Hello Friends!
Happy Saturday! I hope you are having a relaxing day at home. With the virus and all the chaos attached, I’m staying home, reading and writing. And today I have a review to share with you guys.
“Queen of Bones“, written by Teresa Dovalpage, is a mystery novel the second novel in the Havana Mystery Series, published on November 12th 2019 by Soho Crime.
I want to thank Rachel, at Rachel’s Random Resources, and Teresa Dovalpage for the eCopy of this book and for allowing me to join in the fun and being a part of the blog tour with my honest review of the book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Synopsis
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, and hopes to reconnect with Victor, his best friend from college—and, unbeknownst to Sharon, he also hopes to discover what has become of two ex-girlfriends, Elsa and Rosita.
Juan is surprised to learn that Victor has become Victoria and runs a popular drag show at the local hot spot Café 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 Santería priest and former detective on the Havana police force, more than he expects to untangle the group’s lies and hunt down the killer.
Purchase Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Soho Press
Author Bio
Teresa Dovalpage was born in Havana and now lives in Hobbs, where she is a Spanish and ESL professor at New Mexico Junior College. She has published ten novels and three collections of short stories.
Her first culinary mystery Death Comes in through the Kitchen (Soho Crime, 2018) is set in Havana and features Padrino, a santero-detective. It is loaded with authentic Cuban recipes like arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) and caldosa (a yummy stew). Her second mystery, Queen of Bones, was also published by Soho Crime in November 2019 and includes elements of Santería and, again, food—clearly, the author loves to eat! Both novels are rich in details about life in the island, the kind only an insider can provide.
They are the first two books of Soho Crime’s Havana Mystery series. Upcoming are Death of a Telenovela Star (June 2020) and Death under the Perseids.
She also wrote A Girl like Che Guevara (Soho Press, 2004) and Habanera, a Portrait of a Cuban Family (Floricanto Press, 2010).
In her native Spanish she has authored six novels, among them Muerte de un murciano en La Habana (Death of a Murcian in Havana, Anagrama, 2006, a runner-up for the Herralde Award in Spain) and El difunto Fidel (The Late Fidel, Renacimiento, 2011, which won the Rincon de la Victoria Award in Spain in 2009).
Once in a while she delves into theater. Her plays La Hija de La Llorona and Hasta que el mortgage nos separe (published in Teatro Latino, 2019) has been staged by Aguijón Theater in Chicago.
Social Media Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter
My Review
This is the second novel I have read of Teresa Dovalpage, since I have read book one in the series and I enjoyed it a lot, so getting the opportunity of reading the second novel was exciting. I always have fun with mystery books for various reasons that I will tell you in a second.
First of all, I loved that this book happened in Cuba, since it’s a place I have never been to, and that I honestly don’t know enough about. I liked that by reading this book I was transported to that place and that time, thanks to Teresa Dovalpage’s descriptions and writing style. With the first novel she had me already curious about Cuba and it’s culture, with this one she made me want to read more books happening in Cuba.
Has I was taken into a journey to uncover a murder mystery, I was also on an adventure to learn more about the scenery and the people, and the author did a brilliant job in opening our eyes and making us curious. The amazing thing is that by following the characters and by having this intriguing plot that took us on a interesting journey, I felt as if I was getting involved in the plot in some sense. That’s one of the more amazing things about a mystery novel, the feeling of being a part of the story to the point were we are trying to figure things out along side the characters, an that’s something the novel had.
Then there were the characters. The diversity and the well written characters were what truly made the story much more interesting, for me at least. I won’t say much about them because I hope you guys go read the book and uncover the secrets and have fun getting to know the characters.
Overall, I enjoyed quite a bit and it was just what I needed. Mystery novel have always been the kind of book that gets my mind working, since I was a kid and I would watch all the true crime shows and even the tv shows like CSI and even some oldies like Murder She Wrote, that I have been fascinated in those stories. So when I get a book like “Queen of Bones” that makes me think and try to figure out who the culprit is, I get excited and can’t stop reading. That been said, if you like mystery novels and would like to adventure in a new country, you should definitely check out this series.
Don’t forget to check out all the other bloggers that given their contribute in this Blog Tour, from reviews to basic promo/spotlight posts.
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I always welcome new books to add to my list and I’m always excited to do reviews and read books. And I’m open to debate and exchange opinions, so let’s talk.
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Love,
Jess
Jess Bookish Life 