Book Review: Island in the Clouds by Susan Toy

This is probably one of the most delightful crime fiction stories I have ever read. If you have ever thought about escaping to a Caribbean Island, you need to read this book. A cozy mystery, the author introduces a heinous crime, and then takes you around the beautiful island of Bequia to meet the most interesting characters. Toy has a magical way with words in her lovely descriptions of place and person. You see the sights in their entire splendor and feel the warmth of the island sun. People on the island, both locals and ex-pats, have so very much personality. Main character, Geoff, is hiding his own secret, while trying to unravel the mystery of a murder that takes place on a property he manages. People associated with the murder victim are also keeping some nasty secrets which place them in harm’s way.

At mid-point of the book, the action kicks in and Geoff and his friends find themselves in danger. Drug lords and island thugs complicate his investigation, and local authorities, with their relaxed island mentality and manner, are of no use. The story is told in first person and you can’t help but be drawn into Geoff’s emotions as his friends and family are in peril. Slipping between present tense descriptions and past tense narrative and action was a bit distracting, but overall the story really drew me in and made me feel a natural part of the experience. I loved the surprising conclusion and found the island folk’s camaraderie and compassion deeply moving.

This is an author that I would like to read more from, and a person I know I would enjoy island hopping with on my next vacation. If you enjoy an intriguing tale of mystery and malice that will take you to a wonderful place for an adventure, you will love this book.

4 of 5 Stars

Reedy Creek: The Launching Point of Book Two

My next book focuses on a crime that occurs south of the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID). This is an area of old world Florida that was raped to create Disney World. I say raped, although Disney’s RCID works hard to maintain the district now, because it has seen some dramatic changes over the past forty years that have totally disrupted the natural ecosystem.

Disney called on his friends to lead the way in turning the marshes, swamps and wetlands of Central Florida into what would become the Walt Disney World Resort.

The headwaters of Reedy Creek are not natural. An effort to demolish a stand of low rent housing unearthed the waters. The low-lying swamps were essentially drained into what became Reedy Creek. It is now in what is one of the busiest parts of the world. But there is some effort to maintain the beauty and cleanliness of it.

Walt Disney World sits on of 25,000 acres in Central Florida governed and managed by an essentially “private” government—the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID). RCID levies taxes on its residents, devises and enforces building codes, handles waste management and fire protection, issues bonds to finance infrastructure projects, and performs many other functions ordinarily performed by local governments.

With its headwaters in what is now Walt Disney World, Reedy Creek flows sluggishly southward through cypress swamps into pristine Lake Russell, and is one of the northernmost sources of water for the Everglades.

The Osceola County Schools Environmental Study Center has a nineteen acre area of Reedy Creek where you can walk out through the swamp.

The cypress with its air-pine bromeliads growing on the trunks and the water fowl are powerfully breathtaking. I always think of the Indians who made this their homeland long before we came along. What we see as inhospitable, they made their homes and learned to work within the environment to survive.

This nineteen-acre segment of the Reedy Creek Swamp offers elevated observation boardwalks, three hiking trails and indoor educational displays. You can see alligators sunning on turtles and turtles sunning on alligators.

The Reedy Creek Elementary school is an earth-bermed structure designed to be obscure in the natural habitat. Many Indian artifacts were unearthed when the school was built, including full-sized dugout canoes, which are on display inside the school.

Reedy Creek Elementary

Earth-bermed school

dugout canoe

Book Two of the Naked Eye Series begins as one of the private investigator’s former investment partners plans to work with the Seminole Indians to build a casino near the RCID and another one plans to build condos. One former partner ends up dead.

The Buzzing Bumblebee

 

There is a buzz going around the internet about content in writing. There are things some people are either offended by, or are so emotionally moved by that it becomes unhealthy for them to experience reading about it. Some psychologists actually encourage people to face their fears and pains, processing through them. But some people may not be ready to do that. Some writing stings.

 

 

 

Writers write for a variety of reason: to entertain, to educate, to share opinions, to share news.

 

 

 

 

In memoirs, most often people write to provide inspiration. Sometimes they write to share a story that does not necessarily directly offer hope, but indirectly shares how that person processed through a difficult life situation…it may not be a pretty story, but the hope is that you will see the writer’s triumph over a bad situation. The growth experience, and in the end, the hope.

 
Luanne shared a review of such a story: “I find it so hard to write a review of this book that I can’t help but wonder how Kathryn Harrison wrote it. It was a New York Times bestseller when it was originally published in 1997 and has been read by many. The Kiss is a very disturbing story. It’s about incest. And betrayal. And mental illness. And a “man of God” who was anything but. But mainly it’s Kathryn’s story* and how she negotiated growing up and learning how to be a woman.” But read the full review.

 
Incest is not a pretty topic. It’s not entertaining. I don’t know if this book is promoted with “trigger warnings” or not, but it is an example of what exactly disturbs me about this current BUZZ.

 
When you read the book description, I am certain that you will have some idea on what this memoir is about.

 
And then there is fiction.

 
Fiction is most often designed to be entertaining. But different people are entertained by different forms of fiction.

 
Some people prefer light reading. Others want to delve deeply into recesses of the mind and soul.

 
There is a current trend to avoid certain subjects that a number of people find offensive in fiction. I am not talking about murder, blood, guts, and gore. We tend to accept those things. Not only in crime fiction, but in mysteries, fantasy, vampire novels and horror.

 
But as Ginny Wiehard mystery writer tells us here: http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/genrefiction/tp/mysteryrules.htm

Certain subjects are considered absolute taboos, even in crime fiction. Mysteries should be about murder. Detectives should not be dealing less serious crimes. Or those crimes that are emotionally sensitive.

 
Rape, child molestation/incest, animal cruelty are subjects that even the most horrific writers are cautioned to avoid. These things are not “entertaining”. And in her point of view, these things can, in no way, be entertaining. They are not only politically incorrect, but they are emotionally incorrect. So now, we have to concern ourselves with emotional correctedness.

 
Crime is supposed to be bad. It is what sends people to jail. It is what makes law enforcers have to kill over. It is not supposed to be pretty.

 
Kirsten Lamb recently did a post about how we have begun to expect writers to show sensitivity.

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/something-wicked-this-way-comes-why-writers-could-be-in-great-danger/

Educators being expected to coddle the feelings of students so that nobody feels unimportant, left out, or harmed in any emotional way. University students objecting to being expected to read material that they might find offensive.

 
What?! University students should not have to learn about the atrocities of man/women in our society?

 
Another author blogger, C.S. McClellan, shares his opinions on trigger warnings and content here:

http://writingcycle.wordpress.com/2014/05/26/a-little-more-about-trigger-warnings/

 
Red Clay and Roses is a roman à clef. It is a fictionalized true story, like a biography of everyday ordinary people who lived during a time period of political upheaval in this country. Bad things happened. Progress was made. But it is not a pretty story. I did not set out to entertain when I wrote it. It does have a satisfying ending, but the subject matter could be painful to some. Someone is raped. Should it have been published? There is more than one abortion. It also deals with adoption. Should it have a trigger warning?

 
The crime novel that I am writing now deals with subject matter that could be painful to some. It has a villain, and although you don’t see a lot of her directly, you see the terrible things she does. I’m not talking graphic images, but allusions to terrible crimes. It’s a reality in our society. I want her to be bad, really bad, and horrible, worthy of death by dynamite! It’s crime. I don’t want her to get a slap on the wrist by the legal system. I want her to die. I want you to want her to die.

 

 

Do you think it should come with a trigger warning to spare potential crime novel readers the likely agony they just might feel if they are exposed to a distasteful subject?
How do you feel about trigger warnings? Is it censorship? Are there subjects so taboo that no genre should touch them?

If Lolita, written in 1955 and still listed at #785 on Amazon’s Top Sellers list,had been written today, would it have been published? The story of a girl repeatedly raped. A child. Would Vladimir Nabokov not written it because it is taboo?

 

So what are your thoughts?

(My apologies about the formatting…never could get it to behave!)