The Queen of the Valley

Set in 1920s Ecuador and Colombia, Hughes’s (The Sisters of Alameda Street) latest revisits Ecuadorian chocolatier Puri, who travels to Colombia in search of her friend and cacao supplier, Martin Sabater. Upon discovering that Martin’s hacienda has been retrofitted as a Catholic hospital, she continues her investigation, going undercover as “Sor Puri,” a novice nun supposedly trained as a nurse. Amid a cholera outbreak, Puri learns that head nurse Sor Camila and Martin’s childhood friend Lucas might harbor secrets of their own. Lead narrator Frankie Corzo gives Puri a sardonic, self-aware tone, perfect for a woman with a fraught history who finds herself in over her head again. Johnny Rey Diaz’s pacing is occasionally awkward, but his portrayal of Lucas as a dreamer with lingering regrets is endearing. Gisela Chípe’s higher pitch renders Corzo’s deeper and more sonorous by contrast, which helps situate the story through jumps in time. Each narrator uses an uninflected American accent and switches cleanly into Spanish pronunciations for loan words and proper nouns, enhancing immersion.