Red Angel: A Novel (Paul Devlin Mysteries)

Rating:
Summary: RED ANGEL - Frantic off color search for a missing saint
Review: New York City cop Paul Devlin takes his instincts on a vacation to Cuba in search for the truth about his girlfriend's missing aunt, the so-called Red Angel and hero of Castro's epic revolution. Physician Adrianna Mendez helped Castro into power decades ago, and has since dedicated her life to the welfare and health of the needy and underprivileged. Now she is said to be dead, with her body stolen and missing.

In a land of religious voodoo and secret police, Devlin's detective skills are foreign for a country that seems to be in a mercurial state of chaos and poverty. He's not sure whether the local cops are good guys or bad guys. And he needs a score card to figure out what the nine different law enforcement agencies have jurisdiction over. In a state of utter confusion, he enlists his in-your-face partner and sidekick, Ollie Pitts, to come to the red nation to help make sense out of this and the evolving and bizarre clues surrounding the missing aunt and Cuban hero. New York's finest soon learn that witch craft and human sacrifice are a religious way of life for many in Cuba.

Devlin is use to the standard fare of chasing the bad guys around in the Big Apple. But it seems the opposite is happening in Cuba while he, tough-guy Pitts and the local police hunt for the missing Red Angel. But why are the Americans themselves being hunted on the island? The quid quo pro chase makes for a constant nerve-racking suspense. And with religion and other belief systems in constant play, it seems that anything is possible. All the possibilities surrounding the missing Red Angel are sorted out with a clever, intriguing and satisfying close to this continuing Paul Devlin mystery series novel.

Rating:
Summary: RED ANGEL - Frantic off color search for a missing saint
Review: New York City cop Paul Devlin takes his instincts on a vacation to Cuba in search for the truth about his girlfriend's missing aunt, the so-called Red Angel and hero of Castro's epic revolution. Physician Adrianna Mendez helped Castro into power decades ago, and has since dedicated her life to the welfare and health of the needy and underprivileged. Now she is said to be dead, with her body stolen and missing.

In a land of religious voodoo and secret police, Devlin's detective skills are foreign for a country that seems to be in a mercurial state of chaos and poverty. He's not sure whether the local cops are good guys or bad guys. And he needs a score card to figure out what the nine different law enforcement agencies have jurisdiction over. In a state of utter confusion, he enlists his in-your-face partner and sidekick, Ollie Pitts, to come to the red nation to help make sense out of this and the evolving and bizarre clues surrounding the missing aunt and Cuban hero. New York's finest soon learn that witch craft and human sacrifice are a religious way of life for many in Cuba.

Devlin is use to the standard fare of chasing the bad guys around in the Big Apple. But it seems the opposite is happening in Cuba while he, tough-guy Pitts and the local police hunt for the missing Red Angel. But why are the Americans themselves being hunted on the island? The quid quo pro chase makes for a constant nerve-racking suspense. And with religion and other belief systems in constant play, it seems that anything is possible. All the possibilities surrounding the missing Red Angel are sorted out with a clever, intriguing and satisfying close to this continuing Paul Devlin mystery series novel.

Rating:
Summary: Quite Entertaining with Skillful Plotting...
Review: New York Police Detective Paul Devlin is back and in the midst of a Mafia showdown when he shifts gears and heads to Cuba with his girlfriend, Adrianna, after she learns that her aunt is dead and her body is missing. When they arrive in Cuba they are met by an overly attentive policeman named Martinez. He proceeds to tell them that Adrianna's (Devlin's girlfriend) aunt was a healer, staunch Castro ally and revolutionary war heroine that the Cuban people worshipped and nicknamed the "Red Angel". He also believes that her body may have been stolen by a mysterious religious sect known as the Abakua to use as part of their voodoo rituals.

When the threesome set out to find the Red Angel's body, they confront the sinister head of the Cuban secret police, Colonel Cabrera, who says he wants to help, but is actually in cohoots with the Mafia henchmen that Devlin has been dealing with in New York.

So much for the beginning...the plot only thickens from this point on. There are so many twists, turns, political innuendos, and black magic to absorb in this book that you're guaranteed to lose some sleep, if not from the action, then certainly from trying to keep up with who's who and what's what.

Overall this was a very entertaining read. Although it does get bogged down with details in several spots, I made it to the end quite satisfied.

I would rate this 3 and 1/2 stars. The characters lack some depth, the explanations were a bit too long in spots, but Heffernan is a very smart writer who handles a ton of information and a very eager audience quite deftly.

Rating:
Summary: Voodoo and intrigue in Cuba and New York
Review: Police Detective Paul Devlin goes with his girlfriend to Cuba when her Aunt was involved in an auto 'accident.' When they arrive, they discover that the Aunt was actually a government leader and that her body has been stolen, almost certainly to play a role in Voodoo rites. Bringing in the annoying Ollie Pitts (Devlin's sidekick), they investigate.

In Cuba, they are assisted by police Major Martinez--who seems to be more helpful than they can explain and may just be pursuing his own agenda--and have to battle Cuban Voodoo cultists, the Secret Police, and the Mafia which is attempting to re-create its old dominance of the Cuban economy.

Heffernan writes a fast-paced story with enough plot twists to keep the pages turning. His characters and dialogue, unfortunately, are not up to the same standard and occasionally might even be termed clunky. Still, the book is a good solid read.

Rating:
Summary: Possibly Heffernan's Worst
Review: This book works as a travelogue; as a police/detective thriller novel it is poor. Readers are asked to believe that detective hero Devlin would accompany his paramour to Cuba, placing her, his friend, and himself in mortal danger - in order to seek out the dismembered corpse of his lover's aunt and give the body a "proper burial." Poor character definition, poor plot, and a lot of mumbo-jumbo history of Cuban voodoo. Writers get a tax exemption for travel, which is why we see a lot of novels set in foreign locales. Most of them work as tax exemptions and most of them don't as novels. This is a prime example.