Description

“The best crime-fiction writer in speaking Spanish...”--The London Times “Full of environment and explanations to enjoy, this really is just as much a life-affirming tribute to Havana as an excellent book of dying and detection.”--The Separate “Police function isn't simply a career but a metaphor for an useless longing to resolve the island’s greatest offenses and misdemeanours.”--Times Literary Supplement Mario Conde has retired from law enforcement force and makes a full time income trading in old-fashioned books. Havana has become flooded with dollars, filled by drug dealers, prostitutes, pimps, and other predators of the night time. Within the book assortment of a wealthy Cuban who left following the fall of Batista, Conde finds articles about Violeta del Rio, an attractive bolero singer of the 1950s who vanished mysteriously.