Book Extract: The Novel Detective By Teresa Dovalpage

Please join me as we welcome Teresa Dovalpage to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, The Novel Detective.

A metafictional mystery set in Cuba past and present about a writer returning to her long-lost hometown, seeking the truth about two suspicious deaths

2020: Teresa, a Cuban-born mystery writer now living in America, gets an unexpected call from her childhood best friend, Estrella, inviting her to Havana. Estrella is determined to get answers about a case that has haunted them both for decades: the purported murder-suicide of a teacher and a student at their high school. Though Teresa doesn’t quite understand why Estrella is taking the story so personally, she’s along for the ride—as she always wanted to write a novel about this case.

1980: Fourteen-year-old Teresita, bespectacled, awkward and mystery novel–obsessed, is “nosy, but not a tattletale.” She knows who’s been skimming off the top of the amphetamine stash in her mother’s pharmacy, which teacher keeps cyanide in his cabinet at school and that their classmate Yoyi is sleeping with their English teacher. Over the course of one fateful day, Teresita gets closer than ever to learning the “Truth of Life”—her catchall term for the intricacies of adult existence—even if it means coming face to face with death.

Directly inspired by the author’s own childhood in Cuba and adult life in the United States, drawing upon the tradition of Latin American magical realism, this is a resonant tale at once personal and universal, full of nostalgia, candor and danger.

Teresa has shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy. 

*****beginning of extract*****

Step back into February 1980, Havana. The air is cool, the Beatles are forbidden, and shenanigans are brewing in a middle school housed inside a decaying building that happens to have its own ghost. Teresita, a ninth-grade student, practices the surveillance techniques she learned from the TV shows and Agatha Christie’s novels. Little did she know, these early lessons would be the very tools she’d need decades later to solve a crime.

* * *

It was a cool February afternoon. Around two-thirty, Teresita was in her favorite spot in the pharmacy, the storage area, reading Death on the Nile. She had finished school earlier that day. The last class period had been English, where the teacher, Felipe, had made rowdy jokes, laughed and danced Mozambique steps in the middle of the classroom, to the students’ delight. Fun! Why couldn’t all classes be like that? Technical drawing, for example . . .

Cristina was downstairs in a meeting. Marta and the older technicians had gone out to lunch. The only one left in the dispensary was Jorge. Teresita saw him approach the telephone and dial a number.

“I have five,” she heard him say. “Same price. Yes, in front of the fish tank.”

Jorge hung up and looked around like the spies in bad movies but didn’t notice Teresita’s presence. He left quietly a few moments later.

There was a popular TV show, Sector 40, where some very nice and competent detectives that belonged to the Revolutionary National Police invariably caught some very bad and incompetent criminals they called “social vermin.” Teresita loved the show, although she would have preferred it if not all the officers were men. Why weren’t there female detectives too? And why did none of them have real names? They only called each other “comrade lieutenant” and “comrade captain,” as if identities didn’t matter. When her turn came, if ever, the girl didn’t want to remain nameless. She fully expected to be addressed as Lieutenant Teresita!

Either way, thanks to the episodes she watched, she had learned the importance of surveillance and tracking. Then came the interrogation of suspects and the involvement of mass organizations. (Usually, a revolutionary old woman, a cederista, provided key information and made arrests possible.) In the end, the sentence was handed down, and the guilty parties went to spend a few years behind bars.

The methods used in Sector 40 were different from those of Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, the heroes of the books Teresita was addicted to reading. They started with crime analysis, drew logical conclusions and on the last pages identified the criminal without anyone’s help. But in all cases, keen observation skills were essential. In this regard, Teresita had no reason to envy those famed detectives. After all, she had four eyes, like that impertinent Marta Hernández would say.

As soon as Jorge walked away, Teresita set the book aside and peeked out the window to begin the surveillance process. Her teacher Felipe was leaning against a column, across from the aquarium. He sported a mustache à la Pedro Infante and was quite handsome and well-built. He had once been a baseball player and had the muscles to prove it. At school, the girls adored him. They would sigh when he explained how to pronounce the th sound by putting his tongue between his clean white teeth.

Now he was smoking and carried an air of concern, which was unusual for him. Teresita, who didn’t want to be discovered snooping, hid behind the plastic cover but didn’t take her eyes off the teacher.

Jorge came out of the pharmacy, approached Felipe and slipped something into his hand. The teacher, just as discreetly, handed him two crumpled bills. Teresita noticed the bills were blue, twenty-peso notes. Quite a fortune!

After the exchange, Felipe headed to Parque Central, and Jorge went back to the pharmacy. Teresita took off her glasses. The mezzanine turned into an Impressionist painting split by a dusty sunbeam. A moment later, she heard Jorge’s voice sweetening up as he spoke to Cristina:

“The meeting was good, huh, Doctora?”

“Oh, please,” she retorted. “When have you ever seen a meeting accomplish anything of value? Wasting one’s time, that’s all!”

The two climbed the spiral staircase together. Jorge entered the dispensary, and Cristina went into her office.

Teresita remembered how lively Felipe had acted that day. That wasn’t the first time that the teacher had come to class laughing too loud and humming forbidden Beatles or Bee Gees songs. Her mother had once told her that amphetamines made people “too happy for their own good.” And what else could Jorge have sold him? Crystal clear, wasn’t it?

*****end of extract*****

About Teresa Dovalpage –

Teresa Dovalpage is the author of fourteen novels, four collections of short stories in English and Spanish, and four theatre plays. Her Havana Mystery series, published by Soho Crime, began with Death Comes in through the Kitchen (2018).

Subsequent novels include Queen of Bones (2019) named by NBC News as one of the ten best books by and about Latinos of the year; Death of a Telenovela Star (2020); Death under the Perseids (2021), and Last Seen in Havana (2024) which Sarah Weinman praised in The New York Times for exploring “how familial bonds can fray, yet manage to hold steady, across the decades.” Last Seen in Havanawas also an Amazon Editor’s Pick for Best Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense.

The Novel Detective is a metafictional mystery inspired by the author’s own childhood in Cuba and adult life in the United States.

Say hello to Teresa via her website, Facebook and Instagram. 

The Novel Detective was released by Soho Crime on 14th July 2026. Click to buy on Amazon UK, Amazon US, Barnes & Noble and Waterstones.

*****

Win a Hardback copy of The Novel Detective. 

Do you live in the USA? Would you like to win a copy of The Novel Detective? Well, here’s your chance.

We have two hardback copies to give away to two lucky people.

For more details on how to enter, click on this gleam link.

USA entrants only.

*Terms and Conditions –

USA entries welcome.  Please enter using the Gleam link above. 

The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  A

ny personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  

I (Novel Kicks) am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

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Laura

I'm Laura. I started Novel Kicks back in 2009 as I wanted a place to discuss books and writing - two loves of my life. As someone who has anxiety, these two things give me, and I am sure countless others, a much needed escape.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.