Most, if not all, of the books in Margaret Truman's Capital Crimes series take place in or near to Washington DC. MURDER IN HAVANA has ties to the city but takes place primarily in Cuba forty-some years after United States began its embargo of the country.

Max Pauling, who formerly worked for the CIA and the State Department, retired, moved to New Mexico, and became a flight instructor. He also accepted a contract to fly medical supplies to Cuba through a convoluted route to obscure any US involvement. Cuba's medical research and practice was quite advanced. In the book, the ability to cure cancer was quite close. Since the Soviet Union withdrew its support, financial backing became harder to secure. Foreign companies, such as one in Germany, were trying to take advantage of the research for their own financial gain. Fidel Castro seemed willing to become involved so he could benefit as well. There was suspicion that a United States group was also trying to get in on the action. One of the people involved was a former US senator. When Max went to deliver his next load of medical supplies, he was asked to investigate that connection.

In the process, he encountered many people some supposedly helping him others supposedly trying to stop him. Sometimes was hard to tell which side a person was on.

He was present in Castro's birthday party where someone pulled out a gun and tries to shoot Castro. Later another prominent person was murdered. Max is thought to be the killer and had to get the information he sought as well as leave the island.

MURDER IN HAVANA provides some descriptions of the country, the people, and the politics as well as the inner workings of some US government departments. The book is a quick read with relatively short chapters. There is some repetition and some extraneous narrative. It mentions that the embargo was the best thing that happened to Cuba because it provided a scapegoat Castro could use to explain the island's problems

There are a few of the word plays often found these books: "Pitura's feet might be a wreck, but he could still think on them." "All they could do was hope that the engine turned over and the plane didn't…"

A couple weeks ago I read that Donald Bain had died. The obituary is stated that he was Margaret Truman's ghostwriter for most of her books. He also wrote the few that came out after her death. ( )

It has been years since Max Pauling was an active secret agent, but sometimes he misses the drama. When a fellow former agent offers him a chance to do investigative work in Cuba, Max decides this is just the kind of break from retirement he needs. Although not anticipating danger, one of his sources is killed, and then he is assaulted. Max realizes that someone does not want him to uncover dangerous secrets of the isle bonita. ( )