Barb's Book Reviews: Review of "Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking: A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery" by Raquel V. Reyes

Monday, November 14, 2022

Review of "Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking: A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery" by Raquel V. Reyes

This is the second book in the 'Caribbean Kitchen' mystery series, featuring a Hispanic amateur sleuth and her circle of friends and relatives. Miriam Quiñones-Smith and Robert Smith, both natives of Miami, met and married when they were at NYU in New York. The couple and their now four-year-old son Manuel (Manny) recently returned to Miami, where they live in a toney enclave called Coral Shores.

The Smiths have a lovely home, the major downside being that they reside near Robert's mother Marjory - a snobby racist/classist who looks down on LatinX people, including her daughter-in-law.

Marjory is always sniping at Miriam, and insists on calling Manny by his middle name Douglas....which irritates Miriam no end.

Robert works for a land acquisitions and development company (which seems to involve a lot of playing golf with clients 🙂), and Miriam - a Cuban-American with a Ph.D. in food anthropology - does two cooking shows, a Spanish version called 'Cocina Caribeña' on the morning program UnMundo, and an English version called 'Abuela Approved' on YouTube. Miriam shares recipes from all over the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamacia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Mexico.

As the story opens, Halloween is approaching and Miriam and Robert are decorating their home and preparing the family's costumes. Soon afterwards, at a Halloween festival sponsored by little Manny's preschool, Robert is assailed by a socialite named Lois Pimpkin, who blames the Smiths for her daughter being in jail. Things go from bad to worse when Lois is later found unconscious and badly injured near a Halloween tombstone in the Smiths' yard. A bolt from Robert's 'Frankenstein' costume is nearby, and he (briefly) becomes a suspect in Lois's assault.

Though amateur detective Miriam has helped police investigations before, her assistance in the Lois Pimpkin case is discouraged by Detective Frank Pullman, who jokingly calls Miriam 'Veronica' (for Veronica Mars) or 'Jessica' (for Jessica Fletcher).

Miriam is able to get a bit of inside information anyway, because Robert's cousin Gordon is a cop, and he often drops by the Smiths' home.

Right now, though, Miriam has little time to investigate crimes. She's the primary caregiver for Manny, has a job, AND her mother-in-law Marjory has 'volunteered' Miriam to organize the annual Women's Club fundraiser at the Coral Shores Country Club. Miriam recruits her friends to assist, and they arrange for food trucks that serve Caribbean fare, a calypso band to provide music, and appearances by famous Latin singers.

While Miriam and her amigos are making arrangements at the country club, the facility's head chef is pushed off a balcony, and dies from the fall.

To add to the string of casualties, Miriam's neighbor is poisoned, and a shady dentist is murdered. Miriam believes all these unfortunate events are related, and makes up her mind to find the perpetrator, endangering her own life along the way.

This is a multicultural cozy, with some Spanish dialog sprinkled throughout. This didn't bother me because the meaning is usually clear from the context.

Miriam is a bold, appealing character who (usually) takes the high road with her difficult mother-in-law; prepares delicious Caribbean dishes; sticks up for her friends; and deftly bridges Miami's multiethnic culture.

I like that the author sprinkles scenes of the Smiths' everyday life between the mystery elements of the story. My major quibble with the book is the overcomplicated solution to the crimes, which requires too much explanation and doesn't quite gel.

A fun aspect of the novel are the many food references and the recipes at the end. Numerous delicious-sounding dishes are mentioned, including Soup Joumou, Tomato Medley Salad, Caldo Gallego, Ackee and Saltfish, Pollos San Marcos, Pumpkin Flan, Senorita Pastry, Pastelitos de Guayaba y Queso, and more.

Soup Joumou

Tomato Medley Salad

Caldo Gallego

Ackee and Saltfish

Pollos San Marcos

Pumpkin Flan

Senorita Pastry

Pastelitos de Guayaba y Queso

Thanks to Netgalley, Raquel V. Reyes, and Dreamscape Media for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

No comments:

Featured Post

The story opens in 1966, when thirty-seven year old Maddie Morgenstern Schwartz is a beautiful Jewish housewife with an attorney husband named Milton, a teenage son called Seth, and a lovely home in a toney Baltimore neighborhood. Many women of Maddie's generation would be happy with this life, but Maddie has ambitions for a career, so she moves out to follow her dreams. Living in a small apartment - and barely making ends meet - Maddie decides to report her diamond ring stolen for the insurance money. This acquaints Maddie with an attractive black cop named Ferdie, with whom she embarks on a TORRID affair. Given the racially charged times, Maddie and Ferdie's relationship is confined to Maddie's apartment save one 'date' at an Orioles game, where the duo pretend to be strangers making conversation. While Maddie is struggling financially, an 11-year-old girl named Tessie Fine goes missing from Maddie's former Baltimore neighborhood. Maddie joins the search and stumbles on Tessie's body near her old high school make-out spot. Afterwards, Maddie strikes up a correspondence with the prime suspect in Tessie's death, who's in jail, and unearths a clue about the crime. Maddie parlays this correspondence into a job at the Baltimore Star, assisting the consumer helpline columnist......

Featured Post

This book, about a VERY dangerous volcano, is a collaboration between Michael Crichton and James Patterson. In the backstory, Michael's wife Sherri explains that Michael was interested in volcanoes, and had begun a book, whose working title was 'The Black Zone', before he died. Sherri found the partial manuscript in Michael's archives, and felt the book should be completed. Sherri considered various collaborators, and when she met James Patterson, she knew she'd found the right guy. The result is 'Eruption.' ***** As the story opens, the Mauna Loa volcano - one of the five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii - is heating up, causing earth tremors, and getting ready to erupt. Volcanologist Dr. John MacGregor (Mac), head of the Hawaiian Volcano Institute, determines the volcano will explode in about five days. A volcano eruption is dangerous enough, but Mauna Loa is especially treacherous. Mac learns this when he's summoned to a meeting with some military brass, one of whom is Colonel James Briggs. Briggs takes Mac to a huge lava tube (like a cave) in Mauna Loa, which is filled with storage receptacles containing radioactive herbicides.......

Featured Post

London printing company saleswoman Sam Kemp was given a one-day gift pass to a high-end gym. Since the pass is about to expire, Sam decides to use it one morning before a series of sales calls. At the facility, there's a mix-up in the locker room, and Sam grabs a lookalike gym bag on her way out, leaving her own gym bag behind. Riding to to her first meeting with several colleagues, Sam reaches into the gym bag for her shoes, and instead of her sensible black pumps, Sam finds red Louboutin sling-backs with four inch heels. Sam can't go to a sales meeting in flip-flops, so she dons the Louboutins and finds that the sexy shoes fascinate clients and help with sales. This is important to Sam because she has a new boss, a nasty misogynist named Simon who's ALWAYS on Sam's case. Simon constantly says Sam can't do anything right and insinuates she's dispensable. Sam can't lose her job because she's currently the family's sole breadwinner. Sam's husband Phil - who recently lost his father and his job - just sits on the sofa and watches television. Phil is clinically depressed, but he refuses to take medication or get help......

Featured Post

Donald G. McNeil Jr. was a New York Times science and health reporter for twenty-five years. In that time, McNeil became an expert on pandemics, and he shares his insights in this book. The treatise is divided into four parts: Initial Reflections on Pandemics; The Tangled Roots of Pandemics; The Human Factors That Spread Pandemics; and Some Ways to Head Off Future Pandemics. 🧬 Initial Reflections on Pandemics Since it's so recent, the Covid pandemic is well-known around the globe. Many plagues have come and gone, however, most of which are not in the world's collective consciousness. McNeil is more conversant with global contagions than most, his first 'up close' experience being in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1998, at an orphanage full of HIV-positive children doomed to die. South African AIDS Orphanage Triple-therapy antiretroviral cocktails for HIV were available, but they were expensive, and South Africa couldn't afford them. There were negotiations and patent wars and so on, and in time, pharmaceutical companies were (essentially) pressured into selling the drugs to poor countries for reduced prices. McNeil observes, "The world was changing its attitude toward the dying poor." This is important for many reasons, one being that - in our interconnected world - ANY reservoir for contagious diseases is a potential threat to everyone......

Featured Post

In this 7th book in the 'Chet and Bernie' series, the detective team investigates a murder far from their home turf. ***** In the Chet and Bernie stories, Bernie Little and his hundred-plus pound dog Chet run the Little Detective Agency in Arizona. The books are narrated by Chet, whose somewhat limited vocabulary, unfamiliarity with idioms, doggie logic, and tendency to get distracted set the stage for plenty of smiles. Bernie is a West Point graduate, war veteran, former police lieutenant, and talented private detective. Chet is Bernie's invaluable partner, always ready to clamp his jaw on perps and drag them off by the pants. As the story opens, Bernie decides to visit his journalist girlfriend Suzie Sanchez, who relocated to Washington DC for a better job. In the capital, Suzie lives in the carriage house of a political insider named Lizette, who hosts fund raisers for candidates running for office. When Bernie and Chet arrive at Suzie's home, an urbane English gentleman named Eben St. John is just leaving, and he calls out 'bye love' to Suzie......

Featured Post

In this 21st book in the 'Charlie Parker' series, the sleuth investigates the disappearance of a child. This supernatural mystery thriller works fine as a standalone. When two-year-old Henry Clark disappears from his toddler bed in Portland, Maine..... .......suspicion quickly falls on Henry's mother Colleen. Colleen's husband Stephen - who was on a business trip when Henry vanished - tells the police that Colleen had post-partum depression and anger issues. When Stephen finds a blood-stained blanket in the trunk of Colleen's car, that clinches it. For her part, Colleen says she had a glass of wine, fell asleep, and woke up to find Henry gone. Colleen further claims to know nothing about the blood-stained blanket in her car, but the authorities don't believe her, and prepare to make an arrest. Colleen is represented by attorney Moxie Castin...... ......who works with private detective Charlie Parker. Colleen, who's distraught about her missing child, believes Parker will understand her plight because he lost his daughter years ago. Little Henry's disappearance galvanizes the public, and journalists, vloggers, amateur detectives, web sleuths, and would be podcasters, along with protesters of various types haunt the Clarks' neighborhood.......

Featured Post

Isaac Mizrahi, born in 1961, is probably best known as a fashion designer, and that is indeed one of his many talents. But Mizrahi is an entertainer at heart, and has been since childhood. In this memoir Mizrahi writes that seeing Stephen Sondheim's Broadway show 'Follies' at the age of nine inspired him to set up a puppet theater in the family garage. A scene from Follies Isaac constructed the stage as well as the puppets, and sewed "over the top costumes" for his animated performers. For materials, Isaac got scraps of cloth from his fashionista mother Sarah, who edited her store-bought clothes and gave Isaac the remnants. The young producer also tiptoed into his parents' bedroom when they were asleep, and sneaked cash to buy fabric and extras - like feathers and sequins - from the textile store. Isaac Mizrahi with a puppet of himself Isaac periodically put on puppet shows for the neighborhood kids. He named his puppet reviews Follies, though they were original creations - not knockoffs of the Broadway show. Mizrahi's puppetry went on through the early years of high school, when he'd schlep a mobile puppet theater to children's parties across Brooklyn, to earn spending money......

Featured Post

Each of the Sparrow women of Unity, Massachusetts has an unusual ability which manifests itself on her 13th birthday. In this book - due to a confluence of circumstances - three generations of Sparrow women find themselves living together in the family's vintage "cake house" - which has the shape of a giant wedding cake. Brought together are: - Elinor - who can detect liars; - Elinor's daughter Jenny - who can see people's dreams; - and Jenny's daughter Stella - who can see how people will die. At the beginning of the story Jenny, her husband Will, and her daughter Stella are living in Cambridge, Massachusetts when 13-year-old Stella 'sees' that a woman is going to be murdered. Stella insists her father tell the police and when the woman is killed, Will - having 'suspicious knowledge of the crime' - is arrested for the murder. Stella's parents ship her off to Unity to protect her from the real killer and Jenny soon joins her there, where they remain......

Featured Post

Patrick Stewart, born in 1940, is an English actor whose career has spanned seven decades in theater, film, television and more. Stewart is perhaps best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men movies. Stewart grew up in the town of Mirfield, in the north of England. Mirfield was an industrial and agricultural enclave, and most of its residents - including Patrick's family - struggled financially. Stewart's father Alfred was a decorated army officer, and his mother Gladys worked in a textile mill. Mirfield After leaving the military, Alfred Stewart had a hard time adjusting to civilian life, and he drank and beat his wife, behavior that profoundly affected Patrick and his older brother Trevor. Still, young Patrick was a tough lad. Stewart writes, "I was not a softy as a boy. I couldn't afford to be. Where I came from, if you weren't tough on the playground, you became a target for bullying." Young Patrick Stewart (right) with his mother Gladys and brother Trevor.....

Featured Post

Betty Jean (BJ), an African American hotel employee, lives in a middle-class, mixed-race neighborhood in Los Angeles with her husband Lee David, who has Alzheimer's disease. As the book opens BJ's drug-addict daughter Trinetta drops off her two school-aged sons, Luther and Ricky, 'for a few days' while she 'applies for a job'. Trinetta then takes off for Atlanta with her new guy, leaving the kids behind. BJ also has other things on her mind. Her oldest son Quentin, a wealthy chiropractor who's distanced himself from the family, has just married his fifth blonde Caucasian wife. BJ's middle son Dexter is in prison and constantly sends letters complaining about his wrongful conviction for carjacking (he did it), talking about his big plans for the future (delusional), and asking for money (which BJ doesn't have). BJ has Dexter's number though, and she lets him know it. BJ is also concerned about her two sisters: Arlene - proud of her psychology degree - is a single mother.....

Barb's Book Reviews

Monday, November 14, 2022

Review of "Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking: A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery" by Raquel V. Reyes

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive

Netgalley

Netgalley Challenge

Goodreads

Contact Form

Netgalley

Netgalley

Blog Archive