Merlin’s Book Reviews: “different from the usual murder mystery …”

This is a good story, rather different from the usual murder mystery.

Detective Sergeant Louisa Townsend returns to the place of her birth, the island of Tarawa in the tropical Northern Pacific Kiribati Group. (Kiribati is pronounced Kiribass, for reasons I’m sure someone can explain to me sometime). She has been sent from Edinburgh to assist with training of local police. No sooner has she set foot ashore than she finds herself involved in a murder investigation. The victim has been discovered in a local school children’s nursery hut with a ceremonial dagger embedded in his skull and minus his eyes. (Eeew!) The latter feature occasions dark mutterings from the locals, as according to tradition, ghosts have been known to consume the eyes of their victims…

Anxious to create a good impression, Louisa readily agrees to take on the investigation naively thinking it will be the proverbial open and shut case. Problems rapidly accrue, however. But, she is resourceful and persistent and, as the body count mounts up Louisa grapples with her demons and fights back.

A good yarn in the “flawed heroine” genre. Hopefully we see Louisa’s character and resourcefulness develop further in future adventures.