Last Seen in Havana

In this fourth installment in her “Havana Mysteries” series (following Death Under the Perseids), Dovalpage presents a sensitively drawn story about one woman’s unrelenting longing for her lost mother and search for answers about her past. Cuban-born Mercedes Spivey, now living in Miami, returns to Cuba to care for her ailing grandmother. There, she rediscovers the art deco home where she grew up. This once grand mansion was much neglected over the years, but the antiques and portraits of unknown family members ignite her curiosity. Mercedes decides to investigate what happened to her mother, Sarah, who disappeared when Mercedes was a child. Sarah was a beautiful American college student who, after falling in love with a Cuban revolutionary soldier, stayed in Havana, gave birth to Mercedes, and disappeared just as she was settling into married life. Narrator Cynthia Farrell provides a well-paced, lively performance, capturing Mercedes’s desire to learn more about her mother and, in a parallel storyline, Sarah’s excitement at her newfound life on the island.