Cuban Rummy

The 4th Jonas Forbes Thriller
This is set in 1957 Cuba. Three UK diplomats have gone missing and the Foreign Office hire Jonas Forbes, ‘’Enquiry Agent’, to find out what’s happened. He quickly finds Cuba is a very troubled place: on one side is the corrupt regime of Batista with links to the American Mafia; on the other side are the Marxist rebels under Fidel Castro but still largely confined to the mountains. Either side might find UK diplomats an ‘inconvenience’ at times perhaps – but there are also other threats hidden away among a volatile populace, with growing alarm at a number of child-murders. Excessive wealth and abject poverty exist almost side by side and provide a challenge to an Englishman who soon feels out of his depth.
Jonas rapidly finds himself suspected (if not disliked) by both the regime and its enemies. It takes some time for him to realise he’s the target for spying from both government and rebels. He seeks comfort in female company but even that can get out of control. An enforced stay in the mountains with Che Guevara doesn’t help his prospects of getting home safely, and even then he still hasn’t a clue as to who is responsible for the disappearances. Once again staff in embassies, prone to unwelcome influence from London and Washington, prove uncooperative in his search for the truth.
This thriller set in a society about to be turned upside-down employs historical research to help present a dramatic story.