September 27, 2021
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.
October 15, 2021
A dog groomer returns to her family home in Havana, little imagining the complications that await her even before she gets there. Even though she can't remember entering a raffle, Merceditas Montero Spivey wins a Nautilus Cruise Line trip for two to Havana. Since her husband, Dr. Nolan Spivey, has just been invited to give an academic paper at the University of Havana but can't afford the travel expenses from Gainesville, he's delighted. Once aboard the Narwhal, Mercy is disconcerted to hear someone paging Kiel Ostarg�, a Danish friend of Lorenzo Alvear, a professor she'd had an affair with while studying at the University of Havana. Mercy had had an abortive fling with Kiel shortly before meeting Nolan, whom she'd left Lorenzo for, but hasn't seen him since. She looks for Kiel aboard the ship, but he's nowhere to be found. The ill-named Mercy is even more apprehensive when she's recognized by her former mentor Selfa Segarra, the Havana professor she's always suspected of turning Lorenzo in to the authorities over anti-government remarks in his unpublished novel Las Perseidas, which was retitled and published in Spain after Lorenzo's suicide under the byline of his literary agent, Javier Jurado, who also happens to be aboard the Narwhal. Can it be mere coincidence that so many figures from doomed Lorenzo's past are together again? The question gains urgency as the people in question begin to disappear or die. The final revelation, improbable but logically satisfying, goes a long way to make up for the unappealing characters, and the scenes of Mercy's return to Havana are a definite plus. Is it better to travel hopefully or to arrive? This time they both look pretty dire.
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December 1, 2021
Mercedes Spivey, Cuban-born and proud of it, is working in a dog-grooming shop in Miami when she has a surprise visitor with surprising news: Mercedes has won a drawing. The prize is a free cruise to Cuba for her and her husband. Mercedes doesn't recall entering any drawing, and the visitor knows more about her than she should, but Mercedes can't turn down a chance to visit her beloved homeland for free. Once the ship is on the water, the mysterious coincidences begin. People connected to Mercedes' deceased lover turn up: a failed writer, a professor, a publisher, a shadowy ""Viking."" They tell the same odd story about winning a drawing. Then a cruise staffer informs Mercedes there was no drawing. Somebody's paying for all this. The tense set-up dissipates at this point, as Dovalpage malingers on sentimental memories of pre-Castro Cuba. But suddenly Mercedes' husband vanishes, the secrets writhing under the surface appear, and the last third of the novel delivers revelations like hammer blows. They're well worth waiting for.
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June 1, 2022
Though delighted, Cuban-born Mercedes Spivey is still uneasy when she and U.S. husband Nolan win a five-day cruise to Cuba, and she grows increasingly suspicious when acquaintances Selfa and Javier also show up with a free ride. Then disappearance and death start stalking the foursome. Cuban American Dovalpage's atmospheric series appeals not only to mystery fans.
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