Rating: 
Summary: If you don't mind the inaccuracies....
Review: ...it's an interesting read. Good story line, good dialog, vivid place descriptions, and some humorous moments.
However, there are several technical problems, such as the behavior of tropical storms, the direction of flow in the Gulf Stream, plot inconsistencies, etc.
If you're not too analytical, you'll enjoy it. I'll probably read at least one more of his books.
Rating: 
Summary: ESCALATING SUSPENSE IN THIS READING
Review: A frequent guest on television's hit series "Law and Order," voice performer Armand Schultz is in constant demand. Well he should be listeners will agree upon hearing his reading of the thriller "Cuba Strait." Carsten Stroud's sixth novel, grabs readers from the opening lines with the appearance of Charles Green, an American pilot with a "loaded Glock strapped to his thigh and the fifty rounds of nine mill tucked in the breast pocket of his brown-leather bomber jacket." A former Navy man who was sent to Hawaii in 1969, he's now about to take off on a dangerous and mysterious flight. His plane, a Kodiak, is flawless; the weather is not. The cargo is unknown to him, as is the lone passenger who keeps an assault rifle pointed at Green's kidney. Protagonist Rick Broca is a former New York State Police officer who quit the force after a glitch in the chain of command stopped him from saving lives during a school massacre. He is tending to his employer's boat, cruising off the Florida Keys before returning to his new job as a Hollywood technical consultant. When Rick sees the small Kodiak go down, he's all action. There is a chilling underwater rescue attempt interrupted by an enormous female tiger shark dubbed Maybelline by Floridians. She is 500 pounds of "gouges and badly healed wound" with "an ugly puckered furrow carved into her snout." Maybelline has the unknown passenger for a starter, and wants Green who is trapped in the cockpit for her main course. However, Rick manages to save the pilot who claims to be a navy flier. Rick's move to return the pilot to Miami is thwarted by a raging fire fight with another vessel - some no-holds-barred Cubans want Green and the cargo back, and they want both now. Obviously, Rick is on to the fact that Green is more than an ordinary charter pilot but no information is forthcoming. The author's penchant for dark humor comes to the fore when Rick forgets that he has left the half-eaten remains of Green's passenger in the refrigerator of his employer's boat. So, when the boss goes out on a fishing expedition he is taken prisoner in Cuban territorial waters and charged with murder. Aware that his error may well cost his boss his life Rick finds himself in the middle of a complex miasma of international intrigue. Rick doesn't know who to trust nor do listeners as suspense escalates to a startling finale. - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: ESCALATING SUSPENSE IN THIS READING
Review: A frequent guest on television's hit series "Law and Order," voice performer Armand Schultz is in constant demand. Well he should be listeners will agree upon hearing his reading of the thriller "Cuba Strait." Carsten Stroud's sixth novel, grabs readers from the opening lines with the appearance of Charles Green, an American pilot with a "loaded Glock strapped to his thigh and the fifty rounds of nine mill tucked in the breast pocket of his brown-leather bomber jacket." A former Navy man who was sent to Hawaii in 1969, he's now about to take off on a dangerous and mysterious flight. His plane, a Kodiak, is flawless; the weather is not. The cargo is unknown to him, as is the lone passenger who keeps an assault rifle pointed at Green's kidney. Protagonist Rick Broca is a former New York State Police officer who quit the force after a glitch in the chain of command stopped him from saving lives during a school massacre. He is tending to his employer's boat, cruising off the Florida Keys before returning to his new job as a Hollywood technical consultant. When Rick sees the small Kodiak go down, he's all action. There is a chilling underwater rescue attempt interrupted by an enormous female tiger shark dubbed Maybelline by Floridians. She is 500 pounds of "gouges and badly healed wound" with "an ugly puckered furrow carved into her snout." Maybelline has the unknown passenger for a starter, and wants Green who is trapped in the cockpit for her main course. However, Rick manages to save the pilot who claims to be a navy flier. Rick's move to return the pilot to Miami is thwarted by a raging fire fight with another vessel - some no-holds-barred Cubans want Green and the cargo back, and they want both now. Obviously, Rick is on to the fact that Green is more than an ordinary charter pilot but no information is forthcoming. The author's penchant for dark humor comes to the fore when Rick forgets that he has left the half-eaten remains of Green's passenger in the refrigerator of his employer's boat. So, when the boss goes out on a fishing expedition he is taken prisoner in Cuban territorial waters and charged with murder. Aware that his error may well cost his boss his life Rick finds himself in the middle of a complex miasma of international intrigue. Rick doesn't know who to trust nor do listeners as suspense escalates to a startling finale. - Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: International intrigue!
Review: A young, New York State patrolman (retired early from a gunshot wound) is appreciating a slower pace of life fishing off the Florida Keys, when a tropical storm blackens the sky. He is unaware of the danger he's about to reel in from the turbulent seas. The character, Rick Broca, is lured into a deadly scheme that reaches international proportions - all from risking his life to save another man whose identity is shrouded in complexities and unknowns. Broca becomes entwined in a net of unsavory intrigue with no apparent escape. Stroud has an uncanny ability as a storyteller to combine personalities and action into a blend that keeps you turning the pages, wondering what will happen next. "Cuba Strait" is a complex story, which comes together in a convincing way that perfectly fits the age of mass terror. This is the first novel I have read by Stroud, and it definitely will not be the last. If you enjoy action, adventure, and intense stories, Stroud is a writer worth remembering!
Rating:
Summary: FUN FUN FUN
Review: and the characters aren't stupid dimwits. The character of Zeffi is way too perfect but I loved her anyway. She wasn't your typical dippy braindead female you see in all the other popular Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Suspense novels.
Cisco's (cat) abilities were also over the top but again big deal. I totally disregarded him after the dog thing. There's no measurable foul language which for me gives it 3 stars right off the top! The characters talk like normal intelligent human beings. Dialogue was lean and to the point. No stupid (...). There was no sex which was refreshing. The story is plausible and is nonstop. Carsten lines it up nicely.
And who cares about the spanish, if it really is incorrect, there's so little of it. It makes no difference to the story even if you speak
the language.
This is my first time out with Carsten Stroud but am right now looking for his other works.
Rating:
Summary: Decent story, really bad Spanish
Review: Carsten Stroud writes an entertaining tale. It's worth reading in spite of its Spanish language boo-boos, which are far too frequent in this book. Stroud should really have enlisted some help with translation of Spanish dialogue.
Rating:
Summary: A Thriller Set in the Florida Keys
Review: Carsten Stroud's thriller begins with enough mystery, jeopardy, and excitement to hook the reader until the end. A man named Charles Green readies himself to pilot a small aircraft from Cuba by destroying all his belongings except for a picture of him with his family. In the midst of a storm, the plane, piloted by Green and carrying a close-mouthed passenger, goes down off the Florida Keys where Rick Broca, former State Trooper and now Hollywood consultant, spots them. In the absence of nearby Coast Guard boats, he is sent to rescue any survivors. What follows is a series of by-the-throat scenes as Broca finds himself enmeshed with a violent scheme that involves Cuban nationals, the FBI and NSA, a renegade American - with two of his friends used as pawns from a Cuban jail, all with repercussions pointing toward a war between the United States and Cuba
Much of this novel is preposterous, but you won't care because the fantasy of it is so tightly wound, scene after scene. Stroud's writing is not particularly good, but his descriptions of graphic violence will make you feel every knife twist. Rick Broca is a good no-nonsense, resourceful protagonist - the kind of man who can think on his feet even when his life is in danger. Girlfriend Zeffi is two-dimensional but somewhat fun; there's a bar scene near the end when she really comes alive. The real flaw of this thriller is the denouement, which involves several pages of explanations that make it seem as though the author planned a more complicated novel but ran out of time to develop it. Getting to those pages, however, is suspenseful fun.
Rating:
Summary: A page turner yes...but
Review: Cuba Strait begins with a lot of promise but fizzles out. It seems to me that a great deal of effort was taken to set the scene but once the novel's characters are established they are almost on remote control. The action seems pre-determined the characters always making the right decision never finding any dead ends. I found myself wondering many times how a certain character knew what had happened to another character when he/she wasn't present. One is left to assume that at some point character A briefs character B. Another disturbing thing is that none of the characters ever need sleep. One really annoying thing about this book that is set in and around the waters of Cuba is that the Spanish dialogue (which the author uses often) is grammatically incorrect, misspellings, etc. Sometimes he writes words that are supposed to be in Spanish but look like French (an "L" apostrophe which is not used in Spanish.) He uses the word "ocha" instead of "ocho" referring to the number 8. etc. The book got my attention early but then left me unsatisfied.I just felt like there was no climax. The resolution is 9 pages (out of 418) in which two government agents reveal everything the main character didn't know which is substantial (including a discrediting of one the important premises upon which much of the action is contingent). I wanted to like this book more but it needed a good editor and a re-write of the ending.
Rating:
Summary: A tropical thriller that makes for an enjoyable read
Review: I purchased this book through "Borders" teamed with Amazon and was not disappointed. I read it in about a week, it was hard to put down. The author, Mr. Stroud, does a great job of setting up the story and the following chain of events, with detailed descriptions of each tropical locale. Clearly, the author did his research and traveled to each of the different places he wrote about, the descriptions puts you right there in with the main character of the novel. I should know, because I grew up in Miami and the Keys, two main settings throughout the book. The "inner" knowledge of some government intelligence lingo was also interesting. Where I think Mr. Stroud came up a bit short was 1) His inability to hire someone to check his Spanish grammar. A minor thing since maybe a hundred words of the book's dialog are in Spanish, but a little annoying for someone with a good sense of the language. 2) Excessive description of the sky at the beginning of each chapter. 3) The portrayal of all Hispanics throughout the book as violent, Hollywood stereotypes. On his extensive vocabulary about the sea and the terms he uses, I'm split down the middle. He had me reaching for the dictionary a few times to check some of the nautical terms, but they definitely contributed to the mood of the story. In a way, I'm glad he through them in there, it brought me back to my childhood adventures at sea. The bottom line is this- The book is a great read for fans of spy/espionage novels who would like to read a piece of fiction with some references to modern day problems.
Rating:
Summary: A tropical thriller that makes for an enjoyable read
Review: I purchased this book through "Borders" teamed with Amazon and was not disappointed. I read it in about a week, it was hard to put down. The author, Mr. Stroud, does a great job of setting up the story and the following chain of events, with detailed descriptions of each tropical locale. Clearly, the author did his research and traveled to each of the different places he wrote about, the descriptions puts you right there in with the main character of the novel. I should know, because I grew up in Miami and the Keys, two main settings throughout the book. The "inner" knowledge of some government intelligence lingo was also interesting. Where I think Mr. Stroud came up a bit short was 1) His inability to hire someone to check his Spanish grammar. A minor thing since maybe a hundred words of the book's dialog are in Spanish, but a little annoying for someone with a good sense of the language. 2) Excessive description of the sky at the beginning of each chapter. 3) The portrayal of all Hispanics throughout the book as violent, Hollywood stereotypes. On his extensive vocabulary about the sea and the terms he uses, I'm split down the middle. He had me reaching for the dictionary a few times to check some of the nautical terms, but they definitely contributed to the mood of the story. In a way, I'm glad he through them in there, it brought me back to my childhood adventures at sea. The bottom line is this- The book is a great read for fans of spy/espionage novels who would like to read a piece of fiction with some references to modern day problems.
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