Dominoes, Danzón, and Death

Never has a cozy mystery blended cooking, anthropology, and murder so perfectly. Miriam Quiñones-Smith hosts a Miami-based cooking show, but the delectable dishes will have to wait until she solves two mysteries—one involving bones from a construction site, and the other a murdered tour guide. Each case threatens someone she cares about, from her boss to her husband and his family. Anyone who enjoys series like TV’s Bones will love the anthropological aspects of the novel, which feel well informed and realistic, down to the complicated politics surrounding the unethical treatment of Indigenous people’s remains. The breadth of Reyes’s fourth “Caribbean Kitchen Mystery” (following Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal) gives narrator Frankie Corzo space to let her talents shine. Corzo invites listeners fully into the community, from the dynamics of Miriam’s biracial household to Florida’s food scene and the messy academics of a local college. She even gets to perform the recipes at the end of the novel, creating a mouthwatering cooking show–like experience.