reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
reviews_and_ramblings ([personal profile] reviews_and_ramblings) wrote2008-11-19 08:38 pm

Caribbean Heat by Remmy Duchene

The story is really short, 42 pages but with big characters, so it's actually only few scenes.

Tao is a Canadian detective who is following a serial killer who ran away in Jamaica. When he arrives in Kingston he is assigned a police officer, as a guide and roommate. Ken is an handsome African-American young man, hot like the land in which he lives. In Jamaica homosexuality is not something you can live in the open (is it like so? I didn't know...), and so Ken has devoted himself to a chaste life, until Tao arrives. Ken's gaydar works very well, and he spotted the man as soon as he lands. And so Tao is chasing the killer and Ken is chasing Tao. But their relationship is domed since Tao will soon return in Canada.

It's quite a task to write a thriller in only 40 pages. And actually if not for the end, I was wondering about a scene I read that, in a way, was almost detached from the rest of the story. It's this link between the first part and the last pages that, in a way, justifies all the thriller component of the book. The romance instead is quite simple and easy, Ken likes Tao and Tao likes Ken, so it's not difficult for them to be together. There is a bit of multicultural spicy, both in Ken's look than in his speaking: Remmy Duchene decided to not profit of the usual expedient of the foreign man that perfectly master a second language like a mother tongue speaking; here Ken forgets verbs, mistakes spelling and so on.

A few typos (evidents since the story is not so long) don't weigh so much to ruin a nice story.

http://redrosepublishing.com/bookstore/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=64&products_id=145

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

[identity profile] erastes.livejournal.com 2008-11-19 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, it's very dangerous to be openly gay and black in Jamaica, many murders every year. It's really upsetting.

[identity profile] elisa-rolle.livejournal.com 2008-11-20 07:56 am (UTC)(link)
So another good point for the author who didn't mistake the setting. Elisa

Spelling errors

(Anonymous) 2008-12-29 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Actually after reading this review I read the story. They aren't typos. It's called potois pronounce Patwah. Its broken english mostly but its the language out there.

Anthony Wainwright.

Re: Spelling errors

[identity profile] elisa-rolle.livejournal.com 2008-12-30 09:05 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you for the comment, but I was not referring to Ken's way of speaking, as I stated on the previous sentence above, I understood that it was his language. In this moment I can't remember, I should probably re-read the story, but if I remember well there were some error in the all american part of the story and a sentence repeated two time (those I referred as typos). But as I said, they are ininfluenced, I noticed them only since the story was short and so my attention high for all the story :-) Usually in a longer story I didn't notice them and then I'm the last person who should speak! Elisa
Edited 2008-12-30 09:07 (UTC)

[identity profile] byanca-silver.livejournal.com 2009-02-20 09:43 am (UTC)(link)
I'm part Jamaican, so having lived there for awhile and knowing exactly how homosexuality is treated there, I was really awed to see a story with that setting. Now this is surely going to be added to my list.

Thanks elisa.

[identity profile] byanca-silver.livejournal.com 2009-02-20 09:46 am (UTC)(link)
Openly gay and black?
I assure you that it makes no difference if you are black, white, asian, you name it. In jamaica, gay is gay.
I must add though, that there are not "many murders" there because of such. There are some incidents but not "many murders every year".

[identity profile] elisa-rolle.livejournal.com 2009-02-20 09:50 am (UTC)(link)
I believe that the author was aware of the Jamaican setting, and he tried to render it in the story. Pity it was really short. Elisa

[identity profile] byanca-silver.livejournal.com 2009-02-20 09:54 am (UTC)(link)
That's just awesome. I was actually looking around for storylines with Caribbean settings and couldn't be more pleased to find this one.