Havana Homicide — David Benson

Havana Homicide is the eighth installment in the Carina Quintana Murder Mysteries series, conjured by Kirkus Award-winning author David M Benson. Something as prosaic as a police chiefs convention brings Carina to Havana but she's got way stronger Cuban connections than that. Her grandparents emigrated from Cuba just before Castro's revolution, bringing Carina's Cuban-born father to the the United States. And her family history, particularly that of her tough guy grandfather, who ran a casino in Havana for the mob before the revolution and who died before she was born, is woven into the plot. Murder abounds; it is, after all, a Carina Quintana Murder Mystery! Here, though, the killer does not seem to care how much evidence he leaves behind. Catch me if you can seems to be his mantra, or his dare. But the manner in which present day killings in Florida intersect with much earlier crimes in Havana drives the twists and turns of the complex story. And Carina is not the only present day figure with descendants that influence current events, nor, it turns out, is she the only one with connections to her grandfather. Carina's wife Alice is along for the ride, of course, as is Carina's team of Fort Lauderdale PD detectives. But for Havana Homicide the devil is in the antagonists, including a Steve Jobs-like fellow with more than a little fascinating history of his own and a Cuban secret policeman with a long memory and a few of his own surprises.