Look for one of my books in a store, and inevitably you see Nelson DeMille.  Oh, once in a while Don DeLillo comes between us, but usually it’s Nelson and me, side by side on the “D” shelf, DeMille and Delinsky.  I don’t know Mr. DeMille personally, though I’d like to.  I’ve heard interviews with him, and we agree on so many things to do with writing that I like to think he’d be a friend.

The first book of his that I ever read was The Charm School, and a little more recently Gold Coast.  I drifted away from his work for a while, because the intrigue-and-action genre isn’t entirely my thing.  But The Cuban Affair came out this fall, and any book that flies from book carton to top of bestseller lists is one I need to read, if only to see what’s so special about it.  That said, I’m also intrigued by Cuba.  Had Obama been able to open more doors before his eight years expired, I’d have been rushing through.  I’m not sure that door is open as wide now, so second best is reading about modern day Cuba.

Humor, adventure, location, sex, mystery, action – this book has it all.  But honestly?  What clinched it for me was the reader.  I’m in love with Scott Brick.  He has one of the sexiest voices I’ve heard in a while.  Okay, okay, DeMille created a guy who was pret-ty cool.  But Scott Brick gave him life.

Would I have enjoyed The Cuban Affair as much if I’d read it in print?  Maybe, maybe not.  I’d probably have skimmed parts of it, certainly the action sequences – which would actually have been a shame.  The choreography of those scenes was amazing – who shot whom where, how fast and in what direction the good guy’s boat had to go to outrun the two boats in pursuit, which ways his boat had to veer to avoid being hit.  DeMille, a Vietnam War veteran, is a master at that.  He is also a master at intricate plot twists and turns, of which there are plenty in The Cuban Affair.   He put enough wit into the dialogue to keep me chuckling, which I’d likely have done reading the book in print as well.  He also wove in a love story.  Okay, okay, as love stories go, it may not have had the depth of love stories several female authors I know write, but it worked in his book.  As the protagonist says in the very last line, “Corny, I know.  But what the hell.” Spoken in Scott Brick’s sexy voice?  Ahhhhhhh.