Cuba Straits

General Juan Rivera has found a way to make money from famous names, dealing in high-profile collectibles. His latest acquisition is far more dangerous than anything he has handled before: a bundle of letters Fidel Castro wrote to a secret girlfriend between 1960 and 1962. What began as a business deal stops being about profit once Rivera realizes what the pages contain.

Somewhere in those letters is a secret that certain people will do anything to keep buried. The early 1960s were a violent stretch in the relationship between Cuba and the United States, and many men died in them. A few more deaths now, the story suggests, would hardly be noticed.

Rivera is an old friend of Doc Ford, the Florida marine biologist with a quiet past in the shadows, and he is in over his head. This entry in Randy Wayne White's long-running series turns a piece of Cold War history into a present-day race against people who want the truth to stay hidden.