Leopold Borstinski – Cuban Heel

‘Cuban Heel’ is the fifth book in the Alex Cohen series by Leopold Borstinski and is a historical thriller novel. I have followed Alex Cohen from the very beginning and every single book has been a riveting and immersive read.

Leopold Borstinski

‘Cuban Heel’ takes us through the 1950s and we see Alex and his good friend Meyer Lansky looking to set up business in Cuba with a string of Casinos. To do this they have to deal with the Cuban President who is not exactly above board with regards to his business dealings. Alex is also back with his ex-wife Sarah and is slowly reconnecting with his estranged sons and sister. While he seems happy with his current life in Havana he is also hankering after his old life back in the states.

‘Cuban Heel’ differs from the previous books as this one really hones in on Alex and Meyer’s friendship. It becomes clearer as the story unfolds that although Meyer is constantly saying they are equal partners we see Meyer making the decisions. Alex becomes more and more unsettled about this relationship and just how much he would be on the one to take the fall anything goes wrong.

Although he is still occasionally drawn back into his old life by his former associates, he does his absolute best to keep his sons out of that side of his life only wanting them to deal with the legal side of his work.
Even though Alex is not always on the right side of the law he is a man I do think has done the absolute best he can with the hand he was dealt. We see a new maturity in him as he thinks more and questions also. This is different to Alex Cohen of the previous years, he didn’t question anything just did it.

This is a series of books that I highly recommend and I would say to get the very best from Leopold Borstinksi’s highly entertaining and even sometimes educational tale, I would start at the very beginning. You will be introduced to characters along the way that a memorable for all different reasons. ‘Cuban Heel’ educated me about Fidel Castro and the revolution he spearheaded. I knew nothing about this time in history but Leopold Borstinski has again woven true events and people into his historical crime noir story and I for one, am already waiting to see when the next one arrives.

Thanks to Zoe from ZooLoo’s Book Tours and Leopold Borstinski for the copy of the book.