Synopses & Reviews
War in Cuba isn't Ben Tyler's concern. Still, sailing mares and guns into Havana harbor in 1898 right past the submerged wreckage of the U.S. battleship Maine may not be the smartest thing the recently prison-sprung horse wrangler ever did. Neither is shooting one of the local Guardia, though the pompous peacock deserved it. Now Tyler's sitting tight in a vermin-infested Cuban stockade waiting to face a firing squad. But he's not dying until he gets the money he's owed from a two-timing American sugar baron. And there's one smart, pistol-hot lady at the rich man's side who could help Ben get everything he's got rightfully coming...even when the whole damn island's going straight to hell.
Review
"[R]ollicking....Top entertainment from the pro's pro: a million greedy schemes with time-outs for war and sex." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Leonard flashes less of his throwaway humor here than usual, but he clearly has great sympathy for almost all his characters...and readers will, too. This is the kind of book they will race through and then want to immediately re-read, slowly." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Leonard fans may be surprised by the locale and time frame of this novel...but they won't be disappointed. His spare, precise descriptions and masterful comic touches still grace each page. (Grade: A-)" Entertainment Weekly
Review
"[A] wonderful historical novel....Happy to have read such a fine story, one comes away curious to know more about the period and its events. Highly recommended." Library Journal
Synopsis
This rip-roaring jaunt into history sizzles with the passion of lovers, the violence of nations, and the wild courage of freedom fighters crying out to their firing squads: "Viva Cuba Libre!"
Synopsis
“A wild ride through Cuba during the Spanish-American War.”
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Miami Herald“Not only his finest novel but one that transcends the limits of its genre and is worthy of being evaluated as literary fiction.”
—Houston Chronicle
Before Grand Master Elmore Leonard earned his well-deserved reputation as “the best writer of crime fiction alive” (Newsweek), he penned some of the finest western fiction to ever appear in print. (The classics Hombre, Valdez is Coming, and 3:10 to Yuma were just a few of his notable works.) With his extraordinary Cuba Libre, Leonard ingeniously combines all of his many talents and delivers a historical adventure/caper/western/noir like none other. The creator of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, star of Raylan, Pronto, Riding the Rap, and TVs Justified, spins a gloriously exciting yarn about an American horse wrangler who escapes a date with a Cuban firing squad to join forces with a powerful sugar barons lady looking to make waves and score big in and around Spanish-American War-torn Havana in 1898. Everything you love about Leonards fiction—and more—is evident in Cuba Libre. No wonder the New York Times Book Review enthusiastically declared him “a literary genius.”
About the Author
Elmore Leonard has written more than three dozen books including Cuba Libre, Rum Punch, and Get Shorty, and numerous screenplays. He has an unparalleled reputation among lovers of mayhem, suspense, and just plain wonderful writing. A Grand Master Award winner of the Mystery Writers of America, he has been likened to everyone from Balzac to Dostoevsky to Dickens to Dashiell Hammett but he is, in fact, entirely and entertainingly sui generis. He lives in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.