Cuban-born Teresa Dovalpage's third mystery with Soho Crime/Soho Press was published over the summer; a copy reached me a few weeks ago and turned out to be the perfect light dessert for the season!
DEATH OF A TELENOVELA STAR opens with Marlene Martínez—a former Havana detective with a role in one of Dovalpage's earlier mysteries—finally taking some time off. Her brush with crime in Cuba helped motivate her to move to Miami, Florida, where she owns her own bakery. She loves it! But still, it's time to give her niece Sarita a significant quinceañera gift, and what she's opted for is an aunt-and-niece cruise to Mexico and the Caribbean. When a Cuban telenovela (soap opera) star turns out to be a fellow passenger, hunky and appealing, family bonding takes second place to social media posting for Sarita.
This is a compact, quick-paced novella with some fortune telling, a murder, and small revelations about Marlene along the way. "Men cause more trouble than they are worth," the retired detective tells herself, an easy enough position to take about the overly adored TV star -- but not as realistic when the cruise chef starts to pay some serious attention to Marlene's baking background and tastes in food.
All in all, a light-hearted, cleverly put together mystery, enjoyable and gently revelatory—treat yourself to a copy, and share it with a "bestie" so you can smile about it together.
PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.
