July 29, 2024
Roffey (The Mermaid of Black Conch) begins her stirring if uneven latest as a police procedural before swerving into a treatise on femicide in the Carribean. At the end of Carnival, the body of a Japanese musician is found slashed, bitten, and strangled under a sacred cannonball tree on the island of St. Colibri. Inspector Loveday, a corrupt policeman in charge of finding the woman’s killer, has no evidence. Fed up with the island’s institutionalized misogyny and rampant rates of femicide, three local women—a reporter, a gay activist, and a sex worker—stage a protest. Their action attracts support from more women, who converge in the town square. At first, the demonstration is no more than an annoyance to the police and the prime minister, but a movement gathers steam after the mayor blames women for the violence against them. When the prime minister’s wife expresses her solidarity with the protestors, the mayor places her under house arrest. Roffey enlivens the proceedings with details of the women’s righteous organizing and colloquial dialogue (“Doh shoot the messenger”), but the narrative structure feels disjointed, and multiple story lines are left unresolved as the novel morphs into a social manifesto. Still, Roffey’s vital message is hard to shake.