Escape to Havana

October 24, 2016
The first in a new series from Wilkshire (Thin Ice) is a highly entertaining, fast-paced mystery featuring middle-aged
diplomat and amateur sleuth Charlie Hillier. Charlie has spent 15 years pushing paper in the Ottawa headquarters of the Canadian Foreign Affairs department, but when a humiliating scandal disrupts his quiet life, he’s desperate for an overseas assignment—anywhere as long as it’s far from Ottawa and his ex-wife. Despite his rudimentary Spanish and his lack of experience in foreign climes, he is posted to Havana. Coming to grips with the food, the manners, and the nightlife is enough of a challenge for Charlie, but soon after his arrival, odd things start happening: attractive women turn up at the door of his government-assigned house looking to party, he finds a package of drugs hidden under his bedroom floor, and his house is burglarized. Before long, the intrigue escalates to kidnapping, bribery, and murder. Alongside the action, readers will enjoy seeing Charlie reinvent himself, finding resources and a sense of adventure that he had forgotten. Wilkshire makes good use of Cuba’s vivid local color, and readers can look forward to a promised next posting for Charlie in Moscow.

October 1, 2016
Wilkshire (Thin Ice, 2014, etc.) kicks off a new series by packing middle-aged pencil-pusher Charlie Hillier off to Havana as the Canadian Embassys new Management Consular Officer.Charlie, whos worked for the Foreign Affairs department for many years without ever leaving his ailing mother-in-law in Ottawa, is abruptly relieved of this responsibility by adultery (not his) and divorce. Hes ready to go somewhereanywheredifferent, and, as he realizes soon after a friend arranges for him to join the Cuban legation, everything in Cuba was different. How different? His new office is a serious comedown; the electricity doesnt work in his spacious houses basement; no official task is too routine to be delayed or torpedoed; Tate Martin, the hotelier whose case he takes up, has been jailed for bribery when his real crime is offering an insufficient bribe; and, oh yes, an impromptu excavation beneath the floorboards of Charlies new place discloses what certainly looks like a kilo of cocaineat least in the brief interval Charlie has a chance to look it over before he accidentally drops it into his swimming pool. Although Charlie remains invincibly nave, savvy readers will know that this last episode is bound to have consequences beyond possibly sickening Teddy, the golden Labrador hes babysitting for his boss, Michael Stewart, the absent ambassadorand that those consequences are very likely to be linked to another incident that disturbs Charlies generally placid new life, the abduction and murder of Indian consular official Amirjit Saini. A bit of romance, a bit of gentle humor, several bits of official corruption and drug-related violence, and a chance for the mild-mannered hero to rise to an impossible challenge. It doesnt hold together any better than this summary suggests, but individual bites are tasty enough.

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October 1, 2016
Typically, mystery authors build a frame story around the crime plot, which dominates the narrative. Wilkshire goes a different way; his crime story sneaks in around the fringes of a novel devoted to other matters. Charlie Hillier thought he was doing fine as a functionary in the Canadian government, but then he opened the wrong door and found his wife wrapped in the arms of a trade attache. A colleague helps him land a posting in Havana's Canadian embassy, offering escape from humiliation, and the reader settles in to learn about Charlie's life. Charlie babysits his boss' dog. He endures staff meetings. He negotiates with contractors about the new embassy building. Spicy stuff happens, too, like cocaine under floorboards and steamy sex with mysterious women, but it's repairing a light switch that really claims his attention. Readers who stay the course, whether drawn by curiosity or Wilkshire's masterful prose and sly humor, will get their reward. It's all been buildup for a rousing ending. Still, we wish he hadn't made us sit through those meetings, but we're glad he fixed that light switch.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)