Set in Havana during the Black Spring of 2003, a charming but poison-laced culinary mystery reveals the darker side of the modern Revolution, complete with authentic Cuban recipes Havana, Cuba, 2003: Matt, a San Diego journalist, arrives in Havana to marry his girlfriend, Yarmila, a 24-year-old Cuban woman whom he first met through her food blog. But Yarmi isn't there to meet him at the airport, and when he hitches a ride to her apartment, he finds her lying dead in the bathtub. Lovelorn Matt is immediately embroiled in a Cuban adventure he didn't bargain for: the police and secret service have him down as their main suspect, and in an effort to clear his name, he must embark on his own investigation into what happened to Yarmila. The more Matt learns about his erstwhile fiancee, though, the more he realizes he had no idea who she was at all-but did anyone?
Set between Cubas twenty years apart, Havana native Teresa Dovalpage's new mystery features an unusual detective-an ex-cop turned Santeria priest and a familiar face from her acclaimed crime fiction debut, Death Comes in through the Kitchen. Juan, a Cuban construction worker who has settled in Albuquerque, returns to Havana for the first time since fleeing Cuba by raft twenty years ago. He is traveling with his American wife, Sharon, hoping to catch up with Victor, his best friend from college-and, unbeknownst to Sharon, discover what has become of two of his ex-girlfriends, Elsa and Rosita. Juan is surprised to discover that Victor has become Victoria, and runs a popular drag show at the local hot spot Caf. Arabia. Elsa has married a wealthy foreigner, and Rosita, still single, works at the Havana cemetery. When one of these women turns up dead, it will cost Padrino, a Santeria priest and former detective on the Havana police force, more than he expects to untangle the group's lies and hunt down a killer.
Teresa Dovalpage's deliciously twisted novella, set on a Caribbean cruise, showcases the dark-and sometimes deadly-side of celebrity. Former Havana detective Marlene Martínez, now happily running a bakery in Miami, has booked a week-long cruise to Mexico and the Caribbean with her niece, Sarita, as the girl's quinceañera present. Sarita is beyond thrilled to discover that a Cuban telenovela star, Carloalberto, is also aboard for the trip. But even while trying to keep her niece away from the unsettlingly handsome actor, Marlene gets the feeling Carloalberto is in some kind of trouble-he is constantly on edge, and shady characters seem to find their way to him. When murder occurs aboard the North Star, Marlene will rely on instincts she hoped never to use again.
There's no such thing as a free cruise in Cuban American author Teresa Dovalpage's addictively clever new Havana mystery. Cuban-born Mercedes Spivey and her American husband, Nolan, win a five-day cruise to Cuba. Although the circumstances surrounding the prize seem a little suspicious to Mercedes, Nolan's current unemployment and their need to revamp their marriage make the decision a no-brainer. Once aboard, Mercedes is surprised to see two people she met through her ex-boyfriend Lorenzo: former University of Havana professor Selfa Sagarra and down-on-his-luck Spanish writer Javier Jurado. Even stranger: they also received a free cruise. When Selfa disappears on their first day at sea, Mercedes and Javier begin to wonder if their presence on the cruise is more than a mere coincidence. Worried, Mercedes confides her suspicions to her husband, who-desperate to accept the last-minute invitation he received to give a lecture at Havana University-convinces her it's all in her head. However, when Javier dies under mysterious circumstances after the cruise disembarks in Havana, and Nolan is nowhere to be found, Mercedes wanders through the city, fearing she had been right all along. Will she be next?
