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Lupe Solano #5
Havana Heat: A Lupe Solano Mystery
Miami P.I. Lupe Solano overhears a conversation and finds herself drawn into a hunt for a legendary masterpiece, the eighth Unicorn Tapestry, a piece of art that someone is willing to kill for.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2000
About the author
Carolina Garcia-Aguilera
15 books53 followersCarolina Garcia-Aguilera (born 1949) is a Cuban-born American writer. She has written a series of mystery stories, and two novels.
She was born in Havana, Cuba in July 1949. In 1960, she emigrated to the United States, living in Palm Beach, Florida, and then New York City. She graduated from college, with degrees in history and political science, a master's in language and linguistics, and an MBA in finance. She is currently working on a PhD in Latin American affairs.
She lives in Miami Beach, Florida, and is married (twice) with 3 daughters. In order to get realistic information for her mystery books, she became a licensed private investigator in Florida, and started a successful business in the field.
She has written a series of mystery books, featuring a female Cuban-American private investigator in Miami named Lupe (Guadalupe) Solano. The series is celebrated for its rich and detailed coverage of the Cuban American, Catholic, exile community in Florida, their history, and the differences and conflicts between the generations regarding Cuba and Fidel Castro. Her most recent books were two novels. She has not published any books since 2003.
Series:
* Lupe Solano Mystery
She was born in Havana, Cuba in July 1949. In 1960, she emigrated to the United States, living in Palm Beach, Florida, and then New York City. She graduated from college, with degrees in history and political science, a master's in language and linguistics, and an MBA in finance. She is currently working on a PhD in Latin American affairs.
She lives in Miami Beach, Florida, and is married (twice) with 3 daughters. In order to get realistic information for her mystery books, she became a licensed private investigator in Florida, and started a successful business in the field.
She has written a series of mystery books, featuring a female Cuban-American private investigator in Miami named Lupe (Guadalupe) Solano. The series is celebrated for its rich and detailed coverage of the Cuban American, Catholic, exile community in Florida, their history, and the differences and conflicts between the generations regarding Cuba and Fidel Castro. Her most recent books were two novels. She has not published any books since 2003.
Series:
* Lupe Solano Mystery
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 8, 2013
This is the fifth book of this series starring Lupe Solano, the daughter of a prominent Cuban-American family. She is a private investigator with a dependable network to assist her with her investigations. She is not your typical femal, but uses her feminism when it will help her in her investigations. She is commissioned to retrieve a valuable piece of artwork, that is valuable especially in the Cuban element. Murders and leads to it's whereabouts drive her to consider an unauthroized trip to Cuba, which is extremely dangerous and against the law. The characters and plot is well thought out and very plausible. Her assistant, cousin, is an annoying character that never seems to mature.
October 27, 2020
This is the fifth novel that Cuban-American Miami private eye Carolina Garcia-Aguilera has written about Cuban-American Miami private eye Lupe Solano, and I can see why it won the 2001 Shamus Award for best PI novel. Lupe, as always, makes for a winning narrator, and the story takes some interesting twists and turns before we get to the slam-bang conclusion.
This one begins with an odd declaration from Lupe: "I should have been born a man. I think like one, I act like one, I live my life like one. As a private investigator for the last eight years, I’ve worked in a field dominated by men. The men I’ve worked with, as well as the men I’ve been involved with, have always tried to ascertain who is the real Lupe Solano. Eventually they all discover that I have two sides: a gentle, feminine veneer that I display when I need to, and the ruthless heart and soul of a man underneath."
To survive this case, Lupe has to use her brains and her ruthlessness to outwit and outfight several men and one rather avaricious woman -- her client. She's a wealthy Cuban society matron who is desperate to get back a medieval tapestry that her family owned in Havana, and which has been hidden in a secret spot in their former home ever since Castro took over. Lupe has had some success of late in returning confiscated Cuban art to its rightful owners, and so her client hires her to figure out how to go to Cuba and bring the tapestry back. Meanwhile, though, she gets roped into two other cases involving Cuban art -- one involving a pair of shady art dealers and the other involving a third art dealer who's disappeared.
To my delight, Garcia-Aguilera brings back one of her best characters, last seen in the first Lupe Solano mystery, a tough female sailor named Barbara who stalks the waterfront toting a machete strapped to her leg, puffing on a big cigar. She winds up bonding with a second Cuban woman, an artist, to catch the killer at the end.
As usual, Garcia-Aguilera's got the details down on how a real PI would work a case, which is part of the joy of reading these books. Add to that her descriptions of Miami (especially notoriously corrupt Hialeah) and of Lupe's delight in sensual pleasures such as eating and sex with a familiar lover, and you've got a formula for a compelling and memorable read.
I am eager to see what happens to Lupe in the sixth and seventh books, and disappointed in only one thing -- the knowledge that the seventh one is the end of the series.
This one begins with an odd declaration from Lupe: "I should have been born a man. I think like one, I act like one, I live my life like one. As a private investigator for the last eight years, I’ve worked in a field dominated by men. The men I’ve worked with, as well as the men I’ve been involved with, have always tried to ascertain who is the real Lupe Solano. Eventually they all discover that I have two sides: a gentle, feminine veneer that I display when I need to, and the ruthless heart and soul of a man underneath."
To survive this case, Lupe has to use her brains and her ruthlessness to outwit and outfight several men and one rather avaricious woman -- her client. She's a wealthy Cuban society matron who is desperate to get back a medieval tapestry that her family owned in Havana, and which has been hidden in a secret spot in their former home ever since Castro took over. Lupe has had some success of late in returning confiscated Cuban art to its rightful owners, and so her client hires her to figure out how to go to Cuba and bring the tapestry back. Meanwhile, though, she gets roped into two other cases involving Cuban art -- one involving a pair of shady art dealers and the other involving a third art dealer who's disappeared.
To my delight, Garcia-Aguilera brings back one of her best characters, last seen in the first Lupe Solano mystery, a tough female sailor named Barbara who stalks the waterfront toting a machete strapped to her leg, puffing on a big cigar. She winds up bonding with a second Cuban woman, an artist, to catch the killer at the end.
As usual, Garcia-Aguilera's got the details down on how a real PI would work a case, which is part of the joy of reading these books. Add to that her descriptions of Miami (especially notoriously corrupt Hialeah) and of Lupe's delight in sensual pleasures such as eating and sex with a familiar lover, and you've got a formula for a compelling and memorable read.
I am eager to see what happens to Lupe in the sixth and seventh books, and disappointed in only one thing -- the knowledge that the seventh one is the end of the series.
April 4, 2022
I don’t normally read or care about art mysteries. Steal it all; sell it all on some black market; I’m too busy shrugging to care. I fear, had I looked hard at the plot before I started reading, that I would have deleted this unread. While it’s not the most dazzling book I’ve read all year, I enjoyed it.
A woman approaches Private Investigator Lupe Solano, a Cuban-American woman living in Miami. There is a tapestry allegedly willed to the woman’s family by none other than Christopher Columbus, and she wants the tapestry smuggled out. Lupe ventured to Havana in a previous book, and in this one, she goes back to get the tapestry. But others in the Cuban-American community want her to smuggle out original Cuban artist paintings. A woman left in Havana when the rest of her family came to the U.S. has faithfully copied the original Cuban masters, and she has systematically surreptitiously replaced the originals in the homes of high government leaders with the copies. She has secreted the masters away hoping to get them to the United States and back into the hands of their rightful owners.
The climax of the book is highly suspenseful. You will lean into this as the suspense builds, even if you’re reading it at 2 a.m. The scenes of Lupe digging up a floor in a basement while the family who lives in the apartment draw ever closer to returning to it are memorable indeed.
A woman approaches Private Investigator Lupe Solano, a Cuban-American woman living in Miami. There is a tapestry allegedly willed to the woman’s family by none other than Christopher Columbus, and she wants the tapestry smuggled out. Lupe ventured to Havana in a previous book, and in this one, she goes back to get the tapestry. But others in the Cuban-American community want her to smuggle out original Cuban artist paintings. A woman left in Havana when the rest of her family came to the U.S. has faithfully copied the original Cuban masters, and she has systematically surreptitiously replaced the originals in the homes of high government leaders with the copies. She has secreted the masters away hoping to get them to the United States and back into the hands of their rightful owners.
The climax of the book is highly suspenseful. You will lean into this as the suspense builds, even if you’re reading it at 2 a.m. The scenes of Lupe digging up a floor in a basement while the family who lives in the apartment draw ever closer to returning to it are memorable indeed.
Want to Read
October 24, 2018Synopsis: Lupe contemplates an undercover excursion to Havana to locate a painting. Then two murders happen. Are they related to her art mission?
November 11, 2024
Interesting for the information on Cuban art and art theft. Different viewpoint than the usual PI novels.
November 5, 2008
I got a copy of this for free, and it wasn't very good. It struck me as being poorly written, and kind of dumb. I finished it just to see what reading a really bad book was like, if that makes any sense. I've read plenty of books I didn't like for one reason or another, but few have struck me as being so poorly executed. However, it was reasonably fun and I was able to finish it, and I can't say that for every book I've ever started.
February 17, 2008
Recommended by Jack! Not my type of book, but I was desperate: we were on vacation in Spain and I needed another book to read! This is basically a macho-male detective story in women's clothing....you know, the "young, beautiful, sexy Cuban female detective who can out-drink and out-eat any man and never gain an ounce and never needs to sleep, and always finds the bad guys" kind of lightweight drivel.... Can you tell I really disliked it?!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2010
I enjoyed the book. Was it the best book ever written? No. But I love the fact that I learn so much about the Cuban culture in Miami. And in this book, I also learned some things about Cuba. Good story.
June 23, 2012
Carolina Garcia-Aguilera won a Shamus for this novel.
April 4, 2016
I love this author, I love this character, I love these mysteries. Just plain fun, and reading it while in Miami is just THE BEST!!!! Go Lupe Solano!
Read
February 23, 2018Great read! Author is of Cuban descent, writing about a Cuban-American female Private Investigator. Her writing style and story telling is much like Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky, and J.A. Janice. I’m looking forward to reading all her other books.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews