In association with Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours, Jersey Girl Book Reviews is pleased to host the virtual book tour event for Sweet Paradise by author Gene Desrochers!
ASIN: B08XYCRHPJ
BNID: 2940165254833
The first coat was drying. More droplets of sweat rivered between my shoulder blades as I slugged water and Guinness alternately. Two in the afternoon was no time to be painting in the October heat, but I didn’t know what else to do and sitting around worrying about my looming penury seemed pointless.
The used old-timey clock radio I’d picked up at Bob’s Store babbled on about hurricane warnings as reception fizzled in and out. It was the latter part of hurricane season and we’d seen minimal storm damage in the region. We might dodge hurricanes for one or two years running, but it was never long enough to truly get complacent about them the way places like New Orleans had.
The overhead fan whirred. Outside my door sunlight filtered thinly through a cloud, illuminating the traffic circle a faint ocher. As I considered the faded lines denoting parking spaces and the cracked pavement, a young man bobbed into my line of sight. He was one of those people who walked on his toes at all times, like the tendons in his calves were so tight his heels couldn’t touch the ground for more than an instant before popping up again. He squinted at the building, turning his head back and forth, then perusing a sheet of paper clutched in both hands. A green Osprey backpack hung loosely off his shoulders. People in California used them for hiking. He tugged at the built-in sippy straw and sucked. The bubbly slurping of the last drops of water in his pouch filtered up to me. Disappointment clouded his face.
His attention snagged on my door. I grinned and gave myself a mental pat on the back. He shifted one hand to his hip and gave a slight lean. I wasn’t sure whether I should let him see me in my ratty painting outfit, but figured that could be explained by the wet door. A spooge of cantaloupe paint dominated the center of my gray t-shirt. I eased the door open a couple more feet.
“Help you?” I asked. “You look lost.”
“Nice door.” He pointed at his forehead and swirled his finger around. “You got some.”
He was college-aged and his face was sunburned, as were his arms. He wore a Hawaiian shirt and khaki pants, a classic tourist outfit.
He continued to stand in the same spot, squinting and considering the sheet of paper. I returned to my inner office, needing another sip of water and the breeze from the fan. Out my open doorway, I could barely make out the top of his Caesar-style haircut.
“You should get a hat!” I hollered out.
His head rose up from the paper and he pushed up on tip-toes so I could see his eyes. “The sun’s doing a number on you,” I said. “Want a drink of water?”
He stared at me a while with a strange stillness, like he was in no hurry as he weighed every option. This boy was a local and he would pull me into events that would rock one of the largest industries in the Virgin Islands.
“Do you have Perrier?”
***
Excerpt from Sweet Paradise by Gene Desrochers. Copyright 2021 by Gene Desrochers. Reproduced with permission from Gene Desrochers. All rights reserved.
This dark Caribbean noir mystery tale is set in the tropical island setting of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. It has been six months since Boise returned to his Caribbean childhood home from Los Angeles after the death of his wife Evelyn. He's already solved his first few cases, and has finally hung out his private investigator shingle, and is looking for new clients. Eighteen year old Herbie "Junior" Bacon hires Boise to search for his missing grandmother, Francine Bacon, matriarch of the Bacon sugar and rum empire. Boise doesn't even get a chance to begin his investigation before reporter Adirondack Kendal is murdered at Boise's office doorway. The reporter had a connection with the missing matriarch, and it is up to Boise to uncover the depth of the connection, and find the missing matriarch, before the killer strikes again on the sweet paradise island.
Author Gene Desrochers provides a multi-layered storyline that has enough mystery, suspense, drama, treachery, secrets, and intriguing twists and turns that keeps the reader guessing. The author weaves an intricate and complicated web of family dysfunction and deep secrets within the Bacon family, intertwined with the connection between Francine and Andirondack, coupled with Boise's investigation of uncovering the possible motive for Francine's disappearance and the reporter's murder, and a growing list of possible suspects who could have been involved.
Told in the first person perspective, Boise takes the reader along for the ride on his latest investigative adventure. This engaging Caribbean noir mystery story has realistic characters; witty island dialogue and humorous interactions; a rich description of the island setting of St. Thomas; and a multi-layered storyline that easily draws the reader into the interconnection between flashbacks into Boise's childhood past with the present inner demons Boise battles, and how the pieces of the Bacon empire investigation puzzle comes together and is solved.
Sweet Paradise is the kind of island murder mystery that easily keeps the reader captivated, guessing, on their toes, and wanting more!
RATING: 4 STARS
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