Mango, Mambo, and Murder

Mango, Mambo, and Murder by Raquel Reyes is the debut of A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery series. I liked Miriam and her son, Manny as well as Alma. There are a couple of other friendly secondary characters. Miriam has a doctorate in food anthropology, and she is also an excellent cook. Her cooking along with her food knowledge lands her job at UnMundo doing cooking segments. I was frustrated with Miriam’s mother-in-law, Marjory Smith who treats Miriam terribly (likes she is dirt on her otherwise pristine shoes) and Miriam’s husband, Robert. He does not listen to Miriam, does things without consulting her, and believes his mother is just wonderful (talk about wearing blinders). The mystery followed the standard formula. Sunny Weatherman is killed early in the story, but there is little action until the second half of the book. Miriam asks good questions and uncovers clues that help her investigation. Detective Frank Pullman is your standard detective. He asks questions, arrests the wrong person, and appreciates Miriam’s help (the information she uncovers) while telling her to keep her nose out of his investigation. I ended up liking the detective more by the end of the book. I like how he calls Miriam Veronica Mars. The mystery can easily be solved early in the story. As clues were revealed, it reinforced my decision. They why took longer to figure out. I liked how the mystery came together at the end. The biggest problem I had with Mango, Mambo, and Murder was the Spanish dialogue. Miriam is Cuban and I expected there to be some Spanish in the story. There is a significant amount of Spanish dialogue with no translation (I tried to learn Spanish, but I was not successful). There is plenty of cooking in this cozy that will have you hungering for Cuban food. There is humor scattered throughout the story that I enjoyed, and I loved little Manny. Mango, Mambo, and Murder is a cute Cuban cozy with a monster mother-in-law, a mysterious murder, a key conundrum, a television triumph, an unhelpful husband, and shrewd sleuthing.

Latinx, multicultural, murder, murder-investigation, law-enforcement, amateur-sleuth, Miami-Florida, cultural-assimilation, cultural-exploration, cultural-heritage, culinary, family-dynamics, relationship-issues, cozy-mystery, friendship, friction, mothers, verbal-humor, situational-humor***** The mystery is very well done and hast lots of twists and red herrings. The characters are a hoot and so relatable. The bilingual English/Espanol adds a lot to everything. The cultural aspects are a good learning experience, as are the food anthropology lessons and the recipes. Altogether this is one great read! The brief publisher's blurb is a good teaser and I hope to see more of Miriam. I requested and received a free temporary ebook from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley.