Havana Recalled II

About the Book

The book is historical fiction, a murder mystery novel. The history is Havana, the people, the customs, the attitudes, the festivities. The murders, events, the remarks, and everything else, are all fiction. The story deals with a group training in secret with plans to take over the annual comparsa competiton, creating rumors, fear, and widespread terror. Also deaths and mystery.

The Secret Comparsa has been described by some as a controverial novel. It has nothing to do with politics, Fidel Castro, or the revolution, The main character in the book, a private investigator of humble origin, makes remarks on all subjects, events, and ideas. He is not depicted as an expert, or a sociologist, but just as a typical everyday Cuban that believes his opinion is important. His remarks, as well as some of the incidents, may be based on actual happenings, but they are fiction.

At the end of each chapter the writer indulges in nostalgic reminiscing, with lyrics from famous Cuban artists.

Enmity between the white and the black people did not exist in Cuba at the time, it is used in the book as a possible motive because mere dancing expertise cannot drive people to terrible extremes.

A comparsa is a group of street dancers, usually accompanied by musicians, mostly drum and trumpet players. The comparsas were representative of different neighborhoods of the city, each group practicing year round, to enter the Traditional Annual Competition at the Prado, in Havana, during the carnival season. They dressed in colorful symbolic costumes, imitating from sugar cane cutting slaves to wig and glove wearing nobility. They carried lighted "farolas", and all involved, superb rumba dancers, performed spectacular steps, evolutions and maneuvers, thrilling the thousands assembled to see the parade. "I have chosen this as background for my murder mystery story because the carnival season is one of my cherished memories, and the time is The Fities, when Havana was the most beautiful city in the world," says the author.

For more information about the artist on page 38 visit http://community-2.webtv.net/JuandelCerro/FromtheDAILYNEWS/index.html.

About the Author

See the author's website at www.diamondwebsites.com/havana

Please see the first book in the series, Havana Recalled I: Killer Kin:

www.trafford.com/04-1827