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Riders of Land and Tide
For most people life is a monotonous routine.
On board a non-belligerent nuclear submarine designed to rescue crews from disabled ballistic missile subs life is incredibly boring. For two or three months the crew must stand ready for a disaster that hardly ever happens, perform maintenance on an array of microphones on the floor of the ocean, and occasionally do a little snooping around enemy naval bases.
If not on watch sailors can sleep, read, play games, watch movies, exercise and ruminate about family, friends, lovers. Occasionally they try to discern what the heck they were thinking when they enrolled. Days creep by like a snail on codeine.
But if unexpectedly the boat surfaces, loads 22 tons of cocaine and a complete stranger comes aboard, odds are that life in that submarine will turn unpredictably frightening.
Everywhere couples settle into habit patterns. Get up, have breakfast, go to work, do the same thing they’ve been doing for so long, go to the grocery store, return home, prepare supper, read a story to the kids, watch a show, go to bed.
Birthdays, holidays and going on vacation once a year break the routine until blowing the candles; setting up the Christmas tree and sunbathing at the same beach become, well, routines.
However, if all of a sudden armed foreigners land where peaceful people live, take hostages and threaten to kill them unless their demands are met, locals want to return to their boring lives immediately.
Riders of Land and Tide is an action-packed thriller that recounts the lives of three main characters from birth and narrates how circumstances beyond their control cleared paths for them. When the thorniest path crosses the other two, all hell breaks loose.
The author of this book ?who has been writing crime fiction and thrillers for thirty-five years, won the IACW’s Hammett and was nominated for the Edgar? believes this is his best novel. He hopes it will entertain you, inform you and make you wonder whether those who live quiet, monotonous lives are the happiest people on planet Earth.
On board a non-belligerent nuclear submarine designed to rescue crews from disabled ballistic missile subs life is incredibly boring. For two or three months the crew must stand ready for a disaster that hardly ever happens, perform maintenance on an array of microphones on the floor of the ocean, and occasionally do a little snooping around enemy naval bases.
If not on watch sailors can sleep, read, play games, watch movies, exercise and ruminate about family, friends, lovers. Occasionally they try to discern what the heck they were thinking when they enrolled. Days creep by like a snail on codeine.
But if unexpectedly the boat surfaces, loads 22 tons of cocaine and a complete stranger comes aboard, odds are that life in that submarine will turn unpredictably frightening.
Everywhere couples settle into habit patterns. Get up, have breakfast, go to work, do the same thing they’ve been doing for so long, go to the grocery store, return home, prepare supper, read a story to the kids, watch a show, go to bed.
Birthdays, holidays and going on vacation once a year break the routine until blowing the candles; setting up the Christmas tree and sunbathing at the same beach become, well, routines.
However, if all of a sudden armed foreigners land where peaceful people live, take hostages and threaten to kill them unless their demands are met, locals want to return to their boring lives immediately.
Riders of Land and Tide is an action-packed thriller that recounts the lives of three main characters from birth and narrates how circumstances beyond their control cleared paths for them. When the thorniest path crosses the other two, all hell breaks loose.
The author of this book ?who has been writing crime fiction and thrillers for thirty-five years, won the IACW’s Hammett and was nominated for the Edgar? believes this is his best novel. He hopes it will entertain you, inform you and make you wonder whether those who live quiet, monotonous lives are the happiest people on planet Earth.
ebook
First published October 2, 2012
About the author
José Latour
23 books14 followersJosé Latour was born in Havana, Cuba, on April 24, 1940. He started reading at a very tender age, progressing from Hans Christian Andersen and the Grimm brothers as a child to Raymond Chandler and Erle Stanley Gardner in his late teens.
By the time the Cuban Revolution came to power, José, who was 19, had become an ardent supporter. He joined the Ministry of Treasury as a junior financial analyst and translator and later moved on to the Cuban Central Bank. From there he transferred to the Ministry of Sugar, ending up in the State Committee of Finance, where from 1977 onwards he swelled the ranks.
Shuffling papers, however, was not challenging enough. In that same year José started writing crime fiction in his spare time. His first three novels (Preludio a la Noche, Medianoche Enemiga and Fauna Noctura), set in pre-revolutionary Havana, were published by Editorial Letras Cubanas in 1982, 1986 and 1989. The fourth (Choque de Leyendas), was launched in 1998, nine years after he first delivered the manuscript to the publisher.
José also joined the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists and the International Association of Crime Writers (IACW) in1988. Two years later he resigned his position as global financial analyst in the Ministry of Finance to become a full-time writer. In 1998 he was elected vice-president for Latin America of the International Association of Crime Writers.
In 1994 José delivered to his publisher The Fool, a novel based on a real-life case of corruption in the ministries of the Interior and the Armed Forces that was uncovered in 1989. This book was considered counterrevolutionary and José was labeled an “enemy of the people.”
Certain that neither The Fool nor the books he wanted to write would get published in Cuba as long as all publishing houses were state-owned, rejecting ideological subservience and adamant about pursuing a career as a novelist, José took a shot at writing in English.
His first novel in that language, Outcast, was published in the U.S., six Western European countries, Brazil and Japan. It got flattering reviews and was nominated for an Edgar. Since, he has penned Havana Best Friends (2002), Havana World Series (2003), Comrades in Miami (2005), The Young Englishman (2009 - as Enrique Clio), and Crime of Fashion (2009).
Seeking creative fiction and fearing dictatorial repression, the author and his family moved to Spain in August 2002 and to Canada in September 2004.
By the time the Cuban Revolution came to power, José, who was 19, had become an ardent supporter. He joined the Ministry of Treasury as a junior financial analyst and translator and later moved on to the Cuban Central Bank. From there he transferred to the Ministry of Sugar, ending up in the State Committee of Finance, where from 1977 onwards he swelled the ranks.
Shuffling papers, however, was not challenging enough. In that same year José started writing crime fiction in his spare time. His first three novels (Preludio a la Noche, Medianoche Enemiga and Fauna Noctura), set in pre-revolutionary Havana, were published by Editorial Letras Cubanas in 1982, 1986 and 1989. The fourth (Choque de Leyendas), was launched in 1998, nine years after he first delivered the manuscript to the publisher.
José also joined the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists and the International Association of Crime Writers (IACW) in1988. Two years later he resigned his position as global financial analyst in the Ministry of Finance to become a full-time writer. In 1998 he was elected vice-president for Latin America of the International Association of Crime Writers.
In 1994 José delivered to his publisher The Fool, a novel based on a real-life case of corruption in the ministries of the Interior and the Armed Forces that was uncovered in 1989. This book was considered counterrevolutionary and José was labeled an “enemy of the people.”
Certain that neither The Fool nor the books he wanted to write would get published in Cuba as long as all publishing houses were state-owned, rejecting ideological subservience and adamant about pursuing a career as a novelist, José took a shot at writing in English.
His first novel in that language, Outcast, was published in the U.S., six Western European countries, Brazil and Japan. It got flattering reviews and was nominated for an Edgar. Since, he has penned Havana Best Friends (2002), Havana World Series (2003), Comrades in Miami (2005), The Young Englishman (2009 - as Enrique Clio), and Crime of Fashion (2009).
Seeking creative fiction and fearing dictatorial repression, the author and his family moved to Spain in August 2002 and to Canada in September 2004.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 15, 2014
Normally, I love José Latour, but this time the first 30 or so pages were "He did this... then he did that... then this". Boooring.
October 14, 2012
This is an excellent “political” thriller. Author José Letour deserves to be better known and appreciated, as the present work is far superior to most bestsellers of the genre. An intelligent thriller, without big breasted beauties or know-it-all muscular heroes (although with a pinch of sex), it is more on the vein of Ellroy or Le Carré. I wouldn’t comment on the well-constructed, fast-paced plot, which takes advantage of Letour firsthand knowledge of Castro’s Cuba. Surly, many ticks of the genre are present, including underdeveloped characters, etc. But if you like thrillers you wouldn’t mind, although excessive (and occasionally improper) use of slang and colloquialisms may be annoying sometimes. Overall, a first rate novel. Give it a trial. You won’t be disappointed.
November 7, 2012
I have read all of José Latour's books, and this may be his very best.
The classic Latour suspense and tension are there all the way through the story, but the structure of the book, moving back and forth through time and space puts it a step above his other other work.
He also manages to tell real, powerful and moving stories about his characters. I was so deeply connected and invested in them all that the climax moved me to tears.
Highly recommended.
The classic Latour suspense and tension are there all the way through the story, but the structure of the book, moving back and forth through time and space puts it a step above his other other work.
He also manages to tell real, powerful and moving stories about his characters. I was so deeply connected and invested in them all that the climax moved me to tears.
Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews