|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Charlie Hillier is a lowly bureaucrat in Ottawa's Department of Foreign Affairs. After being cuckolded by a Swedish diplomat he calls the Swedish Meatball, Charlie flees to his first foreign posting in, of all places, Havana. How unsuited for this posting he is, we quickly find out.
Charlie's job as Management Consular Officer (MCO) requires him to help Canadians who have somehow gotten themselves in trouble in Cuba. But before he can get started, he finds a stash of white powder in his official residence, and somehow manages to dump it accidentally in the residence's fancy swimming pool. Charlie is clearly a klutz but his next move defines him as a fool as well. The Cubans are death on drugs, and so Charlie decides to tell no one about what he has found and what he has done with his findings.
Back at work the very next day, Charlie finds himself inside a Cuban prison visiting a real estate developer who has been languishing there accused of bribery. Of course bribery is another serious crime in Cuba, but nothing can be accomplished without it. So poor Mr. Martin, who has run his hotel in Havana for ten years, has suddenly been imprisoned. And there really isn't much Charlie can do officially.
Next Charlie hears of the kidnapping and later murder of a beautiful Indian diplomat. And this is just the beginning. So far, this novel is pretty depressing, in what appears to be a police state, with an inept protagonist who is literally paralyzed by fear.
And it is not a fast-paced story. But slowly, as the novel progresses, old Charlie begins to "man up." Not that he tells anyone about the drugs or the mysterious visitors he keeps receiving late in the evening looking for "Javier," whoever that is. But he is making progress with the ambassador's pet project of a new Canadian embassy in Havana. He manages to develop a relationship with a beautiful Canadian lawyer who is on a mission in Havana.
Eventually he does unravel the mystery and the murder, even taking down the criminals in the process, accidentally of course. And he gets Mr. Martin out of prison to boot.
There is a kind of wry humour to ESCAPE TO HAVANA, as the bumbling protagonist succeeds and in the process becomes the hero of his own story. ESCAPE TO HAVANA is the first in this new series by Nick Wilkshire. Upcoming is MOSCOW CODE, the second, where Charlie once again finds himself in a country where the civilized Canadian legal system is but a distant dream and he must take courageous steps to save himself and those he is expected to protect. I look forward to following Charlie's adventures.
§ Susan Hoover is a playwright, independent producer and retired college English teacher. She lives in Nova Scotia.
Reviewed by Susan Hoover, November 2016
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
