Latour, Jose

José Latour was born in Havana, Cuba, on April 24, 1940. 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 ended up in the State Committee of Finance.

Shuffling papers, however, was not challenging enough.  In 1977, 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 delivered the manuscript to the publisher.

José 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 counter-revolutionary  and  José was labelled 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, José took a shot at writing in English.  Fearing dictatorial repression, the author and his family moved to Spain in August 2002 and to Canada in September 2004.

His first English-language novel, 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Havana Best Friends (2002), Havana World Series (2003), Comrades in Miami (2005), The Young Englishman (2006, still unpublished), Crime of Fashion (2009).

For international editions, visit http://www.joselatourauthor.com/books/

Website/blog: http://www.joselatourauthor.com/