• The Cuban Affair

  • By: Nelson DeMille
  • Narrated by: Scott Brick
  • Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (6,783 ratings)

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The Cuban Affair  By  cover art

The Cuban Affair

By: Nelson DeMille
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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Publisher's summary

INCLUDES AN EXTENDED INTERVIEW WITH NELSON DEMILLE AND SCOTT BRICK!

From the legendary number-one New York Times best-selling author of Plum Island and Night Fall, Nelson DeMille's blistering new novel features an exciting new character - US Army combat veteran Daniel "Mac" MacCormick, now a charter boat captain, who is about to set sail on his most dangerous cruise.

Daniel Graham MacCormick - Mac for short - seems to have a pretty good life. At age 35 he's living in Key West, owner of a 42-foot charter fishing boat, The Maine. Mac served five years in the army as an infantry officer, with two tours in Afghanistan. He returned with the Silver Star, two Purple Hearts, scars that don't tan, and a boat with a big bank loan. Truth be told, Mac's finances are more than a little shaky.

One day Mac is sitting in the famous Green Parrot Bar in Key West, contemplating his life and waiting for Carlos, a hotshot Miami lawyer heavily involved with anti-Castro groups. Carlos wants to hire Mac and The Maine for a 10-day fishing tournament to Cuba at the standard rate, but Mac suspects there is more to this and turns it down. The price then goes up to $2 million, and Mac agrees to hear the deal and meet Carlos's clients - a beautiful Cuban American woman named Sara Ortega and a mysterious older Cuban exile, Eduardo Valazquez.

What Mac learns is that there is 60 million American dollars hidden in Cuba by Sara's grandfather when he fled Castro's revolution. With the "Cuban Thaw" underway between Havana and Washington, Carlos, Eduardo, and Sara know it's only a matter of time before someone finds the stash - by accident or on purpose. And Mac knows if he accepts this job, he'll walk away rich...or not at all.

Brilliantly written, with his signature humor, fascinating authenticity from his research trip to Cuba, and heart-pounding pace. Nelson DeMille is a true master of the genre.

©2017 Nelson DeMille (P)2017 S&S Audio

What listeners say about The Cuban Affair

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    3,447
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  • 2 Stars
    335
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Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    2,965
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fun read with a continuous build, ok finish

This book is an enjoyable listen and classic DeMille style. The intensity steadily builds throughout the book until the really enjoyable penultimate scene. Unfortunately, the ending is typical for a DeMille book that uses geopolitics and real world implications as a plot point, in that it is not very satisfying. There are plenty of twists, unearthing of selfish plots, and good character development through the chapters.
I enjoyed this book, but it felt like a weaker version of Up Country. You can feel Nelson DeMille didn't have as strong a connection to Mac as he did Paul Brenner. I still recommend The Cuban Affair, but try Up Country and definitely the John Corey series if you haven't already.

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42 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

This is the sixth DeMille book I have listened to or read. I loved all of them until this. Most of his books had me hooked quickly but this one did not. This book seemed slow to me. My mind kept wandering as I listened to it so I continually had to replay sections and force myself to pay attention. The end of the book finally had some excitement. This is also the first DeMille book where I just did not find the main characters likable enough to pull for them. I highly recommend Nelson DeMille books. Just not this one.

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40 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Slow Motion

DeMille is the master of dialogue, but he overdoes it in this work. Too much chatting and not enough doing. He treads treacherously close to Dan Brown Guide Book territory in telling us about every square inch of Cuba. All that is interesting for someone who might plan a trip there, but for the rest of us, get on with the story that we want from the guy who has written some seriously excellent books. DeMille eventually gets to the end with bullets flying, but I had to speed up the narration to 1.25 to get there.

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33 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

cliche

One of the first books on tape that I ever listened to (and subsequently became hooked) was Demille's Upcountry. The Cuban Affair is a poor imitation of that-- an ex-military entering a foreign/hostile country and along the way, reliving some of his post traumatic stress. Upcountry is much, much better.
The story is predictable, contrite, and cliche. It feels like Demille wrote the story until he got bored and then ended it. The story line is ridiculous, the characters not believable, and, though in general I like Scott Brick, he reads the main character in such a bitter and cynical tone that it is impossible to like him (the character, not Brick).

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28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Ugh

This was a bad story from beginning to end. He can do better. Totally predictable and totally unbelievable. Very disappointing.

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Hot Mess...but a Fun hot mess


On that Sunday morning show, I saw DeMille and his wife, remembered seeing this title as a new release, and the neural activity in my brain signaled a marketing success. It's nowhere near *Contemporary Literature.* It's not even a spectacular piece of fiction, but rather a by-the-numbers action/suspense book written by one of the ol' boy's club authors that you may have encountered under the pen names of Jack Cannon, Kurt Ladner, Ellen Kay and Brad Matthews. The book could easily have been shaved down to a pamphlet, (my gosh, I thought the boat chases would never end) but where's the fun in that? DeMille sets this debacle in Cuba, allowing for pages and pages of political hyperbole that takes place over lots of cigar smoke and gallons of cuba libres.

I just have to separate the fact that I used up a credit on this from my rating...because it was okay. Or is that emotional manipulation by the author talking? There is a switcheroo to that undercover *treasure* reclamation job that I found redeeming...but, I still watch Die Hard when I'm flipping through the channels late at night and nothing else is on -- and like it. So, Yippie-Ki-Yay; grab a cigar, a rum and Coke and kill a credit.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Boring and Repetitive

I was really disappointed in this book - for several reasons. First of all, the same questions were asked by the main character over and over and over - should I or shouldn't I? Over and over. I swear half the book could have been deleted and the story not affected at all if the repetition was taken out. I just about quit listening at about 10% in to the book. Everything seemed drawn out...like it was a short story with lots of fluff added to make it in to a book. I love DeMille books - especially ones concerning John Corey - but felt short-changed on this one.

Also, as great as Scott Brick is as a narrator - every new book he does sounds almost exactly like the last one. Our main character here sounded just like John Corey - exactly - voice, inflection, sarcasm, and exaggerated emotion. Scott may need to back down a notch. Almost every character is over dramatized.... Are there no characters who just sound "normal" and talk like you and me?

I'd suggest not wasting your time.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

An average tale...

Two of my favorite books are written by Demille, The Gold Coast and The Gate House. I believe its fair to judge a book when the author has set the highest possible standards in previous works. With that in mind, The Cuban Affair is severely lacking.

The hero is engaging enough. Pushing 40 he is a war hero, an aimless, broke boat captain and in serious debt. When enticed by serious money to go on a mysterious quest to modern day Cuba, it seemed destined for a great adventure. But somewhwere in the final 2 hours of listening, it dawned on me I didnt care what happened.

Having actually read most of Demille's works, I was less enchanted with the narration of Scott Brick, whom I admire as a narrator. Demille has a sarcastic humor that Brick's style exacerbates. It becomes too much. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more by reading it.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Nelson DeMille + Scott Brick = Great Audio Novel

The Cuban Affair does not disappoint; indeed, great characters and heart stopping suspense puts in on par with the other great DeMille novels. Set in Key West and in Cuba and on the seas in between the formula is classic DeMille. The new protagonist is Mac McCormick a 35 year old Portland Main native, Afghanistan war veteran, and currently a charter fishing boat captain in Key West. The other two key characters are Jack Colby who is the 70 year old Vietnam veteran who is Mac's first mate and Sara Ortega who is a third generation Cuban-American. Sara and 2 other Cuban-Americans entice Mac to go to Cuba to retrieve $60 million Sara's banker grandfather hid in a cave before he escaped Castro's Cuba.. Mac's share is to be $3 million. Most of the novel is set in Cuba with Mac and Sara together.

Like most of DeMille's protagonists such as repeating characters John Corey and Paul Brenner , Mac is of the wise cracking sort. Like many of DeMille's novels The Cuban Affair is written in the first person.

John Corey is my all time favorite fictional protagonist and DeMille is one of my favorite authors. If I had to compare The Cuban Affair to other DeMille novels it is most like The Charm School and Upcountry which are set in Russia during the Soviet period and in post war Vietnam respectively. It is most unlike The Gold Coast and the Gate House (the John Sutter series which I rate as DeMille's weakest novels. I still believe that The General's Daughter (book 1 in the Paul Brenner series) is DeMille's best novel followed closely by all novels in the John Corey series. Mayday, which DeMille coauthored, continues to hold the record for most intense, sustained suspense of any modern novel.

The Cuban Affair is a rock solid 5 star suspense thriller written by a master of his art. Narration by Scott Brick, the best first person narrator in the business, makes the novel even better. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Worst Demille ever!

This book went on and on but never went anywhere. I am acutely disappointed because it never got better.

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12 people found this helpful