Monday, January 03, 2022

Palms, Paradise, Poison by John Keyse-Walker

 
First Line: "A hurricane is like a wanton woman," my Dada used to say.
 
Life in the British Virgin Islands means that hurricanes are part of the natural scheme of things. When Hurricane Leatha roars in, Constable Teddy Creque expects a power outage. He expects flooding. He expects the phones not to work. His primary concern is keeping all two hundred residents of the small island of Anegada safe. 
 
When he receives a radioed message from headquarters warning of a dangerous escaped criminal, Teddy has other things on his mind like saving a man on a sinking boat, but he does make the capture. The woman prefers to be called Queen Ya-Ya and is a practitioner of ancient Afro-Cuban rites.  She doesn't seem all that dangerous to Teddy, but when she manages to kill a man from inside her locked cell and then vanish, Teddy has no choice but to reconsider. 

When the hurricane moves out and life begins to return to normal, there's no sign of Queen Ya-Ya, and she is presumed to have drowned after escaping in a stolen boat. But when that boat turns up on a beach in Cuba, Teddy is called upon to go to investigate.

~

I was looking forward to meeting Constable Teddy Creque again, and he did not disappoint. One of the things I've enjoyed about this series is its depiction of the life and culture of a small island in the British Virgin Islands. In Palms, Paradise, Poison, I learned how ancient beliefs are a part of this life and how they can be twisted in the wrong person's hands. 

This third book in the series has some gorgeous descriptions of the landscape and wildlife on Caribbean islands, and I loved learning about Cayo Saetia, Fidel Castro's favorite little island off the coast of Cuba. The hurricane scenes are powerful and kept me on tenterhooks throughout the beginning of the book. (After reading Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope mysteries and now Keyse-Walker's Teddy Creque books, I'm convinced I need to trade in my Jeep for an old Land Rover.)

Teddy gets to go on a road trip with Cuban police officer Luz Garcia, and their eventual capture of Queen Ya-Ya does not go smoothly. As interesting as this all is, Palms, Paradise, Poison is also a story of a man reinventing his life after the death of his wife. Teddy Creque wasn't a very admirable man at the beginning of the series, and his wife's death threw him into a downward spiral of depression and alcohol. Now he's met the right woman, and they and their blended family of three children are happy... but is Teddy as reformed as he thinks he is? If temptation arises, will he be able to resist?

I enjoyed this book, the hurricane, the travels through Cuba, the apprehension of Queen Ya-Ya, and seeing what Teddy's done with his life since the second book, Beach, Breeze, Bloodshed. Now I'm eager to find out what's next for this constable on a small Caribbean island. Bring it on.

Palms, Paradise, Poison by John Keyse-Walker
eISBN: 9781448306282
Severn House © 2021
eBook, 224 pages
 
Police Procedural, #3 Teddy Creque mystery
Rating: A
Source: Net Galley

10 comments:

  1. This really looks interesting, Cathy! I have to admit; like you, I'm drawn to the setting and the local culture. It also sounds like an intriguing mystery. I'll confess I've not started on this series; can you enjoy this one as a standalone?

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    1. Yes, I think you could enjoy it as a standalone, Margot.

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  2. Sounds like a fascinating way to learn about life on a Caribbean island.

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  3. I'm not familiar with this series but the setting is certainly appealing and the constable appears to be quite a flawed but perhaps redeemable character. Might be worth adding to my list.

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  4. This sounds like a fun read! I love that it's set on a Caribbean island, and the whole disappearance of Queen Ya-Ya is intriguing. (And I love her name!)

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  5. This does sound interesting; I like the way the main character seems to be developing from one book to the next. The plot reminds me of an old movie from the forties or so...Key Largo, maybe?

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    1. Yes, one of the things I really like about this series is how the author is developing his main character.

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