Synopses & Reviews
Thomas Sanchez, the author of the Key West novel
Mile Zero, returns to the tropics with
King Bongo, a fevered dream of dangerous desires and political treachery amid the glamour, intrigue and corruption of 1950s Havana.
On New Years Eve 1957, a terrorist bomb rips through Havanas famous Tropicana nightclub. King Bongo, a rogue Cuban American, tortured by a mysterious past and possessed of a mythic musical talent, goes on the hunt for the culprits, and for his sister, known as the Panther, Cubas most exotic showgirl, who disappeared in the explosion.
Navigating Havanas maze of colonial backstreets, red-light districts, Chinatown alleys, swank country clubs and opulent casinos, Bongo becomes ensnared by other complicated and outrageous lives American hit men plotting a political assassination, decadent movie stars trolling with their bait of teenage mistresses, prophetic shoeshine boys and hotel maids willing to sacrifice their lives for the right social cause; a beautiful American socialite weaving a web of erotic intrigue and, more dangerously, by Humberto Zapata, a sinister Machiavellian secret police operative, with whom Bongo will have a final explosive showdown.
Thomas Sanchez reimagines a world of lush sensuality where Cuban and American cultures collide in a riveting novel of graphic power.