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Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal: 12/16/23
Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal by Raquel V. Reyes and Frankie Corzo (narrator) (2023) is the third book in the Caribbean Kitchen mystery series. What starts as a vacation to the Dominican Republic and becomes a work trip in Puerto Rico puts Miriam into the middle of a gentrification money laundering scam that's affecting so many of the small towns across the Caribbean, regardless of country. Miriam and her family were originally from Cuba. While she now lives with her husband and extended family in Florida, her parents have tried to recreate their life in the Dominican Republic. They work as property managers and here it's at a hotel that seems to have hit on a string of extremely bad luck. Miriam, though, suspects sabotage and she think's it's Jules, a developer who keeps showing up wherever she is. This mystery is one of the most complex ones I've read in a long time. Mysteries that involve travel usually follow the Murder on the Orient Express (Agatha Christie, 1934) formula, with the murder being in a fixed location with a fixed number of suspects (a train, a plane, a ship, for example). Here, though, the mystery is split across two countries with similar histories but unique cultures. There is a murder, or rather murders, as collateral damage when other methods of stealing properties doesn't work. Miriam's part in solving the mystery is out of justifiable outrage at how the wealthy are gaming a system to their own benefit to displace local people and further tank economies already suffering for a long laundry lists of reasons. As Miriam is also working through most of this book, there's we get to see her education as a food anthropologist coming through. I loved all this added detail. Frankly if Raquel V. Reyes ever branches out to write some nonfiction books about Caribbean culture and food, I will read them. Five stars Comments (0) |