To complement Radio 4's major dramatisations of The Havana Quartet by Cuba's leading crime writer, Leonardo Padura, Mark Lawson, in a new series of Foreign Bodies, examines how mystery novels have reflected five different political systems.

Zygmunt Miloszewski and Joanna Jodelka reflect on how Polish crime fiction has reflected the country's occupation by both Nazis and Communists, the transition to democracy through the Solidarity movement and lingering accusations of racism and anti-Semitism. Show less