I had one foot in the red clay of the Appalachian foothills and one foot in the Caribbean Sea. As a young person, I straddled the two cultures a little like the Colossus of Rhodes. In truth I never did master fitting in and now that I’m older it matters less. I was constantly watching, analyzing, and cataloging behaviors and customs so as to fit in. RR: Not belonging entirely to one culture or another made me an observer of both.

How did that upbringing shape you into becoming a writer? RN: You’ve mentioned before how your upbringing was like an I Love Lucy episode, with a heavily-accented, Cuban dad and a red-headed Southern mom. In this Q&A, Reyes gets to dish about growing up in the South, her path to becoming a crime fiction writer, the use of Spanish in English-language fiction, and helping marginalized writers. Reyes has long been heavily involved in the crime fiction community and currently serves as co-chair of Sleuthfest and at-large director of Mystery Writers of America.

A sequel, Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking, is due out later this year. The book earned praise from the New York Times, which said “it executes its mission - mixing standard tropes, memorable characters, the importance of family and murder in unexpected quarters - with panache,” as well as an Agatha Award nomination. Reyes takes the comforting cozy recipe and tosses in her own sofrito, adding Latine flavor to an increasingly diversified genre. With this tale, the first of her Caribbean Kitchen Mystery series, Raquel V.

In Mango, Mambo, and Murder, Cuban-American food anthropologist Miriam Quiñones-Smith turns amateur sleuth when the socialite sitting next to her faceplants into a chicken salad.

Raquel v reyes