“This is a novel that really impresses me, especially since it allows a look at what is happening today in Cuba and in other Latin American societies on the terrain of social marginality”.
Eduardo Antonio Parra, Mexican writer
The only finalist in Latin America for the Distel Verlag Internacional Prize 1998, with this work the author inaugurates a series of detective novels that has converted him in a short time into one of the most distinguished voices of what is known internationally as the Latin American Neo-Detective genre. In order to rummage around on the outer edges of Cuban society, Alex Varga, a black man (a kind of unofficial mayor for the marginal neighborhoods of Havana), and Police Lieutenant Alain Bec form an enriching relationship that allows them disquieting plunges into crime as a means of survival in present-day Cuban society, even for the non-delinquent population. In this first novel, these two characters solve a horrifying case of child prostitution.
This novel was selected by the Spanish critics as one of the two most powerful crime novels published in Spain in 2001.
Editorial Malamba, Spain, 2001
Narrativa Cubana Collection
212 pages
ISBN: 84-931670-2-9
Editorial Plaza Mayor, Puerto Rico, 2002
Cultura Cubana Collection
198 pages
ISBN: 1-56328-202-X
Edition Köln, Alemania, 2005
Collection: Krimi & Co.
180 pages
ISBN: 3-936791-21-X