Harbor of Spies by Robin Lloyd
It's 1863, America's Civil War is raging and 19 year old Captain Everett Townsend steers his blockade-runner schooner into the harbor at Havana. This young man had taken over the command of the schooner unwillingly when the original captain met his end during a horrific storm. While overnight at anchor in the harbor, upon hearing the cries of "help" a man called Michael Abbott was rescued and brought aboard. Colonial Havana is a dangerous city, with the heavy stamp of Spanish authority, you have to tread carefully. The story begins as Townsend is drawn into a mystery surrounding Abbott and a murder that happened 8 years ago. Trapped via this investigation, Townsend finds himself involved with blockade runners, as he becomes captain of a schooner running from Havana to Southern Gulf ports, where cotton is the cargo, and the runners are helping the Confederacy. We follow him as he explores Colonial Havana, to the sugar plantations where slavery is held in the highest regard, a fact that he is morally opposed to. He has much to learn, including the secrets regarding his own family history, that of his mother who herself was born in Cuba and left as a young woman. Becoming emotionally involved with a young woman, the daughter of an innkeeper, they both get caught up in the American Civil War, and the controversy over slavery. Spies abound, who is and who isn't, given that the English, the Spanish and everyone else have their fingers in the American war. There is money to be made and slavery to be kept alive and well both in Cuba and the Confederacy. Conflicted with his own morals and what he is doing as a blockade runner helps set the wheels in motion in a story that is exciting and intriguing.

Robin Lloyd paints a very good description for the background of this story. You cannot help but see in your mind's eye what Colonial Havana must have looked like in 1863. The color, the vibrancy of the city as well as the island of Cuba, despite the crime, and the authoritarian culture of the Spanish military, jumps out throughout the book. If you are a fan of historical fiction, if you enjoy reading books that keep you excited from beginning to end, this book is highly recommended. Thank you to NetGalley for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I recently read the book on Benjamin Franklin, The Loyal Son, and this book wqas in that same vein. I enjoyed it very much

Havanna during the American War between the States was a den of conflicting interests. It seems that everyone went there: Yankees and Confederates, Brits and Spaniards. The Cubans in the midst of it all, engaging, often, in two kinds of shady activities: running the Union blockade of the South and slave trading.

The narrator and hero of this excellent novel is from Maryland. He has washed up at the Naval Academy and his Cuban mother has recently died. He has signed on as First Mate on a schooner going to Cuba and becomes captain when the original captain is washed overboard one night.

In Cuba he has many adventures and becomes enmeshed in the conflicting loyalties and layers of complexity on the island.

The book was fantastic! It was very evocative and it was so easy to picture the people and places. It felt as if it had a leisurely pace but I found myself racing through it and unable to put it down.

I loved the story and the characters as well as the light it shone on the time.

Harbor of Spies is an intense and well written historical fiction novel set during the Civil War, (1863) and taking place from Havana to the USA to other parts of the gulf coast from Florida to Texas and many other places.

There is a lot of action and intrigue in this book and it was hard to put down once I started reading this book. A lot of things happened in Havana and there was plenty of wealth due to the sugar crops. A lot of this book takes place on schooners which were responsible for transporting arms and ammunition in the gulf.

The one thing I like about reading historical fiction, is all the issues and facts that are going on during the time the book is written about. This book was no exception and is rich in history.

I gave this book 5 stars and will be reading more by this author, as I really like the way this author writes.

A well-researched book that presents a side of the Civil War that isn't common knowledge. Take a journey with blockade runners for the Confederacy. Learn about Cuba, a land of many injustices.