana's barrios. The glory of Cuba's biblio-history drives this exceptional novel.

April 1, 2009
Ex-cop Mario Condo supports himself as a bookseller in Havana. When he finds a treasure trove of old valuable volumes in the mansion of a wealthy Cuban who had fled after the fall of Batista, an old newspaper clipping about a missing singer captures his fancy. Things turn ugly when the books' owner is murdered. Padura portrays the dark underbelly of today's Havana with insight and a deep sadness.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2009
In our review of Paduras last Mario Conde novel (Havana Gold, 2008), we said that the series reads like an extended bolero, each part more moody and rum-soaked than its predecessor. It should come as no surprise, then, to learn that, in his latest adventure, Conde investigates the life and mysterious death of a bolero singer from the 1950s. The story begins in contemporary Cuba, awash now in tourists dollars but still bearing the scars of the post-Soviet years, and extends back to the Batista era, when Havana was the city of 100 nightclubs. Conde, retired from the police and making a precarious living as an antiquarian book dealer, stumbles on a mother lode of rarities in the crumbling mansion of a brother and sister forced to sell their books to pay for food. Finding a yellowed newspaper clipping describing the allure of a bolerista called Violeta del Rio, Conde begins to investigate the singers life, unlocking a closet stuffed with guilt, jealousy, and stifled rage. As always, Padura unrolls his tale in cascading waves of rambling, lyrical prose that will enthrall James Lee Burke fans just as it may deter those with more minimalist tastes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)