From Publishers Weekly "Cuba seems to have the same effect on American administrations that the full moon used to have on werewolves." Such sharp observations lift the pseudonymous Blackthorn's taut and moody debut, in which a long-buried leftover from the Cuban missile crisis threatens the 40th anniversary of Castro's revolution, to a high level. The sons of a legendary CIA agent and a bitter Russian general stand at the heart of this gripping post-Cold War thriller. The Russian son, Viktor Isakov, is selling two tactical nuclear weapons (hidden in Cuba by his father in 1962) to a Cuban exile group called Bravo 99, which plans to blow up Castro, and most of Havana, during its January 1, 1999, anniversary celebration. The American son, a 36-year-old professor named McLemore, is in Cuba to research what really went on during the missile crisis. Despite his family history (his father was shot as a spy while the crisis was at its height), McLemore considers himself above politics. But in Blackthorn's Cuba, everything is political?which is why, when McLemore discovers the existence of the hidden nukes, and both the CIA and the Cuban Security Police want to enlist his help in stopping the Bravo group, he has an irrevocable choice to make. Blackthorn (a "world-renowned American political figure") writes in a terse, authoritative style, creating a strong sense of Cuba and its crucial place in the American political consciousness. His assured debut reads like the work of someone who's been perusing this terrain for years. Audio rights to Soundelux. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews Castro-haters plot to nuke Fidel in this less-than-explosive suspenser. They also plan to pulverize along with him hundreds of thousands of others, employing as their weapon a lost nuclear warhead left behind by the Russians in 1962. Self-styled Bravos, the terrorists are Cuban exiles fixated on revenge. The plan is to detonate the bomb in mid-Havana on January 1, 1999, the 40th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, and the fact that a good many of those blown to bits with Castro will be babies doesn't rate a Bravo eye blink. For a while, only one man stands in their way. The unlikely stopgap is an American historian named McLemore, in Cuba on a research grant. In a desultory way he's re-examining the Cuban missile crisis, hoping for an overlooked nugget to revive an academic career in decline. Enter the beautiful and enigmatic Trinidad. Ostensibly, she's a government guide. Actually, she's a highly placed member of Cuban intelligence. In ways ever available to the beautiful and enigmatic heroines of suspense fiction, she galvanizes McLemore, converting him from a burnt-out case to a live-wire. It's McLemore who works it out that the Bravos have latched onto the nuke. It's McLemore who locates the whereabouts of the missing warhead. And it's McLemore who manages to convince the CIA and Cuban intelligence that after years of double-crossing each other they have much to gain from playing it straight. When at length McLemore and Trinidad yield to their mutual passion, few readers will be surprised. Nor will they be taken unawares when in the last nanosecond of countdown, the good guys catch up with the bad guys and neutralize the nuke. Blackthorn, we're told, is the pseudonym for ``an internationally known political figure.'' And he does seem comfortable with his backgrounds. What he lacks is the savvy storyteller's abililty to invent people who can make the backgrounds come alive. --
