Havana Blue

By Leonardo Padura

A scorching novel from a star of Cuban fiction. The third in the Havana Quartet series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
• Release date: Jun 21, 2007
• ISBN: 9781913394271

Leonardo Padura

Leonardo Padura was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1955. A novelist, journalist, and critic, he is the author of several novels, two volumes of short stories, and several nonfiction collections. His novels featuring the detective Mario Conde have been translated into many languages and have won literary prizes around the world. The Man Who Loved Dogs was a finalist for the Book of the Year Award in Spain. Padura lives in Havana.

Reviews for Havana Blue

[kerns222 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gritty, gritty Havana--a backdrop for sweet memories of youth and the aftermath of living a life you never wanted (as a cop). The woman you wanted returns taken, the man you hated (the one who never failed and was making it towards the top of the party) does not. And you and your friends drink rum and eat big. You solve the murder as you choke on the life you lead. Gritty. No Socialist
Realism here.

[nancyewhite · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A Cuban mystery about a policeman's high school acquaintance who goes missing and the investigation into his whereabouts. Introduces us to the detective, his friends and coworkers and his high school crush. This is the first book I've read that is written by a Cuban who is still living in Cuba and the details about life there were fantastic. The translation feels a little clunky occasionally. There were times where I could feel the words wanting to sing but being held back by translation issues. Definitely worth your time if you like mysteries set in non-American places. It is particularly interesting to compare the voluptuous language with the spareness of Icelandic and Swedish mysteries.

[chrisconway_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyable for its easy style and for its evocation of day to day life in Cuba in the 1980's, but quite pedestrian as a detective story. Maybe the next novel in the Mario Conde series is better.

[hagelstein_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mario Conde is a Cuiban police lieutenant haunted by his desire - and failure - to write. He is investigating the disappearance of an old school-mate - the big man on campus that married the girl Conde also desired - and failed to get. The third mystery in Leonardo Padura Fuentes' series featuring Conde is as fresh and compelling as the first two, with astute observations of the hardships, and class divide, characteristic of life in Cuba.

[shawnd_72 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Mario Conde is a middle aged detective in Havana Cuba whose high school years, friends, enemies, sports and loves loom large over his life. His two failed marriages are a bit of police cliche, and the book--were it more sparsely written--might qualify in many places as noir. However, the author's sometimes flowery, almost Proustian reminiscences flood and saturate the plot. The characters are much more shallow than the intricate tales of memories, past experiences, and embarrassments.Conde is assigned a 'hot' case with scrutiny from top Cuban administrators. A director of a government enterprise has turned up missing, and in a twist of fate that drives the book, the director's wife is the obsession since high school of Conde. The impossibly beautiful Tamara, infinitely out of reach, becomes a daily conversant with Conde as for many pages the investigation is stalled and memories are processed. Out of the blue the investigation starts moving and the author blitzes past details, haltingly describes crimes, and closes out the book in a streak. The redeeming fact of the book is that sometimes, in time, one can have the victory of a lifetime.

[keywestnan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fascinating look at Cuba in the 1970s and '80s - Lt. Mario Conde is assigned to solve a case that carries him back to his days as an ambitious young high school student (he's now your classically cynical detective, who drinks too much and has two failed marriages). My only complaint about this book is the quality of the translation - it feels as if it were translated too literally, leading to a stilted, unnatural story rather than conveying the sense of the story and dialogue. Still worth the read, though.