Key West in the 1930s is a crossroads, drawing local fishermen and their families, World War I veterans sent to work in government labor camps, and émigrés from Cuba. In The Last Train to Key West, Chanel Cleeton's third sweeping novel featuring the Perez family, the paths of three very different women--battered wife Helen, Cuban newlywed Mirta and former New York society girl Elizabeth--intersect as a hurricane bears down on the island.
Nine months pregnant and trapped in an abusive marriage, Helen spends her days serving key lime pie at Ruby's diner and her nights trying not to trigger her husband's temper. Mirta is struggling to adjust to her new reality after being married off abruptly to a New York businessman whose dealings might be on the shady side. And Elizabeth, accustomed to flirting her way through life, hopped a train to Key West (without telling her mobster fiancé) in a last-ditch effort to find her brother, a doctor who has disappeared.
Cleeton (When We Left Cuba) expertly narrates her story through the eyes of all three women, giving a multilayered glimpse into the island's intertwined and sometimes conflicting communities. As the storm gathers force, all three women head (separately) north to Matecumbe Key, where they must make snap decisions that could have far-reaching effects. Cleeton's compelling, vividly described novel combines a scrappy, adventure-filled setting with plenty of action, and three heroines who will each discover their own grit and gumption during stormy times. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams