From Publishers Weekly
Smart, savvy Lupe Solano returns for murder, romance and another caf? con leche in the fourth installment of Garc!a-Agu!lera's Miami-based series (Bloody Secrets, etc.). This time it's Lupe's sister Lourdes, who's a nun at the Order of the Holy Rosary, who presents the PI with a troubling mystery. Lourdes's Mother Superior hires Lupe to look into claims that on October 10, Cuban Independence Day, a miracle will take place when the holy statute of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre will cry tears over the separation of her people in Cuba and the U.S. Lupe has less than a month to find out who or what is behind this miracle, and if it will indeed take place. Her trusty sidekicks Nestor and Marisol, at first wary of the very notion of questioning the Catholic Church, assist Lupe in the investigation, digging into the suspicious activities of a group of Yugoslavian nuns who are undoubtedly tied into to the miracle. When corpses start turning up, Lupe knows she's involved in dangerous business, but her curiosity impels her to seek the truth. A memorable tale of Cuban-American life, this novel boasts an engaging plot and a fiery heroine armed with sharp insights into Cuban and Catholic ways that will lead readers happily into the sultry heat of Little Havana. Agent, Elizabeth Ziemska. (Oct.) FYI: Garc!a-Agu!lera, a former Miami PI, emigrated from Cuba to the U.S. in 1960.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Something funny is going on among the Order of the Illumination of the Sacred Virgin. The order, transplanted from Yugoslavia to Miami, has already reported two miraculous healings, and now they've announced a third that hasn't even happened yet. On the morning of October 3, according to their toll-free hot line (1-800-MIRACLE, or 1-800-MILAGRO for Spanish speakers), the statue of the Virgen de la Caridad will weep real tears in her shrine at Coconut Grove. The Mother Superior of the neighboring Order of the Holy Rosary, not one to take this sort of thing lying down, asks Sister Lourdes Solano to bring her sister Lupe Solano onto the case, remaining careful to build a firewall of deniability between herself and her shamus, and Lupe's most intriguing case is off with a bang. The only problem is that it's practically impossible to get an earful of what's going on inside the Order of the Illumination (Lupe's attempt to pass herself off as a postulant comes to nothing), and the few leads who have any knowledge of the orderan archdiocesan gardener, a nun from Massachusetts and her triplet brothersoon come to grief. Sadly, do does the story, dragged down by an unexpectedly skittish client, a disappointing killer, and a frustratingly inconclusive conclusion. Along the way, though, Lupe (Bloody Shame, 1997, etc.) folds a tense anti-Castro subplot and some disturbingly manipulative sex into a tale whose ending couldn't possibly have satisfied everybody. --
Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
