The Honest Folk of Guadeloupe

October 20, 2014
At the start of Williams’s absorbing second Anne Marie Laveaud mystery set in Guadeloupe, in the French West Indies (after 2013’s Another Sun), the investigating judge looks into the alleged suicide of environmentalist Rodolphe Dugain. Anne Marie’s persistence makes some powerful people uneasy. When a French nurse is found murdered on a beach, Anne Marie is diverted to help solve the case before European tourists panic and cancel vacations crucial to the local economy. Anne Marie’s clerk/factotum, Alphonse Trousseau, provides quirky commentary laden with insights about the legacies of colonialism, such as nuanced racism, official corruption, and troubled interactions between men and women. She herself is a less sympathetic character, often exhausted and bewildered by the demands of her job and single motherhood. Short chapters and a sometimes elliptical style make the narrative disjointed in places, but armchair travelers who enjoy mysteries with a strong sense of place should welcome this foray into the French Caribbean. Agent: Massimiliano Zantedeschi, Trentin e Zantedeschi Literary Agency (Italy).

November 15, 2014
Two disturbing murders unsettle the residents of a tropical paradise.May 1990. Judge (which in Guadeloupe means investigator) Anne Marie Laveaud is questioning fragile Madame Dugain about the death of her husband, Rodolphe, a popular environmentalist and local television personality. The official ruling of suicide seems incongruous because of Rodolphe's steady good humor and the four children he leaves behind. After over 10 years in Guadeloupe, the French-Algerian Anne Marie has learned to sidestep the local morass of petty political and racial tension by operating with cool dispassion and inscrutable efficiency (Another Sun, 2013). She's far less impassive within the walls of her home, where she remains as obsessed with this as with previous cases. So does she really need the married head of the Tourist Bureau, charming as he is, to invite her to dinner? Anne Marie's discovery of Rodolphe's former mistress definitely complicates the case. Her plate becomes unpleasantly full with the disappearance of young French tourist Evelyne Vaton, who could be a match for the remains recently found on a nude beach. But when Evelyne's parents claim that the victim's corpse is not their daughter, Anne Marie is forced to look elsewhere. In light of the victim's race and the island's dependence on tourism, she faces immense pressure to make an arrest as soon as possible.Anne Marie's second appearance, courtesy of the author of the Pietro Trotti crime novels, boasts an elegantly incisive narrative and a fascinating heroine.

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2014

It's 1990, and the West Indian island of Guadeloupe is finally starting to recover from Hurricane Hugo when a French tourist is found murdered on the beach. Judge Anne Marie Laveaud (Another Sun) is under pressure to solve the case before tourists panic and take their money elsewhere.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2014
It's 1990, and the island of Guadeloupe has just begun recovering from Hurricane Hugo when the body of a young French tourist is found naked and battered on a secluded beach. Investigating judge Anne Marie Laveaud (Another Sun, 2013) is pulled away from her controversial investigation of a local politician's death to coordinate the case of the tourist's murder. Anne Marie hears the fates laughing when the autopsy reveals no detectable cause of death or DNA evidence, defying the pressure the island's leaders are applying to prevent another blow to the tourist trade. Without evidence, she knows the case hinges on discovering how and when the victim died on that beach, and that means miraculously coaxing close-knit islanders to reveal damaging secrets to an outsider. Sharp-witted, French-Algerian Anne Marie is an investigator worthy of a following, and Williams has craftily created her story as a microcosm of Guadeloupe's social situation, where alienation battles dependence and racial stratification rules. Williams digs deep below the exotic setting's surface in this nuanced mystery, recommended for fans of character-driven head-scratchers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)