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Havana: A Swagger Family Novel
Havana: A Swagger Family Novel
Havana: A Swagger Family Novel
Audiobook13 hours

Havana: A Swagger Family Novel

Written by Stephen Hunter

Narrated by William Dufris

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

High summer in Cuba, 1953, and Havana gleams with possibility. Flush with booming casinos, sex and drugs, Havana is a lucrative paradise for everyone from the Mafia, Domino Sugar, and United Fruit to pimps, porn-makers, and anyone looking to grab a piece of the action—including the Cuban government, which naturally honors the interests of its old ally, Uncle Sam.

Of course, where there's paradise, trouble can't be far behind. Trouble, in this case, makes its entrance in the terrifically charismatic and silver-tongued form of a young revolutionary named Fidel Castro. The Caribbean is fast becoming a strategic Cold War hub, and Soviet intelligence has taken Castro under its wing. The CIA's response is to send the one man capable of eliminating Castro: the legendary gunfighter and ex-Marine hero Earl Swagger, who proved his lethal talent in the national bestsellers Hot Springs and Pale Horse Coming.

In Cuba, Earl finds himself up to his neck in treacherous ambiguity where the old rules about honor and duty don't apply, and where Earl's target seems to have more guts and good luck than anyone else in Cuba.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 16, 2017
ISBN9781543611526
Havana: A Swagger Family Novel
Author

Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter is the author of twenty novels and the retired chief film critic for the Washington Post, where he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism. His novels include The Third Bullet, Sniper's Honor, I, Sniper, I, Ripper, and Point of Impact, which was adapted for film and TV as Shooter. Hunter lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Reviews for Havana

Rating: 3.573033659550562 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

89 ratings9 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Awesome historical fiction of a fascinating era and fantastic people
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Earl Swagger is Bob Lee's father, He is an Arkansas state trooper and an ex- Marine hero and winner of the Medal Of Honor. Earl has been recruited by the CIA and has gone to Cuba in 1953. His job -- kill Fidel Castro. There are many people in Cuba interested in Castro. The Batista government, of course, Meyer Lansky and the mob, the CIA, and Russian intelligence. Castro is pictured as a naive, romantic, revolutionary who needs to be hardened. A Russian agent, who has been released from the Gulag is the man who will toughen up Castro.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Enjoyed it in parts, got bored in others. Definitely not as good as the first two in the series.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    In Havana, Earl Swagger has been given the task by the US government to accompany a corrupt American politician as his bodyguard as he investigates criminal activity in Cuba. The politician goes about taking part in all of Havana’s illegal activities instead of trying to stop it. One of the characters in this book is Meyer Lansky, who is running Mafia led activities in Cuba. Swagger gets involved in a plot to kill a young Fidel Castro, who is threatening American interests in the country.Just about every aspect of this novel is completely preposterous. It’s hard to even take the book seriously. The story line is far-fetched. The characters are poorly drawn. The writing is subpar. There was nothing about this novel that I liked. I would highly recommend avoiding it like the plague.Carl Alves – author of Blood Street
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Cliches and stereotypes mingle, clash and erupt in several bloody massacres. Still, a lively tale set in Havana in the fifties and Caso's early days.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An Earl Swager historical novel on 1950s Havana Cuba and the early days of Fidel Castro. The research done on this period is very good and the characters were believable. Was this the true charaterastion of Cuba then? I believe so. the plot was very good and and the story line was exciting and intersesting.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I had bought this audio book because I wanted to learn something about Cuba and I wanted to explore some new mystery series, try out Stephen Hunter, the author, and Earl Swagger, the character. After I got into it, I really liked it. Some reviewers are complaining about the characters being caricatures, but I think that was the point, as in Carl Hiassen's Florida caricatures, I mean, characters. I enjoyed the humor, and of course, I liked Earl, the man of integrity in a setting where there sure wasn't much of that. The best of all was the Russian Agent -- a marvelous character! Every time he appears, the book shines. Learning about Cuba, not so much.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not a bad read, but he made caricatures of the main characters. The hero, Earl Swagger, was such a hero - good, faithful, loyal. The bad guys were so vile, dumb & almost comical, in some cases. It was just over the top. The basic story was kind of interesting; Cuba before Castro took over. At the end of the book are two short articles that Hunter did after researching the area for his book. For those fans of Bob Lee, we find out why he learned to shoot so well. If you haven't read any other books, Bob Lee Swagger, Earl's son, is the hero in several others, one of the best snipers in the world. I really liked a couple of these books.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Set in Cuba at the time of Castro and the reviolution. Well-written, exciting and imaginative.