These novels are about the transcendental life of the imagination as well as death and detection; it is this that makes them such distinctive reading.

Conde and the city of Havana share star status, both lovingly portrayed, both fraying at the edges, both prone to depression, yet full of joy. The round frames are sculpted from thick acetate and minimally detailed with the collection’s signature Talisman emblem – symbolising freedom and a sense of wanderlust. features a political smoke-and-mirrors mystery wrapped in a dusky narrative of grim, sophisticated humor.Havana police lieutenant Mario Conde awakes on January 1, 1989, with a pounding New Year's Eve hangover and an uncomfortable assignment: the reported disappearance of Rafael Mor"n Rodr"guez, a charismatic and influential politico in Cuba's ruling nomenklatura.

The "Cuban Series" Havana blue Sparring glove is a Professional Pre-Fight glove that comes in Blue and handcrafted in Querétaro, Mexico. This series offers crime thrillers with the twist of the detective (the melancholic Inspector Conde) needing to deal with the political intrigues of Communist Cuba.Set in Havana the story takes for granted the corruption, control and massive disparities in wealth that make up the country, as Conde battles to find the truth about the comrade hero who may not be all he appeared to be. In Carofiglio's The Past is a Foreign Country (which I read shortly before this) there was a character who "liked to swear.