Cozy Cuban Noir
Review of the Soho Crime paperback edition (2019) of the original Soho Crime hardcover (2018)

I enjoyed the variety of this first 'Havana Mystery' by Teresa Dovalpage which is an odd mashup of a food cozy with the underlying edge of the Cuban Black Spring of 2003. There are also shifts of PoV from the American protagonist Matt and Cuban police investigator Martinez and her past mentor El Padrino, who is actually the major detective in this case and apparently in the follow-up Havana Mystery #2 [book:Queen of Bones|45036550].

Retired police inspector El Padrino is also a Santeria priest, which adds a whole other element to the story. The inserts of Cuban food blogs are somewhat of a distraction from the forward momentum of the plot, but are still entertaining in their own way and add a somewhat foreboding edge to the story when you know how things turn out. ( )

Reposted from Reviewing the Evidence, with permission.

Love comes in through the kitchen, or so a Cuban saying goes. For Matt Sullivan, it came through a food blog written by Cuban woman with whom he has struck up a long-distance relationship. He plans to propose to Yarmila and is so optimistic about his success he has brought a bridal gown to Havana with him. Alas, his beloved fails to meet him at the airport and when he finally makes it to her apartment, he finds her dead. The police consider him a person of interest, and likely a CIA agent to boot. Complicating matters, it appears Yarmila had a local boyfriend who has a short temper. Brokenhearted and confused, Matt enlists the help of Padrino, a retired policeman who is also a respected Babalawo, a practitioner of Santeria, to see if he can find out who killed his two-timing fiancee.

Yarmila's blog posts (with recipes and comments from American fans) are interleaved between chapters about Matt's experiences as he waits for the police to release his passport and Padrino's investigations. Thanks to the lack of gritty violence and abundance of recipes, this mystery falls into the cozy genre, though it has some anomalies, including nonbinary sexuality in place of more traditional romance.

The crime itself is not terrifically complex apart from the central question: who was Yarmila, really? Why did she write so charmingly about Cuban food that no Cuban could actually afford to cook? Why did she lead Matt on?

There is an abundance of interesting characters sketched out – an elderly pot-smoking host at a not-quite-legal bed and breakfast, a feisty woman who runs an unlicensed restaurant, a Cuban-American who wants to take her handsome Cuban boyfriend home with her, a flirtatious kitchen worker who sings torch songs in drag at an underground nightclub, a serious-minded police lieutenant who can't help but contrast her law-abiding penury with the small luxuries her murder victim had enjoyed. The major character, though, is Cuba itself, as charming and mysterious as Yarmila, a place where the Orishas share power with party officials and the shady entrepreneurs who keep the economy and people's spirits sputtering along, finding ways to celebrate a revolution using black market goods.

Teresa Dovalpage has published numerous novels, short stories, and plays. This is her second novel in English and first mystery (though she also contributed a story to the anthology THE USUAL SANTAS). The crime and the recipes take a back seat to the rich flavor the author provides of a culture and a country so close to the US and yet so far away.

Wow: what a powerful book; although classified as "mystery" it is political as well. It is multi-layered and the characters are as real as one can get without being caricatures.

I was drawn in by the cover, but the title reminded me of a typical cozy, which this certainly is not.

Matt, a food journalist from San Diego, returns to Cuba thinking that he is going to marry Yarmila, the editor of a very popular Cuban food blog written in English.

Matt arrives w/ Anne, the American cougar, who is there to hook-up w/ Yony, her Cuban boy-toy. Yony is a brisnero, a seller of hard to come by goods & taxi driver.

When Yarmila, Yarmi, does not meet Matt at the airport as promised, he goes to her apartment and finds her dead floating in her bathtub.

Matt meets & spends times w/ all of Yarmi's friends & acquaintances:
* Isabel (who runs La Calderosa, a restaurant that she partners w/ Yarmi) Isabel's husband & son (Pato Macho, Yarmi's Cuban lover);
*Yony, the purveyor of food & goods for la Caldosa & Yarmi;
*Taty, el mariconcito who works in Isabel's restaurant & a drag club; *Ramon, who runs the guest hostel that both Anne & Matt stay in,
*Carmela & Pablo, "los gusanos" who write about & publish the truth about Fidel's inhumane Cuba
* Policia Marlene, who is investigating Yarmi's murder w/ her former instructor turned Santero:
*Padrino, who both find out that Yarmi wasn't who everyone believed her to be....

This book was not only well written, but it held my interest; I only stopped reading @ 4:00 am because my eyes finally closed & refused to open.

A thick plot, sidewinders, and in the midst of it all one grand deception that blows up the lives of everyone Yarmi knew & feigned to love.

Oh yeah! recipes.... there are fantastic Cubano Recipes! ( )

A food-centric murder mystery set in Cuba? Sounds awesome, right? Unfortunately, Matt (the ostensible protagonist) was an unpleasant, condescending, judgmental asshole and the ending to the central mystery was a convenient coincidence. In other words, it's not up to the standard that I expect from Soho Crime.

Some of the recipes sounded tasty, though. ( )

Cuban-born Teresa Dovalpage takes readers right into the heart of Havana; indeed, the setting was one of my favorite parts of the book. The other part I liked was the mystery itself surrounding Yarmila the food blogger. Having Matt realize that he really didn't know her was to be expected; what does come as a surprise is just what Yarmila was up to.

Unfortunately, except for Lieutenant Marlene Martínez of the magnificent posterior, none of the rest of the characters fired me up at all. Even the lieutenant fell a bit short, but I did like watching her run her investigation into Yarmila's death. Matt Sullivan, the main character, was particularly disappointing. He was gullible and ineffectual and more than once behaved like the sort of entitled American that makes me cringe.

Death Comes in through the Kitchen's setting and mystery are the stars of the show, but the characterization and pacing definitely need some work. ( )