Havana Bay

Author/Guide: Martin Cruz Smith

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1950s – 1990s: A liquefying corpse is dragged from the oily waters of Havana Bay.

ISBN: 978-1471131110
Genre: Crime

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What you need to know before your trail

Moscow detective Arkady Renko is called to the Russian Embassy in Havana to look for a missing person. The person in question is his old comrade Sergei Pribluda. When a body is dragged from the waters of Havana Bay, he’s desperate to find out if it’s him or not

Meanwhile, the police are keen to have him identify the victim as Sergei, to clear up the matter and then for him to return to Russia. Pribluda, a former KGB agent, and until he went missing two weeks ago, was the Russian Security Service’s resident spy in Havana. Renko of course wants the police to investigate properly so when that doesn’t happen he gets on the case himself

But the Cuban authorities are far from happy.

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Travel Guide

Havana
Havana’s Russian Embassy, is the place to which detective Renko is summonsed from wintery Moscow. The heat of Havana hits him hard but the change in temperature and weather is not going to be his biggest barrier by far.
The beauty of Havana is tainted by the floating body in Havana Bay – with the victim a suspected Russian Spy. The political landscape of Russia and Cuba is a tense situation and is at the heart of the novel’s premise.
Some want to keep the status quo as it is whereas others want Cuba to change.

Havana

Havana’s Russian Embassy, is the place to which detective Renko is summonsed from wintery Moscow. The heat of Havana hits him hard but the change in temperature and weather is not going to be his biggest barrier by far.

The beauty of Havana is tainted by the floating body in Havana Bay – with the victim a suspected Russian Spy. The political landscape of Russia and Cuba is a tense situation and is at the heart of the novel’s premise.

Some want to keep the status quo as it is whereas others want Cuba to change.

The buildings are crumbling and unsteady and the same could be said about the political system. The Cubans want to survive and have to work in any which way they can. Everyday life is hard but behind the scenes, the Cuban culture thrives – there’s mention of the belief in mysticism too.