Audiobook11 hours
Death Comes in through the Kitchen
Written by Teresa Dovalpage
Narrated by Cynthia Farrell
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
()
About this audiobook
Set in Havana during the Black Spring of 2003, a charming but poison-laced culinary mystery reveals the darker side of the modern Revolution, complete with authentic Cuban recipes Havana, Cuba, 2003: Matt, a San Diego journalist, arrives in Havana to marry his girlfriend, Yarmila, a 24-year-old Cuban woman whom he first met through her food blog. But Yarmi isn't there to meet him at the airport, and when he hitches a ride to her apartment, he finds her lying dead in the bathtub. Lovelorn Matt is immediately embroiled in a Cuban adventure he didn't bargain for: the police and secret service have him down as their main suspect, and in an effort to clear his name, he must embark on his own investigation into what happened to Yarmila. The more Matt learns about his erstwhile fiancee, though, the more he realizes he had no idea who she was at all-but did anyone?
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Reviews for Death Comes in through the Kitchen
Rating: 2.8461538461538463 out of 5 stars
3/5
13 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cozy Cuban NoirReview 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow: 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!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A 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. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Cuban-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.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Stupid San Diego journalist gets involved in a virtual relationship with a Cuban food blogger and thinks he is going to marry her. He arrives in Cuba with a wedding dress. She doesn't meet him at the airport, and when he arrives at her place, she's dead. The story goes downhill from there. The Cuban authorities think he's a government spy. He discovers his beloved is also seeing another man. He has no rights because he's in Cuba during a time before the United States resumed relations with the country. The dead girl is not who she appeared to be. The book falls flat, fails to engage the reader, and wastes paper or bandwidth. I received an advance reader's copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, and that is the only reason I kept reading it.