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.
Win 2 x hardback copies of the book (US only) **
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.
Website Facebook Instagram
My thoughts: This was a really interesting way of exploring the author’s own past and a tragic case that had haunted her for years.
Going back to Cuba years after she left, Teresa finds a completely different place to the one she left, but her ghosts wait around every corner. Her childhood friend Estrella wants her help to try to find out who killed their classmate Yoyi and English teacher, who may well have been involved with her.
The two women never really believed that the victims had committed suicide, it didn’t add up, but they weren’t sure who could have been angry enough with both to kill them.
As they explore the new Old Havana and revisit their past, they also piece together the events around the shocking double murder and work out who might have been holding onto a grudge intense enough to kill.
A fascinating and enjoyable read set in a country that I don’t know a lot about but clearly has many stories still waiting to be told.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
**Terms and Conditions –USA entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam box below. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or
email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of
the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for
fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.**
ramblingmads 
Thank you for featuring my novel!
LikeLike