DOMINOES, DANZÓN, AND DEATH

A trio of threats disrupts a food anthropologist’s “beautifully chaotic” life.

Miriam Quiñones has developed several ways of meeting the challenges of living in a multicultural, multigenerational household. The “Spanish to Mami—English to Papi” rule helps ensure her children will grow up bilingual. Treats like cream cheese and guava pancakes give Manny and Sirena access to Caribbean foodways, and playing dominoes with Abuelo helps them learn Caribbean games. But juggling her job at UnMundo television network with the demands of her family can be a stretch, particularly when friends depend on her skills to solve a variety of puzzles. Within weeks, her husband, Robert, needs her help uncovering the source of a cache of bones unearthed at his country club construction site, her sister-in-law wants to know why a skeleton in board shorts washed up near a friend’s house, and her mother-in-law needs help identifying the anonymous party who’s sending her threatening letters. Worse, Delvis Ferrer, the director of Miriam’s television show, is accused of killing a tour guide who tries to interfere with their taping. To cope with these multiple demands, Miriam adopts a strategy highly unusual among amateur sleuths: She turfs the murder investigation to the police, makes perfunctory jabs at the skeleton puzzle, and dodges her mother-in-law repeatedly. Her most concerted effort is unraveling the enigma of the bones, but even there, she devotes as much energy to fending off microaggressions as she does to solving the crime.

A hodgepodge of history and mystery that leaves crime-solving in clear second place.