Raquel V. Reyes
Raquel V. Reyes is a Cuban-American author and television food and culture journalist who brings her dual expertise to a delightful series of culinary mystery novels set in Miami’s vibrant Latino community. Born and raised with strong ties to Cuban heritage, Reyes has spent her career at the intersection of food, culture, and storytelling, and her fiction reflects all three passions with infectious energy and warmth.
Reyes’s debut novel, Mango, Mambo, and Murder (2021), introduced Miriam Quiñones-Smith, a Caribbean food anthropologist living in the fictional town of Coral Shores, Florida, near Miami. Miriam is a PhD whose academic career is on hold while she adjusts to suburban Florida life as a stay-at-home mother, but her expertise in Caribbean food traditions and her irrepressible curiosity keep drawing her into local mysteries. The novel was praised for its sparkling voice, its vivid portrayal of Miami’s Cuban-American community, and its mouthwatering integration of food culture and mystery. Reyes grounds every plot development in authentic culinary and cultural detail, and her protagonist’s warmth and humor make the books an irresistible pleasure to read.
The subsequent Miriam Quiñones-Smith novels — including Calypso, Coquito, and Christmas Criminals (2022) and Mole, Mambo, and Murder (2023) — have continued to develop the series’ world and deepen its portrayal of Miami’s diverse Latino communities. Reyes brings a scholar’s attention to authentic cultural representation and a novelist’s gift for character and plot, creating mysteries that feel genuinely embedded in a community and culture rather than using ethnicity as mere decoration.
Reyes is a passionate advocate for diverse representation in crime fiction and has spoken widely about the importance of seeing authentic Latino voices and experiences reflected in popular genre fiction. Her work has been recognized with nominations and praise from the mystery fiction community, and she has become a beloved figure in the culinary mystery subgenre. Her novels are vivid, funny, food-obsessed, and deeply humane — everything a cozy mystery series should be.