Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: A Miracle in Paradise (USA 2025)

From the Publisher:
Miami PI Lupe Solano gets drawn into a religious mystery that could roil the Cuban community -- on both sides of the Florida straits...
Being summoned by a Mother Superior brings back a lot of bad memories from Lupe Solano's Catholic school experience; it's only as a favor to her older sister, a nun, that she agrees to the meeting at all. A mysterious European order has appeared in Miami, one that can boast certifiable miracles in its past -- and is now predicting a new one: On the Cuban Day of Independence, the statue of the Virgin of Our Lady of Charity will cry real tears. This is a direct hit to the Cuban soul, and a suspicious Lupe agrees to help debunk the miracle before it happens. Just when she's able to justify spying on nuns, Lupe finds one drowned in a baptismal font -- and that's only the beginning of a case that will make Lupe question whether she's on the side of the angels or devils...

"Witty, bubbly, sexy and suspenseful... a first-rate mystery." -- The Plain Dealer
"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." -- Publishers Weekly

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: A Miracle in Paradise. A Lupe Solano Mystery. Open Road Media, ISBN: 9798337202181 (September, 2025), eBook, $9.99.

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: A Miracle in Paradise (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
Spirituality has never been Lupe Solano's strong suit. But the recently transplanted Order of the Illumination of the Sacred Virgin is predicting that, on October tenth, the blessed icon at the Shrine of the Cuban Virgin will shed real tears. It is a date that holds great significance for Miami's Cuban-Americans. And the miraculous event -- if it indeed occurs -- will certainly rock the community, the nation, and the world.

Hired by an apprehensive Mother Superior, Lupe sets out to either substantiate the verity of the upcoming phenomenon or to expose a brazen hoax and its mastermind. But as the date of the anticipated wondrous event draws closer, Lupe's hunt for the truth suddenly becomes a search for a killer. For there is a dark secret being protected behind a convent's fortress-like walls. And more will die before the blessed Virgin weeps, unless one skeptical sleuth-for-hire can unveil an evil that may be taking refuge in the most sacred of places.

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: A Miracle in Paradise. A Lupe Solano Mystery. Avon, ISBN: 0380807386 (August, 2000), 344 p., $5.99.

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: A Miracle in Paradise (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
Spirituality has never been Lupe Solano's strong point-unlike her sister Lourdes, a rather unorthodox nun. But the recently transplanted Order of the Illumination of the Sacred Virgin-a sisterhood well-known for having witnessed actual, Vatican-verified miracles- is predicting yet another miraculous event, scheduled to take place in Miami in one month's time. And Lourdes's Mother Superior has enlisted Lupe's services, hoping that the skeptical sleuth-for-hire can either substantiate the upcoming phenomenon's verity or expose a brazen hoax and its mastermind.

October 10th is the date when the blessed icon at the Shrine of the Cuban Virgin will supposedly shed real tears-an occurrence that will electrify Miami's Cuban-American community and rock the nation and the world. Yet probable fraud, as far as Lupe is concerned, is the very least of the sins possibly being committed-a belief that is strengthened by the disappearance of the Order's enigmatic Sister Mary Margaret and the appearance of a dead body floating in the waters of Biscayne Bay. As the date of the anticipated wondrous event draws closer, Lupe's hunt for the truth and a killer becomes a race against time. For there is a dark secret being protected behind the convent's fortresslike walls. And more will surely die before the blessed Virgin weeps, unless one determined investigator can unveil an evil that may be taking refuge in the most sacred of places.

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: A Miracle in Paradise. A Lupe Solano Mystery. Twilight, ISBN: 0380977796 (October, 1999), 277 p., $23.00.