THE CUBAN AFFAIR

Starting in pre-Irma Key West, De Mille kicks off a new story line with a new character. So good while making it look so easy.

Once again Nelson Demille shows us his mastery of the fast moving, clever thriller.
In a way this book harks back to the old fashioned caper, but goes much deeper in terms of history and modern politics.
Cuba’s exiles and in some cases their descendants have neither forgiven nor forgotten the Castro brothers and the crimes they committed against most of Cuban society. Heartbreak and memory run deep as does a desire for vengeance and reparations.
As this novel is set in the beginning days of the Cuban Thaw, there are just as many if not more Cuban-Americans who are against this idea as those who are for it. Some will do most anything to derail it. Cuban-Americans, politicians, business, and of course the CIA who have yet to have a win in Cuba. All have their own agendas concerning Cuba.
Three Cuban –Americans make an offer he can’t refuse to Daniel McCormick, an army vet still carrying the scars from his times in Afghanistan. He currently runs fishing charters out of Key West on his heavily mortgaged boat.
It’s not that he can’t really refuse this offer to enter than leave Cuba carrying 60 million dollars and documents worth many times that amount; it's just that with an offer of two million on the table and a beautiful woman to accompany him, Mac doesn’t really want to. Mac also hankers after the days of danger and what he might not admit to: making a difference. Little does he know that his trip to Cuba with the beautiful Sara Ortega does make a difference and will honor his background.
It reads as if DeMille did more than visit Cuba and do research, he writes with an assurance of Cuba and her people that make it sound as if he were a citizen. Cuba’s beauty, her decay, her resilient citizens are all rendered in DemiIle’s masterful prose. But not forgotten and even more striking are his reminders of Cuba’s dark history under the Castro brothers’ iron fists.
DeMille hits another home run with this moving yet exciting story. Mac, has Demille’s characters’ signature smart-ass attitude to life, the Universe and everything. The back stories of the characters are sympathetic and make their actions understandable. The action is fast paced. The last quarter of the book will have you hoping you only ever swim or fish in lovely blue waters with nary a storm in sight.