Bloody Twist is the seventh novel in the Bloody Series (three murders per book or your money is refunded) featuring Lupe Solano, the Cuban-American private investigator who lives and works in Miami.

Two years after having been shot, (Bitter Sugar), Lupe is back on the job, helping Tommy MacDonald, Miami’s premiere criminal defense attorney and sometime lover, with a case involving his new client, the mysterious Madeline Marie Meadows. Twenty-two year old Ms. Meadows is Miami’s highest paid call girl (her rate: $5,000. per hour), expensive, to be sure, especially in light of the fact that she is a virgin. Although Ms. Meadows has not been charged with any crime, she has taken the precaution of retaining Mr. MacDonald because she feels that it is highly likely that she will be. Ms. Meadows reports that she has been interviewed by Miami Homicide Detective Maxwell Anderson in relation to the murders of two men she knows well: Dr. Steinberg, the ob-gyn who verifies that she is a virgin and Mr. Robinson, a wealthy developer who is her steady client. Although Tommy is drawn to his newest client- originally from Dubuque, Iowa, Ms. Meadows is gorgeous, with a natural blond beauty not often seen in Miami’s plastic surgery happy town- he is skeptical of her story, and asks Lupe to begin an investigation.

In a race against time, Lupe finds herself conducting in effect, two investigations: the first, finding out who murdered three men; and the second, discovering who the ‘real’ Madeline Marie Meadows really is. Along the way, Lupe has to deal with such diverse elements as Napoleon and Josephine, Ms. Meadow’s killer Chihuahuas, as well as the Loredo twins, Ms. Meadows’ pimps, marketing geniuses who thought up the hook of labeling her as ‘Miami’s highest paid call girl who is a virgin’. Lupe enlists the help of her friend, Sweet Suzanne, the well-known Miami madam, and Nestor, the crack investigator to achieve that goal.

Bloody Twist (A Lupe Solano Mystery)

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera. Miramar Publishing 2010, Kindle Edition, $4.99

Synopsis:

During the span of a summer, anything can happen. Former lovers return, husbands lose all rationale, and family can suffocate a person more than the sweltering humidity of a late Florida afternoon.

Set in Miami Beach, One Hot Summer follows the life of Margarita Maria Santos Silva, a woman bent on making her own decisions in a family that seems to have the future, as well as the rules, neatly laid out for her. After the birth of her son, Margarita is at the end of taking a year off from the stressful legal career that she worked so hard to earn. Margarita suddenly faces the daunting task of deciding whether she should go back to work or stay home and dutifully raise her two-year old son- the latter being the choice both her overachieving husband, Ariel, and old-fashioned family desperately want her to make.

But when her old law school boyfriend, the ultrasuave and handsome Luther Simmonds, shows up out of nowhere, all hell breaks loose. Along with her newly awakened passion, Margarita again understands the empowering warmth of having Luther listen to her needs and desires. She now has twice as many critical decisions to make and only one hot summer in which to make them.

In laugh-out-loud scenes that make Garcia-Aguilera a master of the comedic narrative, we watch Margarita as she transforms her loss of identity into the shape of her new, powerful self. Watching Margarita deal with her challenges is achingly funny. What’s even more savory, and ultimately life-affirming, is how Margarita manages to navigate through career, family, and cultural conflicts while understanding that she can indeed live life on her own terms, and that compromise is the golden road that most people quite often ignore.

Critical Acclaim:

One Hot Summer

Carolina Garcia Aguilera. Harper Paperbacks 2003, Paperback, 304 pages, $1.84

Synopsis:

Jewelry store owner Alonso Arango Sr. shoots would-be robber Gustavo Gaston six times. Arango claims Gaston threatened him with a knife. Prominent Miami defense attorney Tommy MacDonald hopes to prove Arango acted in self-defense. After finding inconsistencies in Arango’s story, MacDonald hires private investigator and sometimes lover Lupe Solano to conduct background research. Lupe’s investigations seem to be going nowhere until an interior decorator friend, Margarita, claims to have insider information about Arango. When Margarita dies in a car crash en route to a tell-all meeting with Lupe, the “open and shut case” takes a dangerous turn. The hard-boiled yet sophisticated P.I. is trailed, kidnapped and nearly killed before discovering the truth.

Critical Acclaim:

“[Garcia-Aguilera] weaves in the nuances of the Hispanic community with finesse. Lupe often uses her understanding of her heritage into her work.”
-Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

“The realistic Miami descriptions radiate heat from the page while educating readers about Cuban American history and society.”
-Booklist

“Garcia-Aguilera is an excellent writer and a welcome addition to the mystery genre, and especially to the South Florida sub-genre”
-reviewer on Amazon.com

Bloody Shame (Lupo Solano Mystery)

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera. Berkley 1998, Paperback, 307 pages, $11.99

Synopsis:

In Lupe’s literary debut, the saavy and stylish P.I. is hired by Lucia and Jose Antonio Moreno to find the birth mother of their year-and-a-half old adopted daughter, Michelle. The young girl suffers from a  rare, inherited disease that can only be cured through a bone-marrow transplant from the birth mother. However, the prominent attorney who brokered the adoption, Elio Betancourt, runs an illegal baby-selling operation and will not help the family. Lupe’s investigations uncover that the source of Betancourt’s babies is not south Florida, but Cuba. As Lupe discovers more about this nefarious trade in human beings, the body count begins to mount, including a close friend. Ultimately, Lupe must go by boat to Cuba, with trusted compatriot Barbara Perez, to find Michelle’s mother and complete her mission.

Critical Acclaim:

“Fans of Edna Buchanan should enjoy this.”
-Library Journal

“Bloody Waters is immediately engaging, written in a witty, straightforward style spiced by Lupe’s wry observations on Cuban-American family life”
-Miami Herald

“I love the Lupe Solano books – the only problem is that there are not enough of them!”
-reviewer from Kansas City on Amazon.com

Bloody Waters (Lupo Solano Mystery)

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera. Berkley 1997, Paperback, 292 pages, $19.95

Synopsis:

On the eve of the Cuban revolution, Luis Delgado’s father and Miguel de la Torre agreed to liquidate their holdings and leave Cuba. Miguel escaped to Miami and the de la Torre’s went on to become one of the city’s most prominent families. Luis’ father died in Castro’s jails and the Delgados remained trapped in Cuba. Decades later, Luis arrives in Miami by raft, determined to recover his family’s money. After he is nearly killed, Luis hires Lupe Solano and her erstwhile attorney boyfriend Tommy MacDonald to recover the family’s money. As the investigation proceeds, innocent people are dying and Lupe may be the next victim in this drama of family revenge and exile politics.

Critical Acclaim:

“The third Lupe Solano novel continues to have the freshness that made its two predecessors remarkably insightful and compelling novels”
-Harriet Klausner

“The dialogue is lively; the intriguing and amusing characters are well developed; and Garcia-Aguilera does a good job of educating readers about recent Cuban history.”
-Booklist

“As a 35 year resident of Miami and a Private Investigator, I found Bloody Secrets to be both great fun and very accurate.”
-Scott Partridge on Amazon.com

Bloody Secrets (Lupe Solano Mysteries)

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera. Putnam Adult 1998, Hardcover, 274 pages, $5.82

Synopsis:

Lupe dabbles with Catholicism and the phenomenon of revealed miracles in this the fourth book in the Lupe Solano series. The Order of the Illumination of the Sacred Virgin, a Miami Catholic order that has produced verified miracles in the past, prophesies that the statue of the Virgin at a reverred Cuban shrine will shed actual tears on the anniversary of Cuban independence. Lupe’s sister Lourdes, a rather unorthodox nun at another Miami order, enlists her sister’s help to investigate the truth of this claim.  Lupe suspects more than possible fraud is involved when the order’s enigmatic sister Mary Margaret disappears and a corpse is fished out of Miami’s Biscayne Bay. As the date of the predicted miracle draws nearer, Lupe races against time to find the truth…and a killer.

Critical Acclaim:

“Lupe Solano is intelligent, witty, and eloquently hard-boiled. The realistic Miami descriptions radiate heat from the page.”
-Booklist

“Grity and witty a fascinating look at Cuban-American culture and beliefs Garcia-Aguilera has crafted realistic and intriguing characters into a plot that never bogs down.”
-San Francisco Examiner

“Carolina’s writing just keeps getting better and better. Each new book in this series gets more intense, with bigger and better issues.”
-Joanne Sinchuk, owner, Murder on Miami Beach mystery bookstore.

A Miracle in Paradise

Carolina Garcia-aguilera. Avon 2000, Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages, $15.99

Synopsis:

While attending a Cuban-American society wedding, Lupe Solano is approached by Lucia Mendoza, the matriarch of a prominent exile family. The mission: Lupe must recover a centuries-old tapestry, originally a gift from Queen Isabella to Christopher Columbus, from its hiding place at the Mendoza ancestral home in Havana so that the dying Lucia can see it one last time. While weighing the challenges of this case, Lupe is drawn into a scheme concocted by a shady art dealer, Angel Estrada, to smuggle paintings out of Cuba. When Estrada is murdered, Lupe must confront a dangerous killer. Through her perilous journey to Cuba and her return to Miami, Lupe discovers the connection between these two seemingly unrelated cases.

Critical Acclaim:

“Lupe Solano is an enjoyably hedonistic sleuth, and Garcia-Aguilera’s chatty, congenial style will beguile readers for several pleasing hours.”
-Publishers Weekly

“A stunning mixture of art history, Cubans-in-exile politics, a uniquely classy Miami heroine, and riveting plot make this highly recommended.”
-Library Journal

“Garcia-Aguilera provides a unique glimpse into the Cuban exile community in Miami.”
-Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

Havana Heat

Carolina Garcia-aguilera. Avon 2001, Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages, $10.35

Synopsis:

Private property was stolen and livelihoods destroyed in the wake of Castro’s Cuban revolution, breeding bitterness and rage- which in turn breed murder.

Sexy, smart, and hot tempered, Lupe Solano is arguably the best private investigator in Miami- though her father would be much happier had she chosen a safer career. So Lupe is thrown a curve when her beloved “Papi” asks her for professional help.

Senor Solano’s old friend, Ramon Suarez, owned a prosperous sugar mill back in Cuba until Castro nationalized the property and forced him and his family into exile. Now, years later, an unnamed source in Spain is offering to purchase the confiscated property at a fraction of its value. Lazy, no-good nephew Alexander Suarez wants the money. Tio Ramon is suspicious and wants to know what’s behind this sudden interest in a non-producing sugar mill.

What starts as a routine journey down a paper trail soon turns deadly when Alexander is found brutally slain in a sleazy Miami hotel- and his last known visitor, Tio Ramon, is accused of the murder. Suddenly Lupe has a killer to unmask if she is going to prove Papi’s dearest friend innocent.

But Lupe is rapidly becoming entangled in the mysterious web of spun sugar and blood that captured and killed Alexander. And when bullets smash through her own window, she begins to wonder if maybe Papi was right all along. But stubborn honor- and anger- compel her to continue with her own investigation, even if what turns up rocks her world, her family, and the entire Cuban American community to its very foundations.

Critical Acclaim:

Bitter Sugar

Carolina Garcia-aguilera. Avon 2002, Mass Market Paperback, 336 pages, $18.50

Synopsis:

Gambling runs through the blood of the Navarro family. And like the luck needed to score big, the Navarro clan will certainly need a lot of it if they’re going to hold themselves together through a hilariously high stakes game of family history and secrets.

Having heard her entire life of the lost glory of La Estrella- ‘The Star,’ the name of the casino the Navarro family owned in Havana before Castro took power- Esmeralda’ thinks it a joke when her mother informs her and her siblings Sapphire, Ruby and Quartz that the family has a duty to bring La Estrella back into existence.

With a mandate given to her through a dream, the Navarro matriarch announces that in order for La Estrella to thrive once more, the family must be reunited in Miami. Only there’s a hitch: the youngest daughter, Diamond, a journalist living in Las Vegas, is missing. The family must find a way to rescue her, not only in time to restore the family’s lost business to its shimmering glory, but also to save Diamond’s life.

Esmeralda, the eldest and most sensible of the Navarro clan, is dispatched to Las Vegas, and to an underworld that this Miami mother of three thought she would never be suited for. Surprisingly, Esmeralda is not only suited for it, she thrives in it.

From seedy bar to casino to back alley, Esmeralda sleuths her way through Las Vegas with sexy style- and into a mystery that is much larger than she, her family, and her family’s history had ever bargained for.

With a lightning-paced narrative and the author’s trademark sense of glamour and tongue-in-cheek humor, Luck of the Draw will keep you laughing, and in suspense, until the very last page.

Critical Acclaim:

Luck of the Draw

Carolina Garcia Aguilera. Harper Paperbacks 2004, Paperback, 384 pages, $3.10