I had a brief visit to Havana in 1956. We stayed at the Plaza Hotel - just like Earl S. Not long after our stay there, some wild men shot up the Plaza lobby with a machine gun. I don’t think it was Frankie Carbine and his compadre, I believe Earl had already taken care of them, but the similarities between the fiction and the real thing continue through the book.

I met a Jean-Marie Augustine several years later. Unfortunately he was a guy. He had managed Pan American Airways offices around the islands for years. He had many similar stories to tell.

I’m sure that Speshnev and Pashin are fictional characters, but I’d be willing to bet that there were real counterparts.

HAVANA has inspired me to start a study of this fascinating period of Cuban history. Thank you for an interesting book Mr. Hunter.