Havana Twist: A Willa Jansson Mystery

Willa Jansson, Matera's plucky sleuthing lawyer (Star Witness, 1997), deserves a Daughter of the Year award for the latest adventure. This time, her mother, an unrepentant social activist, goes international, failing to return with her gray-haired group of brigadistas after their goodwill tour of Havana. Doubting that her mom, even with her ""dances with revolutionaries"" fervor, would abandon her family without a word, Willa goes to Havana, where she falls in with two suspiciously helpful journalists who offer to help but lead Willa to some unexpected stops along the way. These include visits to Lidia Gomez, an internationally acclaimed poet placed under house arrest for ""leafletting,"" and an American woman, Myra Wilson, being held in prison for drug smuggling. With Havana's bubbling mix of journalists, possible CIA agents and heroes of the revolution, it's no wonder Willa comes to feel that nothing is as it seems in the nightmarishly deteriorating place. Matera uses the complexities of the Cuban revolution and modern skullduggery to build her tale, which is slightly hobbled by a few contrived plot turns and staple characters. But the appealing Willa is fun to watch as she reacts with healthy doses of common sense, fear, humble confusion and wit to her various troubles. Her mother did a good job of raising her--but readers may be less willing than the well-grounded Willa to forgive her mother this madcap escapade. (May)