Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: Havana Heat (USA 2025)

From the Publisher:
The fifth Lupe Solano Mystery is "a stunning mixture of art history, Cubans-in-exile politics, a uniquely classy Miami heroine, and riveting plot" (Library Journal).

Thanks to dabbling in a couple cases of stolen Cuban art, PI Lupe Solano finds herself in high demand -- especially among Miami's wealthy exile community. One such family, who made its fortune in cigars, is rumored to have left a fabled medieval tapestry back in Cuba when they fled. Now, the last wish of the dying matriarch is to be reunited with the family treasure. The job could cost Lupe her freedom and her life -- but she's always been drawn to danger...

Yet when a sleazy art dealer who tries to recruit Lupe into his smuggling ring is found murdered, she realizes she might be the next victim. At this point, all signs point to Havana, where the Cuban art underworld will reveal all its secrets -- or drag Lupe down into its depths...

"Lupe Solano is an enjoyably hedonistic sleuth, and Garcia-Aguilera's chatty, congenial style will beguile readers for several pleasing hours and leave them looking forward to Lupe's next foray into Miami vice." -- Publishers Weekly

"Garcia-Aguilera combines a clever plot and an endearing protagonist with a fascinating portrayal of Cuba's turbulent history and vibrant culture." -- Booklist

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: Havana Heat. A Lupe Solano Mystery. Open Road Media, ISBN: 9798337202198 (September, 2025), eBook, $9.99.

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: Havana Heat (USA 2001)

From the Publisher:
Feisty, fiery Cuban-American p.i. Lupe Solana knows her way in and out of every tight corner of her tropical Miami home. But now things are about to get hotter for Lupe than they have ever gotten before.

A fabled art masterpiece allegedly left behind in Castro's Cuba has Lupe Solana intrigued-and contemplating an undercover excursion into the deadly heart of out-of-bounds Havana. But when the murder of a shady business contact is followed closely by another criminally assisted death, Lupe is suddenly searching for connections between the two local homicides and her covert art-rescue mission. Because it's beginning to look more and more as if Lupe's own life depends upon her making them...

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: Havana Heat. A Lupe Solano Mystery. Avon, ISBN: 0380807408 (September, 2001), 352 p., $6.99.

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: Havana Heat (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
Feisty, fiery Cuban-American p.i. Lupe Solano knows her way in and out of every tight corner of her tropical Miami home -- from the opulent watering holes of Miami Beach to the colorful back streets of Little Havana to seedy, dangerous dives no self-respecting individual would be caught dead in. But now things are about to get hotter for Lupe than they have ever gotten before.

Havana Heat
Poured into her tightest dress, and balancing on her highest heels, Lupe merely wants to make the best impression possible at the wedding of her niece to a scion of the ultra-wealthy Miranda family. But she finds it impossible to leave her business back in the office when she is accosted by the groom's overbearing Aunt Lucia, and tantalized by an incredible tale of a lost, five centuries-old masterpiece -- the legendary Eighth Unicorn Tapestry -- that the rich tia claims is locked away in a secret underground vault beneath the family home. The only trouble is, the mansion in question is back in Havana. And Aunt Lucia has decided that Lupe should be the one to finally return the tapestry to its rightful owners.

Besides the large potential payday, Lupe Solano has her own personal reasons -- not necessarily good ones -- for agreeing to transform herself from a less-than-typical Florida investigator into a brazen art smuggler. But before she sets off on a trail that will lead Lupe across the treacherous Florida straits into the heart of Havana, a rather shady business contact turns up dead in his bed, strangled with a pair of pantyhose. After a second murder occurs, Lupe's ready to start looking for connections between the two local homicides and her covert art-rescue mission. Because it's beginning to look as if her life depends upon her making them.

Once again, acclaimed author Carolina Garcia-Aguilera has captured the heart and soul of Miami's Cuban-American community in her fiction. Readers who have already enjoyed her previous novels will cheer the return of Lupe Solano, investigator without peer, in her most exciting, surprising, and colorful adventure to date. For those new to the series, Havana Heat is the ideal place to discover the intrepid investigator whom critics across the nation have placed among mystery's "freshest," "most interesting," "most formidable protagonists."

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: Havana Heat. A Lupe Solano Mystery. William Morrow, ISBN: 038097780X (October, 2000), 358 p., $24.00.