(page 376) In the London Evening Standard, Ian Thomson referred to the book as "a zingy, well-researched history of the Cold War and its depredations in the Caribbean" which "offers a James Ellroy-like canvas of Duvalierist corruption, dubious CIA operatives and White House paranoia."

[1] Von Tunzelmann asserts that the political labels of the region were a sham: "democracy" was dictatorship; leaders veered to the rhetoric of the right or left according to advantage; a communist was anyone, however rightwing or nationalistic, whom the ruling regime wanted tarnished in the eyes of the US.

Writing for the U.K. newspaper The Guardian, Jad Adams described Red Heat as providing a "vivid image" of the events in the Caribbean at the time, believing that it "deftly juggles" the histories of Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

[3] In his article for newspaper The Washington Post, David Hoffman described Red Heat as containing "Suitcases full of cash, torture chambers, gunboats, coups, dictatorship and revolutionary fervor spill[ing] out of these pages."

Noting that Von Tunzelmann set Castro apart from Trujillo and Duvalier by portraying him in a more positive light, Hoffman argues that in her writing, the author "carries a distinct, admonishing voice" which was evidently "disdainful of the errors made by the United States [and] outraged by the brutality of the island bosses".

"[5] Feeling that the author had sometimes pushed her own opinions ahead of the evidence, Gjelten wrote that: Most of the references cited by von Tunzelmann consist of books by other people, but she apparently has read enough to satisfy her curiosity on questions that have confounded other historians, like when, exactly, Fidel Castro actually became a Communist.

Believing that von Tunzelmann "does make points that aren't hard to agree with", Smedly cited the example of the "inherent hypocrisy of the U.S. intervening in Cuba to protect against the potential danger of communism while ignoring human rights violations in neighboring nations."