The Hemingway Sabbatical

Conan knows how to kick-start a story. In the relatively brief first chapter of this high-spirited thriller (his second, after The Psi Delegation), narrator Robert Aguilar, a high-school English teacher on sabbatical to trace Papa's path through Europe, foils a terrorist attempt to blow up an airplane, muses about his rocky love life and is approached by a stranger who intimates he can get Aguilar into Cuba to visit Hemingway's haunts there. Enter a sexy Englishwoman who approaches Aguilar with propositions both businesslike and sexual; she, as well as the stranger, proves to be a link to a planned major terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Neat twists and supple writing introduce Aguilar to the CIA and to adversaries as lethal as any fish or bull. This engaging novel benefits tremendously from its hero, who comes across as both real and likable, as a man shadowed by memories of his dead hero father and by an attraction to Hemingway and his concepts of valor , courage and grace. (Mar.)