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The Novel Detective is the latest novel from author Teresa Dovalpage.
2020: Teresa, a Cuban-born mystery writer now living in America, gets an unexpected call from her childhood best friend, Estrella, inviting her to Havana. Estrella is determined to get answers about a case that has haunted them both for decades: the purported dual suicides of a teacher and student at their high school. Though Teresa doesn’t quite understand why Estrella is taking the story so personally, she’s along for the ride—as she always wanted to write a novel about this case.
1980: Fourteen-year-old Teresita, bespectacled, awkward and mystery novel–obsessed, is “nosy, but not a tattletale.” She knows who’s been skimming off the top of the amphetamine stash in her mother’s pharmacy, which teacher keeps cyanide in his cabinet at school and that their classmate Yoyi is sleeping with their English teacher. Over the course of one fateful day, Teresita gets closer than ever to learning the “Truth of Life”—her catchall term for the intricacies of adult existence—even if it means coming face to face with death.
Drawing upon the tradition of Latin American magical realism and directly inspired by the author’s own childhood in Cuba and adult life in the United States, this resonant tale is at once personal and universal, full of nostalgia, candor and danger.
The Novel Detective is a fascinating read and one that rather odd to put it any paticular genre as it straddles a few. It’s a mystery with intriguing puzzles that keep you turning the page, and part exploration of life in Cuba.
The past and present timelines blend seamlessly and show two very different Cubas and how both Teresita and Teresa view the events that happened.
A fascinating and intriguing read.
You can get a copy of The Novel Detective here!
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