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Rating: 
Summary: Cuban Conquers The Mystery
Review: An outstanding read - full of the twists and turns you expect in a world class mystery. The undercurrent of immigrant life - particularly Cuban immigrant life - is compelling and poignant. A real winner!
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Summary: A Havana-Miami thriller I could't put down
Review: Elliot Steil, a Cuban teacher managing to exist in contemporary Cuba, is suddenly confronted with forces that threaten his life. Author Jose Latour, a keen observer of the human condition, renders the bandaged passion of protagonist Elliot Steil as well as Martin Cruz Smith does his vulnerable but surprising Arkady.
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Summary: A surprisingly wonderful read
Review: Four-and-a-half stars would be more accurate. Not a perfect book, but a very good read. I've been to Cuba and read everyting I can find about it, especially novels set there. Latour reveals much of the miserable truth about life in dingy Havana in the course of this facinating page turner. The novel's hero, Elliot Steil, runs into a mysterious stranger in Cuba who pursuades him to head for Miami. A series of peculiar events in the United States leads him to uncover the chilling secrets of his family. He thinks through his dilemma with originality, cunning, and practicality so typical of intelligent Cubans who are forced to live by their wits in their beleaguered country. This glimpse inside the clever Cuban mind was the most fascinating part of the book for me. The worst flaw is revealing to the reader the identity of the killer by inference long before the hero gets it. Latour also lards in just a few too many complaints about the money-centric quality of life in the USA, but he may have had to do so in order to get published in Cuba. I look forward to Latour's next book and recommend it to crime readers and to those curious about the lives of Cubans who make the dangerous trip to the USA.
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Summary: A special suspense novel as well as a social commentary
Review: In his forties, Havana high school teacher Elliot Steil is not a Marxist maniac. Perhaps it is his American father who abandoned Elliot and his now deceased mother over forty years ago or just his love for the relics of pre-Castro Cuba. His lack of demonstrated enthusiasm for Communism has cost him promotions he deserves over less qualified people. Everything abruptly changes for Elliot when American Don Gastner visits him with a chance to escape to Key West. Don insists he is an old war buddy of Elliot's father who now feels guilty for forsaking his family. Although under suspicion because of Don's visit and his lineage, Elliot agrees to flee. Instead of taking him to America, Don leaves Elliot to die in the waters off Florida. Somehow surviving the ordeal, Elliot begins his own investigation into why someone went to so much trouble to have him killed.. OUTCAST is an exciting look at the dichotomy facing Cuban-Americans and Cubans still living on the island. Elliot is a superb lead character who has one foot on Cuba and one foot on Florida as he arches over one of the longest 90 miles in the world. The early members of the support cast such as his Cuban neighbors, Don, and the flashbacks to his parents and life just before the Revolution are great depictions, but the villains seem weak in comparison. Though some awkward translation (book was originally written in Spanish) leads to ineffective language usage, readers will fully relish a powerful look at the Cuban scenario within a well-written amateur sleuth tale. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: Decent Thriller, Great on Cuba
Review: One might easy lump Latour's gritty thriller in with the plethora of serviceable South Florida crime fiction on the shelves, but that would be overlooking its' value as a window into modern Cuban society. Set in 1994, the book starts with Elliot Steil, a Cuban English teacher and apathetic Marxist who ekes out a dreary existence in a Havana where food is scarce, and the state's omnipresence stifles expression. His life is thrown into turmoil when an American tourist shows up, claiming to be a friend of his long-vanished father, and offering to help him escape to America. However, in a stunning reversal, Elliot is left to die in the waters off Florida. Rescued by fellow Cuban rafters, he makes it to Miami, where he must learn a whole new way of living in the land of the almighty dollar. The book is at its' best in showing the unpleasant reality of life in modern Cuba (one completely absent from Daniel Chavarria's Cuban crime caper "Adios Muchachos"), and the bewilderment of a refugee adjusting to life in America. As Elliot gets his measure of America and manages to scrape some cash together, he starts to wonder who would try to kill him and why. His fairly straightforward investigation is broken up with lengthy flashbacks and backstory which are a little awkward, but not overly so. An engaging supporting cast helps him in his quest, from the car thief Hairball, to former student Tony, to a tough Jewish businessman. Less well-conceived are the villains of the piece, who suffer from weak characterizations and unlikely actions. The outcome is not overly surprising, but the book is well worth reading for Latour's thoughtful contrast of modern Cuban and American societies, and the flaws of each.
Rating:
Summary: great
Review: Outcast is a marvellous atempt to capture Cuban culture and history whilst simultaneously showing you the plight that many illegal immigrants have to go through when trying to cross the 90 miles of sea to get to the states, miami. I take my hat if to latour, as he builds suspense so to does he build up red hearings to fool you and presents some quite unexpected twists. Its genre is crime and his imagery is nothing short of amazing i have never felt so emersed in a book where i could actually see everything he was describing. Pick it up you will not regret it I know i havent.
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Summary: Great beach book, but nothing more
Review: The Outcast is great in that it is a great thriller in Grisham-style, but it lacks any real literary substance beyond the simplisitic story-telling method Latour uses. The flow of the story is a bit confusing, as he tries to flash forward nad backward and change perspectives of characters. However, the storyline is somewhat credible and provides a picture of the Cuban refugee in America.
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Summary: Great mystery/thriller
Review: This is a great mystery thriller by a well known Cuban writer. Usually foreign writers can't translate thier styles, to my liking, into American literature. Jose Latour is an exception and I just pray he keeps writing more for his American fans.
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Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: This novel grabbed me from the get-go, and didn't let go until about 3/5 of the way through.
Jose Latour is a brilliant Cuban crime writer, who has style and insight. This, his first written in English, should be read by all mystery/crime novel lovers. Starts out in Havana, a Cuban English teacher (of part North American desent), who is rather indifferent towrds the revolution, is contacted by an American who says he has been paid 9k to bring this teacher to Miami. The plan is set, but half way there, our friend is pushed off the boat, and left for the sharks. There begins the drama and mystery.
Don't worry, I did not spoil anything, there is so much that happens in this novel. It did become a tad bit inconcevable towards the end, for that I knocked off one star. But it is an entertaining read, and was quite enlightening in regards to Cuba.
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Summary: What a book.
Review: Wow! What a book. I usually don't like books written by foreign writers (other than English) and was suprised. It reads more like a thriller than a mystery. Yet it also explores the depth of its characters in the tradition of a "John D. McDonald" (Travis McGee novels). Still it is more. It is philosophical, introspective, and much of its language is poetic. A mystery with a lot meat.
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