Tango for a Torturer by Cuba-resident Uruguayan author Daniel Chavarría (
SYKM,
Wikipedia) is his standalone black comedy political suspense thriller, set in Cuba, starring a former Argentine revolutionary who travels to Cuba on vacation, where he finds out that his nemesis, a former Uruguayan military torturer, has been living under a false identity and promptly drops his holiday plans to go on the hunt for him, as you do, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Akashic Books, who are generously running a holiday advent calendar promotion (their books are couponable at Kobo, BTW, and they do the excellent Akashic Noir mystery anthology series).
This is the English-language translation from its original Spanish
El rojo en la pluma del loro, which was originally published in 2001, and was honoured with the Casas de las Américas and Premio de las Crítica prizes, according to Wikipedia.
Currently free until midnight December 6th directly @
the publisher's promotional blogpost (DRM-free ePub & Mobi available worldwide), and you can read more about the book on its
regular catalogue page.
Description
Aldo Bianchi, a former Argentine revolutionary now living in Italy, travels to Havana, where he meets the beautiful Bini, a sultry student working the hotels with great charm and panache. Bianchi soon discovers via his liaison with Bini that his nemesis, the Uruguayan military torturer Alberto Rios, is living under a false identity in Cuba. Putting his tropical holiday on hold, Bianchi goes on the hunt for his sadistic enemy.
Daniel Chavarría portrays the sensuousness and skullduggery of contemporary Havana, a city that offers erotic thrills to pleasure-seeking tourists, even as it hides villains in its humid embrace. While Rios thrives on bribery and corruption, Bianchi is driven by a desire to see justice done. Tango for a Torturer is a sexy and political thriller chock-full of bawdy humor and chilling evocations of the evils wrought by Latin American military dictatorships.