A Cuban spymaster plans an escape to Florida—but lethal complications await—in a suspenseful tale that’s “beautifully crafted from start to finish” (Library Journal, starred review).
Only ninety miles of open water separate Florida from Cuba, but after decades of Communist rule, the two tropical paradises couldn’t be more different. In Havana, spymaster Victoria Valiente, head of Cuban Intelligence’s vital Miami Desk, and her computer-expert husband are tired of their sacrifices. After planning a multimillion-dollar electronic heist, they try to pull the wool over the Chief’s eyes and escape to freedom—but first they have to elude a world of espionage as cutthroat as anything from the height of the Cold War.
As both governments draw out all the players—including a gardener with more abilities than just a green thumb, secret foreign operatives, the FBI, and an unsuspecting former English teacher—Victoria and her husband must try to survive in the dangerous zone between the neon streets of Miami and the crumbling facades of Havana . . .
“Victoria Valiente may well be one of the most fascinating characters to appear in a crime novel in my memory.” —The Baltimore Sun
“An exhilarating espionage tale.” —Financial Times
“A well-plotted, compelling tale of the infrastructure of spies, politics, and ordinary people . . . Latour takes the reader on an armchair trip from Miami neighborhood to the heart of Havana, delivering a cityscape that is as multilayered as his plot.” —Houston Chronicle