The Attraction of Cuba

A WORLD NOVEL FROM ENVELOPEBOOKS: Chris Hilton went to Havana in the early 2000s to escape the drudgery of daily life in England - and, boy, did he escape it. Suddenly he was mixed up with a variety of gangland chancers, some Cuban, one British, all living on the edge of legality.

There was always a risk of their schemes getting rumbled by the police but that's what made it so compelling: the chance, the danger, the adrenalin rush. And then there was Jamilia - a refugee from rural poverty, who'd come to the big city as a teenager, and been rescued from the streets by an unnerving family of small-time criminals.

"A little crazy is good," Jamilia tells Chris - and a little crazy is what they became, living hard, loving hard and downing a deal of Cuban rum.

But how long can craziness last? And what happens when good fortune turns to bad?