The Goat Woman of Largo Bay: A Novel (A Shadrack Myers Mystery) in Around the World in 80 Books

Nov 29, 2011 Tony rated it liked it

Shelves: novels

I picked this up partly because I'm always on the lookout for mysteries set in other cultures, but also because I just finished Ian Thomson's dense nonfiction book about Jamaica, The Dead Yard. It seems pretty clear that the author was heavily inspired by Alexander McCall Smith's gentle No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series in crafting this first of a projected 10-book series. Like McCall Smith's series, this debut features a developing world landscape quite alien to most potential readers, and a I picked this up partly because I'm always on the lookout for mysteries set in other cultures, but also because I just finished Ian Thomson's dense nonfiction book about Jamaica, The Dead Yard. It seems pretty clear that the author was heavily inspired by Alexander McCall Smith's gentle No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series in crafting this first of a projected 10-book series. Like McCall Smith's series, this debut features a developing world landscape quite alien to most potential readers, and a warm-hearted protagonist who's ashamed by aspects of their past.

Here, the "detective" is Shad, a bartender for an small beachside establishment in the Jamaican backwater of Largo. He works for a middle-aged American expatriate named Eric, who moved down to the area and opened a hotel, only to lose it all to a hurricane. Now Eric gets by with his small bar, and looks out over the water to the island that his destroyed dream sits upon. One day, a mysterious woman shows up on that island, leading Eric and Shad to go investigate. She's an American with some ghosts of her own, looking for a place to be alone while she recovers from whatever befell her. Meanwhile, in a completely unrelated plotline, election season is coming up, and Shad is pressured by an old friend to do a little work on behalf of the ruling party to ensure electoral success.

There are other bits and bobs to the story, such as the woman's brother coming down from New York to try and take her back to the U,S., and Shad's attempts to keep his youthful stint in jail secret. There's some local color, with the village obeah man becoming a part of the plot, and the political corruption of Jamaica finger-wagged at. It all comes together in a way that makes sense structurally, but the book also feels very unsure about what it's trying to do. The main storyline is about grief and letting go and features the woman, and there's a bit of a minor love story mixed in that features Eric, and yet Shad is presented as a person who "keeps the balance" of the village. There's a lack of focus that ends up diluting all the characters and plotlines.

The book is marketed as the launching of an amateur detective series, and that's really not what it is. It may be that future installments in the series take on more of that aspect, but this first one never commits to the genre, which is fine, just something to be aware of. However, if you're looking for an easy read that gives you a very light taste of modern Jamaica, pick it up and give it twenty pages to grab you. ...more

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Jan 28, 2018 Andrea rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fun-mysteries, caribbean

A fun mystery set in a small town in Jamaica. San, the bartender and his employer, Eric, are trying to keep their business afloat after Eric loses his resort hotel in a hurricane. Then, a mysterious woman appears on a small island. Simone is hiding in the deserted island in hopes of healing a personal trauma. But when local thugs and dirty politics target Simone and threaten to stir up Shad's past, the two men become amateur detectives. ...more

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