{"id":20881,"date":"2022-10-23T09:45:19","date_gmt":"2022-10-23T13:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=20881"},"modified":"2024-11-13T18:13:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T23:13:30","slug":"20881","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/20881","title":{"rendered":"Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking<\/a><\/em> (2022) Raquel V. Reyes<\/a> (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I read Mango, Mambo, and Murder<\/a><\/em> and Mia P. Manansala’s Arsenic and Adobo<\/a><\/em> very close together, and have spent the past year confusing the two, because cozy mystery with food and a female lead are what I remembered.<\/p>\n

To be clear, I liked Mia P. Manansala’s mysteries, but the love triangle is never going to be something I like.<\/p>\n

Whereas Miriam Qui\u00f1ones-Smith is married, and I love<\/em> a series with a married couple working their lives out. So I was utterly delighted to see Raquel V. Reyes’s second book was finally coming out, and not only immediately bought it, I read<\/em> it immediately.<\/p>\n

The cassava I\u2019d peeled and left to soak in the large cast aluminum pot was on the eye. \u201cOh. No, that\u2019s not on. It\u2019s just soaking.\u201d I dumped the milky water into the sink and refilled it. I loved the root vegetable, but it took planning to prepare. It required a day\u2014 two was better\u2014 to leach the toxins from the tubers to make it safe to eat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’d recently finished A Is for Arsenic<\/a><\/em> so poisons were on my mind and I was delighted to come across something I knew.<\/p>\n

Miriam’s passive-aggressive-aggressive mother in law continues to meddle and be awful, but Miriam and Roberto are doing better, as he sees how terribly his mother treats Miriam and is trying to protect her more.<\/p>\n

Plus, he’s sweet.<\/p>\n

He held my purse in his lap, knowing I, like most Cuban women, had a superstition about putting my purse on the floor. Setting it on the floor was a sign of disrespect to your money. It would walk away, and you\u2019d be poor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve never understood putting your purse on the floor, because the floor is DIRTY.<\/p>\n

Plus, I love her background.<\/p>\n

This series is about an archaeologist like you,\u201d she said, holding a book by Elly Griffiths book. <\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I\u2019m an anthropologist, not an archaeologist. I dig culture, not dirt.\u201d I smiled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Geeking out about culture is such a wonderful thing it makes me happy. <\/p>\n

The Celtic pagan tradition of feeding the dead was not unlike the Mexican Dia de los Muertos practice of taking your relative\u2019s favorite meal to their grave site. The Japanese did something similar during the Buddhist Obon festival.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I mean, I ADORE that!<\/p>\n

Another thing I liked is that her son actually acts the age he is given.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was the drone\u2014 I mean, toy helicopter\u2014 doing?\u201d Frank raised his eyebrows. <\/p>\n

\u201cFlying.\u201d Manny took a sip of juice and looked at the detective like he was an idiot.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And THIS bit made me adore her even more.<\/p>\n

We went to talk to Marie\u2019s daughter. I doubled my kid-watching offer. And Marie cut her eyes at me and hissed, \u201cToo much. You will spoil her.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNo. She needs to know that caregiving is a valuable service and is not free,\u201d I said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the food! I am terrible and eating new things and have a lot of things I don’t “like”. The stories like this, with amazing descriptions of food let me enjoy things I would love to be able to eat, but not might be able to do so in real life.<\/p>\n

I thoroughly enjoyed this and can’t wait for the next book.<\/p>\n

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books<\/p>\n

Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking (2022) Raquel V. Reyes (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery) I read Mango, Mambo, and Murder and Mia P. Manansala’s Arsenic and Adobo very close together, and have spent the past year confusing the two, because cozy mystery with food and a female lead are what I remembered. To be clear, I liked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,190,292,48,24,204,8],"tags":[622,623],"class_list":["post-20881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-5-10","category-cozy","category-ebook","category-female","category-food","category-good","category-mystery","tag-caribbean-kitchen","tag-raquel-v-reyes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/siQkW-20881","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25673,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25673","url_meta":{"origin":20881,"position":0},"title":"Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"January 18, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking, Audio Book (2022) Raquel V. Reyes narrated by Frankie Corzo (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery #2) I am very much enjoying the narration. I don't speak Spanish, but the story is perfectly understandable despite that, and, honestly, I think the Spanish is lovely to listen to. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Calypso_Corpses_and_Cooking-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18895,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/18895","url_meta":{"origin":20881,"position":1},"title":"Mango, Mambo, and Murder","author":"Michelle","date":"December 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Mango, Mambo, and Murder (2021) Raquel V. Reyes (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery) Miriam Qui\u00f1ones-Smith has finished her PhD in food anthropology, but instead of becoming an author or education, she has moved back to Miami, where her husband was able to find a better paying job closer to support from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mango Mambo and Murder","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mango-Mambo-and-Murder.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mango-Mambo-and-Murder.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mango-Mambo-and-Murder.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mango-Mambo-and-Murder.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mango-Mambo-and-Murder.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25583,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25583","url_meta":{"origin":20881,"position":2},"title":"Mango, Mambo, and Murder, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"December 30, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Mango, Mambo, and Murder, Audio Book (2021) Raquel V. Reyes narrated by Frankie Corzo (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery #1) \u201cOoh, what have you been reading? I love books.\u201d Jorge clapped prayer hands. \u201cBelieve it or not, I read a lot of YA\u2014young adult. The rainbow is brighter there, if you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mango Mambo and Murder","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mango-Mambo-and-Murder-199x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25791,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25791","url_meta":{"origin":20881,"position":3},"title":"Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"February 2, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal, Audio Book (2023) Raquel V. 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Reyes (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery) What did I like about this story? \u201cNo te olvides de tus uvas,\u201d Mami warned me. It was a tradition practiced in many Latinx and Hispanic homes. You had to eat twelve grapes for good luck before the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cozy"","block_context":{"text":"Cozy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/cozy"},"img":{"alt_text":"Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Barbacoa-Bomba-and-Betrayal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Barbacoa-Bomba-and-Betrayal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Barbacoa-Bomba-and-Betrayal.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":24600,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24600","url_meta":{"origin":20881,"position":5},"title":"Dominoes, Danz\u00f3n, and Death","author":"Michelle","date":"May 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Dominoes, Danz\u00f3n, and Death (2024) Raquel V. 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My husband was a recent convert to Miami\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dominoes, Danz\u00f3n, and Death","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Dominoes-Danzon-and-Death.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Dominoes-Danzon-and-Death.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Dominoes-Danzon-and-Death.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Dominoes-Danzon-and-Death.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}