Death under the Perseids
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- ¥1,700
発行者による作品情報
There’s no such thing as a free cruise in Cuban American author Teresa Dovalpage's addictively clever new Havana mystery.
Cuban-born Mercedes Spivey and her American husband, Nolan, win a five-day cruise to Cuba. Although the circumstances surrounding the prize seem a little suspicious to Mercedes, Nolan’s current unemployment and their need to spice up their marriage make the decision a no-brainer. Once aboard, Mercedes is surprised to see two people she met through her ex-boyfriend Lorenzo: former University of Havana professor Selfa Segarra and down-on-his-luck Spanish writer Javier Jurado. Even stranger: they also received a free cruise.
When Selfa disappears on their first day at sea, Mercedes and Javier begin to wonder if their presence on the cruise is more than coincidence. Mercedes confides her worries to her husband, but he convinces her that it’s all in her head.
However, when Javier dies under mysterious circumstances after disembarking in Havana, and Nolan is nowhere to be found, Mercedes scrambles through the city looking for him, fearing her suspicions were correct all along.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When down-on-her-luck Florida pet groomer Mercedes Spivey, the heroine of this lighthearted outing from Dovalpage (Death of a Telenovela Star), wins a free cruise for two to Havana, Cuba, where she was born and raised, she jumps at the chance to visit her grandmother there. The trip's also a chance, she hopes, to rekindle the romance with Nolan, her Spanish professor husband. Mercedes suspects duplicity in the free cruise when two people with connections to her late ex-boyfriend, writer Lorenzo Alvear, also appear on the ship. One of them, a professor who worked closely with Lorenzo, soon disappears, and by the time Mercedes arrives in Havana, it becomes clear she's dealing with a killer bent on revenge. Mercedes's relationship with Lorenzo, who died by suicide after she left him for Nolan, unravels in flashbacks, which portray her at first as shallow and selfish but lay the ground for the full, complex character that later emerges. Armchair travelers will appreciate the views of Havana through the eyes of Mercedes and her grandmother, and, while many readers may guess the ending early on, the journey proves to be much more than its destination. Dovalpage remains a writer to watch.
