Grammath
10th October 2007, 03:49 PM
Max Mingus, a Sinatra fan, 46-year old widower and former Miami PD cop turned private investigator, has just completed an 8 year sentence for murder at Rikers Island after killing three child murderers during his last case.
Whilst still inside, he is contacted by wealthy Haitian banker Alain Carver asking him to take on the hunt for his missing, probably dead, son Charlie, who disappeared following a car crash three years previously also involving Carver's wife Francesca and their chauffeur, former Ton Ton Macoute Eddie Faustin.
Mingus warily accepts the case, mainly on the basis of the $10 million pay packet. Even a visit to one of his predecessors on the case, Clyde Beeson, before departing for Haiti, doesn't put him off. Beeson has had most of his large intestine cut out by the drug baron and king of the Port-au-Prince slums, Vincent Paul, he assumes because he got too close to the truth.
Most of the clues Max, helped by his ex-partner in the Miami PD Joe Liston, initially picks up point to the half-British Paul, but as he gets to know the man Max discovers he's not all he seems, and neither are the Carver family, particularly Alain's father, the ailing former Duvalier associate Gustave. And just who is the mysterious Mr. Clarinet wooing children away from the slums? And what is the agenda of Canadian journalist Shaun Huxley, still following the Charlie story when every other journalist has given up?
"Mr. Clarinet" is an above average debut thriller by Nick Stone, son of the historian Norman. It won the Ian Fleming Dagger in 2006. Stone spent some of his formative years living in Haiti and makes excellent use of it as a location, as Graham Greene did half a century before him, although the lawless and corrupt nature of the place make it ideal for a thriller.
The book trades on atmosphere as well as plotting. There are a couple of somewhat superfluous voodoo sequences, though, just to ram home the novel's setting. Max ticks all the PI boxes too, a likeably cynical protagonist haunted by his wife's death while he was in prison.
Recommended for fans of action, rather than psychological, thrillers, although you'll need a strong stomach in parts.
Whilst still inside, he is contacted by wealthy Haitian banker Alain Carver asking him to take on the hunt for his missing, probably dead, son Charlie, who disappeared following a car crash three years previously also involving Carver's wife Francesca and their chauffeur, former Ton Ton Macoute Eddie Faustin.
Mingus warily accepts the case, mainly on the basis of the $10 million pay packet. Even a visit to one of his predecessors on the case, Clyde Beeson, before departing for Haiti, doesn't put him off. Beeson has had most of his large intestine cut out by the drug baron and king of the Port-au-Prince slums, Vincent Paul, he assumes because he got too close to the truth.
Most of the clues Max, helped by his ex-partner in the Miami PD Joe Liston, initially picks up point to the half-British Paul, but as he gets to know the man Max discovers he's not all he seems, and neither are the Carver family, particularly Alain's father, the ailing former Duvalier associate Gustave. And just who is the mysterious Mr. Clarinet wooing children away from the slums? And what is the agenda of Canadian journalist Shaun Huxley, still following the Charlie story when every other journalist has given up?
"Mr. Clarinet" is an above average debut thriller by Nick Stone, son of the historian Norman. It won the Ian Fleming Dagger in 2006. Stone spent some of his formative years living in Haiti and makes excellent use of it as a location, as Graham Greene did half a century before him, although the lawless and corrupt nature of the place make it ideal for a thriller.
The book trades on atmosphere as well as plotting. There are a couple of somewhat superfluous voodoo sequences, though, just to ram home the novel's setting. Max ticks all the PI boxes too, a likeably cynical protagonist haunted by his wife's death while he was in prison.
Recommended for fans of action, rather than psychological, thrillers, although you'll need a strong stomach in parts.