Jamaica Me Dead
Morris's zany sophomore effort features another Jamaican-set crime drama narrated by former Miami linebacker Zack Chasteen, last seen inBahamarama, the author's rollicking debut. A football halftime party to which Zack has been invited by old Miami Dolphins teammate Monk DeVane is marred by a bomb scare targeted at Monk's white Jamaican boss, Darcy Whitehall, a tycoon of adult-themed resorts. Whitehall thinks that his personal security might improve with Zack on the Libido Resorts payroll, so Zack temporarily bids adieu to British girlfriend Barbara and heads to Jamaica to play bodyguard. Upon his arrival, a violent explosion kills Monk, and it's up to Zack to wade through a bevy of suspects, most of whom are dueling political factions, because in Jamaica "everything is politics." Could the guilty party be Whitehall's slimy, money-laundering associate, Freddie Arzghanian, or possibly Nanny's People United, an aggressive political action group bent on keeping Whitehall's son, Alan, a proponent of shady land developments, from getting elected in a local parliamentary election? Blame shifts and the mystery smoothly unravels itself while both Zack and Barbara (in Berlin with a "Trumpish" entertainment entrepreneur) wrestle with temptation but remain refreshingly monogamous. The tropical backdrop and Zack's wisecracking commentary make for another crackling whodunit for Morris.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.