Comrades in Miami
A Novel
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
A Cuban spymaster plans an escape to Florida—but lethal complications await—in a suspenseful tale that’s “beautifully crafted from start to finish” (Library Journal, starred review).
Only ninety miles of open water separate Florida from Cuba, but after decades of Communist rule, the two tropical paradises couldn’t be more different. In Havana, spymaster Victoria Valiente, head of Cuban Intelligence’s vital Miami Desk, and her computer-expert husband are tired of their sacrifices. After planning a multimillion-dollar electronic heist, they try to pull the wool over the Chief’s eyes and escape to freedom—but first they have to elude a world of espionage as cutthroat as anything from the height of the Cold War.
As 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—Victoria and her husband must try to survive in the dangerous zone between the neon streets of Miami and the crumbling facades of Havana . . .
“Victoria Valiente may well be one of the most fascinating characters to appear in a crime novel in my memory.” —The Baltimore Sun
“An exhilarating espionage tale.” —Financial Times
“A well-plotted, compelling tale of the infrastructure of spies, politics, and ordinary people . . . Latour takes the reader on an armchair trip from Miami neighborhood to the heart of Havana, delivering a cityscape that is as multilayered as his plot.” —Houston Chronicle
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
What was it like to be a top Cuban intelligence officer during the 1990s? Latour, a Cuban living in Toronto, creates a surprisingly active agenda for Col. Victoria Valiente, the star of the latest book (after 2004's Havana World Series) in his well-received series about life and crime on Castro's island. The physically nondescript Victoria is a genius as well as a natural spymaster, and by the time she finishes impressing the men above her, she's taken charge of the Greater Miami area, recruiting new agents and uncovering double agents working against Cuba. But along with her success comes the knowledge that Castro's regime has become a disaster. Victoria's husband, a computer expert who's been allowed to travel abroad, convinces her they should leave Cuba and sets up a scheme to electronically transfer $2.7 million in stolen funds to an account in Key West. Things take an ugly turn when a Cuban working for the FBI finds out what's going on, but Latour's fascinating book remains a thing of beauty.