Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources and the author for my gifted ebook in exchange for my honest review.
A metafictional mystery set in Cuba past and present about a writer returning to her long-lost hometown, seeking the truth about two suspicious deaths
2020: Teresa, a Cuban-born mystery writer now living in America, gets an unexpected call from her childhood best friend, Estrella, inviting her to Havana. Estrella is determined to get answers about a case that has haunted them both for decades: the purported murder-suicide of a teacher and a student at their high school. Though Teresa doesn’t quite understand why Estrella is taking the story so personally, she’s along for the ride—as she always wanted to write a novel about this case.
1980: Fourteen-year-old Teresita, bespectacled, awkward and mystery novel–obsessed, is “nosy, but not a tattletale.” She knows who’s been skimming off the top of the amphetamine stash in her mother’s pharmacy, which teacher keeps cyanide in his cabinet at school and that their classmate Yoyi is sleeping with their English teacher. Over the course of one fateful day, Teresita gets closer than ever to learning the “Truth of Life”—her catchall term for the intricacies of adult existence—even if it means coming face to face with death.
Directly inspired by the author’s own childhood in Cuba and adult life in the United States, drawing upon the tradition of Latin American magical realism, this is a resonant tale at once personal and universal, full of nostalgia, candor and danger.
Purchase Link – https://a.co/d/07wXiBOR
My Review
A brand new author to me, when I read the blurb for The Novel Detective, I knew it would be a book for me. A dual timeline story set in Havana and the US.
We are introduced to Teresa and Estrella, who have been friends since the 1980s in Havana, when they discovered a friend and a teacher dead on their school campus.
Now in 2020 Estrella phones Teresa, who is a mystery writer, to ask her to return to Havana and attempt to find out what actually happened back then. Teresa decides to go and do some digging but the further they dig the more they realise it isn’t as it seems.
This is one of my favourite types of books. Not only was I entertained, but the author actually educated me about Cuba and the Cuban people. The mystery itself was captivating, and I was as eager as the two main characters to try to discover who the murderer really was!
The author created a strong sense of place, her detailed descriptions actually made me feel I could be in Cuba with Teresa and Estrella. These two characters were well fleshed out and believable too.
The intrigue had me hanging on to every word she wrote! I needed to know everything and now! So I just kept reading until I almost fell asleep with my Kindle in my hands! I am planning to look for more of Teresa Dovelpage’s books, I enjoyed this one immensely!
Author Bio
Teresa Dovalpage is the author of fourteen novels, four collections of short stories in English and Spanish, and four theatre plays. Her Havana Mystery series, published by Soho Crime, began with Death Comes in through the Kitchen (2018). Subsequent novels include Queen of Bones (2019) named by NBC News as one of the ten best books by and about Latinos of the year; Death of a Telenovela Star (2020); Death under the Perseids (2021), and Last Seen in Havana (2024) which Sarah Weinman praised in The New York Times for exploring “how familial bonds can fray, yet manage to hold steady, across the decades.” Last Seen in Havana was also an Amazon Editor’s Pick for Best Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense. The Novel Detective is a metafictional mystery inspired by the author’s own childhood in Cuba and adult life in the United States.
Social Media Links
https://teredovalpage.com
https://www.facebook.com/dovalpage/
https://www.instagram.com/teresadovalpage/
sharonbeyondthebooks.uk 