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BBC History Magazine

News and Magazines & Newspapers

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Enjoy BBC History Magazine, the UK's best-selling history magazine, on your iPhone and iPad. Dive...

The Victory with No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army

Colin G. Calloway

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In 1791, General Arthur St. Clair led the United States army in a campaign to destroy a complex of...

Hazel (1853 KP) rated Havana Sleeping in Books

Dec 17, 2018

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Havana Sleeping is a historical mystery novel by British author Martin Davies, which is based on real events that occurred in Cuba during the 1850s. Although the Slave Trade had been abolished in England, there were still people in America and Cuba who would be happy for slavery to remain legal. George Backhouse was posted to Havana, Cuba as a British Judge to take a stand against the illegal slave trading.

Backhouse ends up getting involved in a lot of complicated situations that could potentially spark a devastating war. His path also becomes tied up with the other main character, Leandra Leigh. Whilst most of the characters are real historical figures, Leandra appears to be fictional. A dear friend of hers, a watchman, was murdered during a supposed robbery and although the matter has been closed for a couple of years Leandra is determined to find out the truth – something of limited value in Havana. To begin with Backhouse and Leandra’s investigations seem unrelated, but a connection begins to build up as the story goes on.

In all honesty, the novel was very difficult to get into. There is nothing wrong with the actual writing as such, it is in fact written well and grammatically correct, however there was a lack of excitement in the narrative. It was also difficult to keep track of the characters – admittedly that may have been the point in the case of a couple of people, but as a result it was impossible to connect story. There were a few attempts of showing emotion, mostly surrounding Leandra’s character, yet this failed to arouse much interest.

From a historical point of view, those interested in Cuban and British history of this time period may be interested in reading Havana Sleeping and the author also includes some factual notes at the end of the book, but anyone hoping to get a story of some kind is bound to be disappointed.