Author: Raquel V. Reyes
Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781643857848
Crooked Lane Books
336 Pages
$26.99; $13.99 Amazon
October 12, 2021
⭐
Food anthropologist Miriam Quinones-Smith's move from New York to Coral Shores, Miami, puts her academic career on hold to stay at home with her young son. Adding to her funk is an opinionated mother-in-law and a husband rekindling a friendship with his ex. Gracias to her best friend, Alma, she gets a short-term job as a Caribbean cooking expect on a Spanish-language morning TV show. But when the newly minted star attends a Women's Club luncheon, a socialite sitting at her table suddenly falls face-first into the chicken salad, never to nibble again.
When a second woman dies soon after, suspicions coalesce around a controversial Cuban herbalist, Dr. Fuentes -- especially after the morning show's host collapses while interviewing him. Detective Pullman is not happy to find Miriam at every turn. After he catches her breaking into the doctor's apothecary, he enlists her help as eyes and ears to the places he can't access, namely the Spanish-speaking community and the tawny Coral Shores social scene.
As the ingredients to the deadly scheme begin blending together, Miriam is on the verge of learning how and why the women died. But her snooping may turn out to be a recipe for her own murder.
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Miriam Quinones-Smith met and married her husband Robert in New York, where they also had a son. But when Robert's mother offers them a down payment on a new home -- near hers, of course -- Robert doesn't refuse and so they find themselves living back in Miami, where both of them grew up. Robert has asked Miriam to put her career on hold for a year while their four-year-old son grows adapted to his new life, and so she does.
But she doesn't expect her new life to become part of a Women's Club, and on her first visit there with her friend Alma, a real estate agent, a woman passes out and dies. Ruled an accident, it's soon apparent the woman was murdered. When another woman dies, it's a sealed deal. Now Miriam is caught up in a murder investigation, trying to raise her young son, and keep her marriage together. It's not as easy as it sounds...
PLEASE NOTE THAT BELOW ARE SPOILERS SO DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK:
I wanted to read this book because I thought it would be interesting. It wasn't. I soon found out that if I wanted to read it I would have to either a) learn Spanish; b) ask my Cuban neighbor to sit with me while I read the book so he could translate; or c) keep a Spanish-to-English dictionary next to me. None of these options seemed viable, so it made the book difficult. It was mainly because almost every other paragraph was in Spanish, so it quickly became frustrating to read. No one wants to read a book that frustrates or irritates them (at least I hope not). It doesn't help that she states she speaks Spanish to her son because she wants him to be bilingual (which is perfectly fine with me), but that she wants her husband to speak English to him so he learns both languages (which isn't going to happen because Robert is never around). (FYI, I not only have a Cuban neighbor, but an Ecuadoran as well, and they both speak English to me, and a Mexican uncle who has always spoken English to my family - just putting it out there).
I also wasn't interested in learning about her son's bodily habits and body parts. I already know how it works. I find that rather weird, to tell the truth. I also didn't like her hateful mother-in-law (and, for the record, I will state that I love my own mother-in-law; but since I have a backbone, I'd leave a marriage like this rather than be miserable). I guess I just don't like the 'evil nemesis' in books, and it's worse if it's a relative, because you know they'll be in every single book.
What really got my goat was the dinner scene, where her mother-in-law didn't set a place for her at the table, and expected her to sit with the children. The very worst in this book is the fact that her husband treats her like garbage. He never comes home, doesn't tell her of his new job, allows his mother to decorate their home, and hangs out with his old girlfriend. Because of this, Miriam spent the entire book wondering if her husband was having an affair. He's a jerk and she should leave him for his cousin, who actually spent time with her and treated her well.
To sum it up: I didn't like that over half the book was in Spanish (it kind of limits your readers anyway); I didn't like Miriam, who won't stand up for herself (nothing worse than a weak woman); I didn't like Robert or his mother. The way the characters are written is not applaudable, and I can only hope that in the next book there are changes. Sorry.
More on Raquel V. Reyes: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/raquel-v-reyes/
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