Decent People, by Leonardo Padura

More than 20 years have passed since the first disillusioned Mario Conde in the world that was presented to us in «Past Perfect». This is the good thing about paper heroes, they can always rise from their ashes to the delight of those of us who let ourselves be carried away by their more or less mundane paths. They no longer need to be heroes, just survivors from the less friendly side of the world. That is precisely the fate of Mario Conde de Leonard Padura.

Havana, 2016. A historic event shakes Cuba: the visit of Barack Obama in what has been called the "Cuban Thaw" ―the first official visit of a US president since 1928―, accompanied by events such as a Rolling Stones concert and a Chanel fashion show turn the rhythm of the island upside down.

For this reason, when a former leader of the Cuban government is found murdered in his apartment, the police, overwhelmed by the presidential visit, turn to Mario Conde to lend a hand in the investigation. Count will discover that the dead man had many enemies, because in the past he had acted as a censor so that the artists did not deviate from the slogans of the Revolution, and that he had been a despotic and cruel man who had ended the careers of many artists who they had not wanted to bow to his extortions. When a second body is found, killed by the same method a few days later, Conde must find out if the two deaths are related and what is behind these murders.

Added to that plot is a story written by the protagonist, set a century earlier, when Havana was the Nice of the Caribbean and people lived thinking about the imminent change that Halley's Comet would produce. A murder case of two women in Old Havana uncovers the open fight between a powerful man, Alberto Yarini, refined and from a good family, kingpin of gambling and prostitution businesses, and his rival Lotot, a Frenchman, who disputes the preeminence. The development of these historical events will be connected to the history of the present in a way that not even Mario Conde suspects.

Decent People, by Leonardo Padura
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