Queen of Bones by Teresa Dovalpage - Book Tour
Queen
of Bones
Juan, a Cuban construction worker who has
settled in Albuquerque, returns to Havana for the first time since fleeing Cuba
by raft twenty years ago. He is traveling with his American wife, Sharon, and
hopes to reconnect with Victor, his best friend from college—and, unbeknownst
to Sharon, he also hopes to discover what has become of two ex-girlfriends,
Elsa and Rosita.
Juan is surprised to learn that Victor has
become Victoria and runs a popular drag show at the local hot spot Café Arabia.
Elsa has married a wealthy foreigner, and Rosita, still single, works at the
Havana cemetery. When one of these women turns up dead, it will cost Padrino, a
SanterÃa priest and former detective on the Havana police force, more than he
expects to untangle the group’s lies and hunt down the killer.
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Author Q&A
Queen of Bones
offers a detailed portrait of Havana with scenes in the cemetery, the “chic” El
Vedado neighborhood, and the posh Melia Cohiba hotel, among other places… Did
you have to research all that? Or did you remember enough about your native
city?
I remembered a lot, though when I was
writing the book, I hadn’t set foot in Havana in more than two decades. Still,
I lived there thirty years and the city hasn’t changed much. I looked online —thank
Google and Google Earth!— and asked my mother, who still lives in our old home,
for details I wasn’t so sure about. (“Is the Yara Movie Theater still open?”
“Yes.”) I went back last summer and was relieved to find out that I hadn’t made
any embarrassing mistakes.
Your first novel in the Havana Mystery Series,
Death Comes in through the Kitchen, was a culinary mystery. Is Queen
of Bones in the same category?
Though Queen of Bones has many
references to food, it isn’t a culinary mystery as such. I mean, there are no
recipes like in the first book. But I mention small private restaurants called
“paladares” and their menus. La Dulcinea Bakery is an actual place—by the way,
their flans are amazing. La Casa del Arroz is also based on a famous private
venture. Here is a description:
“Armando Bacallao is known around here as
Armando del Arroz because he has a small paladar called La Casa del Arroz.
“House of Rice” is a fitting name—all the dishes he makes are rice based. Rice
with chicken, rice pudding, fried rice, cream of rice and a dish he invented called
arroz con todo. I’d like to try it and find out what “everything” means.
Carlota says that it is like fried rice on steroids. Mmm.”
There are several quotes from a book
called El Monte (The Wilderness). Why did you choose them?
El Monte’s author, Cuban
ethnologist Lydia Cabrera, documented the dynamic relationship between African
and Catholic religious traditions and the way they merged to create the
syncretic belief system known as Santeria. She also explained how orishas
(African deities) are associated with Catholic saints or advocations of the
virgin.
Now, Santeria plays a key role in the
story—in fact, the “queen of bones” is Oya, an orisha identified with the
Virgin of Candlemas and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.
Rosita, one of the main characters, is a Santeria practitioner, and so is
Padrino, the detective who solves the case. Using quotes from El Monte was
also a way to pay homage to Lydia Cabrera.
Promotion is essential to sell books. Yet
not everyone is comfortable with it. Some authors shy away from publicity;
others love it. What’s your position?
I truly enjoy all things marketing. Last
year, for the first time, I attended Bouchercon, an annual world mystery
convention. It was so rewarding to meet other authors, attend inspiring
workshops and, of course, talk about my books. The Miami Book Fair is one of my
favorites too. After spending eight or nine months working on a novel, I love
to let prospective readers know about it. So I jump at the chance of participating
in book tours, blog tours and everything in-between. I like book talks as well—in
fact, I have one scheduled next week at the Western Heritage Museum as part of
the Distinguished Authors Series.
Do you always read at book signings and
book talks?
Not always. I see them as opportunities to
engage with the audience and entertain them. I have noticed that even the most
well-chosen extract can be difficult to follow or plain boring when taken out
of context. And then my accent doesn’t help—I am talking about book signings in
English, of course. My favorite opening line is “I do not have an accent when I
write.” So I tell people about the book, what inspired it, and how much they
can learn from someone who knows first-hand what she’s writing about. “Do you
want to know about life in Cuba?” I ask. “Well, let my book be your guide!” I’m
happy to report that it usually works.
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| Photo Credit: Delio Regueral |
Author Bio –
Teresa Dovalpage was
born in Havana and now lives in Hobbs, where she is a Spanish and ESL professor
at New Mexico Junior College. She has published ten novels and three
collections of short stories.
Her first culinary
mystery Death Comes in through the
Kitchen (Soho Crime, 2018) is set in Havana and features Padrino, a
santero-detective. It is loaded with authentic Cuban recipes like arroz con
pollo (rice with chicken) and caldosa (a yummy stew). Her second mystery, Queen of Bones, was also published by
Soho Crime in November 2019 and includes elements of SanterÃa and, again,
food—clearly, the author loves to eat! Both novels are rich in details about
life in the island, the kind only an insider can provide.
They are the first two
books of Soho Crime’s Havana Mystery series. Upcoming are Death of a Telenovela Star (June 2020) and Death under the Perseids.
She also wrote A Girl like Che Guevara (Soho Press,
2004) and Habanera, a Portrait of a Cuban
Family (Floricanto Press, 2010).
In her native Spanish
she has authored six novels, among them Muerte
de un murciano en La Habana (Death of a Murcian in Havana, Anagrama, 2006,
a runner-up for the Herralde Award in Spain) and El difunto Fidel (The Late Fidel, Renacimiento, 2011, which won the
Rincon de la Victoria Award in Spain in 2009).
Once in a while she
delves into theater. Her plays La Hija de
La Llorona and Hasta que el mortgage
nos separe (published in Teatro Latino, 2019) has been staged by Aguijón
Theater in Chicago.
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