Book
Escape to Havana : a foreign affairs mystery
Record details
- ISBN: 1459734483
- ISBN: 9781459734487
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Physical Description:
print
285 pages ; 21 cm - Publisher: Toronto, Ontario, Canada : Dundurn, 2016.
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| Subject: | Drug traffic -- Fiction Havana (Cuba) -- Fiction |
| Genre: | Detective and mystery fiction |
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Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at BC Interlibrary Connect.
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- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
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| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kitimat Public Library | Wil (Text) | 32665002072785 | Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2016 October #1
Typically, mystery authors build a frame story around the crime plot, which dominates the narrative. Wilkshire goes a different way; his crime story sneaks in around the fringes of a novel devoted to other matters. Charlie Hillier thought he was doing fine as a functionary in the Canadian government, but then he opened the wrong door and found his wife wrapped in the arms of a trade attaché. A colleague helps him land a posting in Havana's Canadian embassy, offering escape from humiliation, and the reader settles in to learn about Charlie's life. Charlie babysits his boss' dog. He endures staff meetings. He negotiates with contractors about the new embassy building. Spicy stuff happens, too, like cocaine under floorboards and steamy sex with mysterious women, but it's repairing a light switch that really claims his attention. Readers who stay the course, whether drawn by curiosity or Wilkshire's masterful prose and sly humor, will get their reward. It's all been buildup for a rousing ending. Still, we wish he hadn't made us sit through those meetings, but we're glad he fixed that light switch. Copyright 2016 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2016 October #1
Wilkshire (Thin Ice, 2014, etc.) kicks off a new series by packing middle-aged pencil-pusher Charlie Hillier off to Havana as the Canadian Embassy's new Management Consular Officer.Charlie, who's worked for the Foreign Affairs department for many years without ever leaving his ailing mother-in-law in Ottawa, is abruptly relieved of this responsibility by adultery (not his) and divorce. He's ready to go somewhereâanywhereâdifferent, and, as he realizes soon after a friend arranges for him to join the Cuban legation, "everything in Cuba was different." How different? His new office is a serious comedown; the electricity doesn't work in his spacious house's basement; no official task is too routine to be delayed or torpedoed; Tate Martin, the hotelier whose case he takes up, has been jailed for bribery when his real crime is offering an insufficient bribe; and, oh yes, an impromptu excavation beneath the floorboards of Charlie's new place discloses what certainly looks like a kilo of cocaineâat least in the brief interval Charlie has a chance to look it over before he accidentally drops it into his swimming pool. Although Charlie remains invincibly naïve, savvy readers will know that this last episode is bound to have consequences beyond possibly sickening Teddy, the golden Labrador he's babysitting for his boss, Michael Stewart, the absent ambassadorâand that those consequences are very likely to be linked to another incident that disturbs Charlie's generally placid new life, the abduction and murder of Indian consular official Amirjit Saini. A bit of romance, a bit of gentle humor, several bits of official corruption and drug-related violence, and a chance for the mild-mannered hero to rise to an impossible challenge. It doesn't hold together any better than this summary suggests, but individual bites are tasty enough. Copyright Kirkus 2016 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2016 October #4
The first in a new series from Wilkshire (Thin Ice) is a highly entertaining, fast-paced mystery featuring middle-aged diplomat and amateur sleuth Charlie Hillier. Charlie has spent 15 years pushing paper in the Ottawa headquarters of the Canadian Foreign Affairs department, but when a humiliating scandal disrupts his quiet life, he's desperate for an overseas assignmentâanywhere as long as it's far from Ottawa and his ex-wife. Despite his rudimentary Spanish and his lack of experience in foreign climes, he is posted to Havana. Coming to grips with the food, the manners, and the nightlife is enough of a challenge for Charlie, but soon after his arrival, odd things start happening: attractive women turn up at the door of his government-assigned house looking to party, he finds a package of drugs hidden under his bedroom floor, and his house is burglarized. Before long, the intrigue escalates to kidnapping, bribery, and murder. Alongside the action, readers will enjoy seeing Charlie reinvent himself, finding resources and a sense of adventure that he had forgotten. Wilkshire makes good use of Cuba's vivid local color, and readers can look forward to a promised next posting for Charlie in Moscow. (Dec.) Copyright 2016 Publisher Weekly.
