The Havana Room

In the prime of his successful, happy existence attorney Bill Wyeth suffers a ghastly tragedy that he might have prevented. It robs him of everything and everyone he values--his family, home, wealth and career. His subsequent slide into oblivion is arrested by Allison Sparks, a restaurateur who involves him in a complicated real estate transaction on behalf of her lover, the owner of a valuable parcel of land on Long Island. The circumstances of the last-minute deal are unusual enough to set off warning bells in Wyeth's mind, but he agrees to help Jay Rainey pull it off in exchange for access to the Havana Room, a private club in the basement of Allison's restaurant, whose mysterious members and their activities have long intrigued him.

Handling a complicated plot with consummate ease, maintaining a high level of dramatic tension during a brilliantly paced narrative and creating a complex cast of unusual minor characters as well as a wholly believable, sympathetic protagonist, Colin Harrison has written a riveting novel that grabs the reader from the beginning and doesn't let go. The Havana Room is a terrific, original, engrossing read by a masterful writer. --Jane Adams, Amazon.com

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Harrison scores again - Rated
Harrison deals in recounting the stories of battered individuals. Lots of authors do that. But what makes his work SO good is that the characters around which he bases his stories are frighteningly recognisable in background, attitude and experience. He knows what forty-something men think, feel, lust after and fear. His protagonists all end up where they get to by the merest flick of Fate -- not some huge global event but a small miscalculation or error that passes by barely unnoticed at the time.
The Havana Room grips from the very beginning and previous readers of Bodies Electric or Manhattan Nocturne will recognise the territory immediately. Hubris is quickly established, rapidly followed by Nemesis, leading eventually to some form of redemption for the main character. Less showy than Wolfe, slicker than Styron and smoother than Amis. I can't wait for the next one!

So what is in the Havannah Room - Rated
I started this book feeling slightly apprehensive, after an odd first twopages I found I disliked the way the book was started, but from then on myopinion changes dramatically as the story unfolded.
You watched Bill Wyeth, a wealthy Lawyer as his life falls into ruinsafter a simple accident that could unfortunately happen to anyone.
His wife leaves with his son, he loses his job and his flat, and fallsinto the slums of the city, home to the unwanted.
While walking one day, he finds a Steakhouse where he meets Allison, andfrom then on becomes the most frequent customer, attracted to her Charmand Energy, yet here is the home of the Havana room, a secretive inviteonly section, hidden away downstairs.
After being begged by Allison to oversea a Sale for her boyfriend Jay, andfrom this point, his life amazingly turns from worse to worse withh addeddanger. Now seeing the tricks of the Havana room aren't the only thing onhis mind.
Good story, only tarnished slightly with over desriptions which I found asdull and prententious writing, yet this are infrequent so the book stillrecieves a 4/5. Well worth a read.