Havana Gold
By Leonardo Padura,
Translated by Peter Bush
Bitter Lemon Press £8.99, 278 pages
FT bookshop price: £7.19

Havana, spring 1989. A young teacher is found strangled in her apartment. There is evidence that at least two men have raped her and that marijuana has been smoked. Inspector Mario Conde, aka The Count, is appointed to the case – and told that there are pressures “from the highest authority” to solve it fast.

Like an indulgent parent, Leonardo Padua allows his literary progeny (in this, his fifth outing) free rein to chat up women, argue about books and music, get drunk with friends and express his desires. Indeed, we get to know The Count so well, and become so involved with his arguments about Franny and Zooey (better than The Catcher in The Rye), John Fogerty (the greatest ever voice) and “Strawberry Fields” (The Beatles’ best song), that unravelling the murder becomes almost incidental to the plot.

Havana Gold is a textured treat for those who like their detective fiction served long and lazy with a double shot of rum.