Review: Best if you've read the others
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 12, 2014
I have read all 3 of the Jungle Beat Mystery books, which certainly should suggest to you that there is something there that I liked.  The greatest strength of these books is that it isn't a murder mystery with the scenery changed.  The Samoan history, culture, scenery, weather, flora and fauna and the interface of traditional culture with modern capitalism and western values all take a very central and essential role in the books.  As it turns out, so does a New Zealand beer (Steinlager), and prodigious amounts of an unnamed but bottled vodka.  For someone who has been a cop in the United States and in Pago Pago for decades, Apelu Soifua is extraordinarily knowledgeable and traditional, not to mention attractive to young white professional women.  Constantly fighting or working around the corrupt and incompetent colonial government, the detective manages virtually single handedly to deal with major international conspiracies and top level corruption on the islands, pretty much while avoiding the police department he works for.  This book finds him devastated with guilt, hiding out on a plot of family land on an isolated island, where he uncovers a massive plot, murderous thugs, a beautiful young white woman, and a few other characters he needs to, with little help, deal with an international conspiracy that has the support of most of the island's residents.  I got bored, and stopped reading about halfway through, but I later went back and picked it up again, and it got progressively more interesting through to the end.  The books are imaginative, interesting and -- if you can suspend loads of disbelief at coincidences, plot twists, his relationship with the police department, the quiet appearance of furniture and supplies where needed in the jungle -- then they are definitely worth reading.  American Samoa examples have crept into my conversation lately, so they must have influenced me.  But, as my title suggests, I would start with Pago Pago Tango, and then read Fire Dancing, to gain some appreciation for who might be this drunken, haunted but super competent detective hiding out in an abandoned jungle traditional handmade home (with a screen door?).