Passiontide

April 1, 2024

Winner of the OCM BOCAS Prize for Caribbean Literature and shortlisted for the Orange Prize, Roffey reconsiders the detective novel. Women are killed all too often on the small island of St. Colibri. The newest murder, occurring at the end of Carnival, prompts four women to join forces and start a revolution. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 29, 2024
Roffey (The Mermaid of Black Conch) begins her stirring if uneven latest as a police procedural before swerving into a treatise on femicide in the Carribean. At the end of Carnival, the body of a Japanese musician is found slashed, bitten, and strangled under a sacred cannonball tree on the island of St. Colibri. Inspector Loveday, a corrupt policeman in charge of finding the woman’s killer, has no evidence. Fed up with the island’s institutionalized misogyny and rampant rates of femicide, three local women—a reporter, a gay activist, and a sex worker—stage a protest. Their action attracts support from more women, who converge in the town square. At first, the demonstration is no more than an annoyance to the police and the prime minister, but a movement gathers steam after the mayor blames women for the violence against them. When the prime minister’s wife expresses her solidarity with the protestors, the mayor places her under house arrest. Roffey enlivens the proceedings with details of the women’s righteous organizing and colloquial dialogue (“Doh shoot the messenger”), but the narrative structure feels disjointed, and multiple story lines are left unresolved as the novel morphs into a social manifesto. Still, Roffey’s vital message is hard to shake.

August 1, 2024
The dead woman was found under a tree on the savannah. Violence against women isn't rare on the Caribbean island of St. Colibri, but the murder of Sora, a Japanese pan player who had been celebrating Carnival, proves to be the spark that ignites a movement against femicide. A group of women from all walks of life, including a reporter, the prime minister's wife, a lesbian activist, and a sex worker, come together as a small protest blossoms into an encampment generating international attention. Roffey (The Mermaid of Black Conch, 2022) unspools delicate, behind-the-scenes discussions and conflicts while revealing the scandals underlying the island's power structure. Characters pulse with authenticity, making the novel at times feel like gripping nonfiction. Soon, the women go on a sex strike, leaving men to grapple with their responsibility and response to the protestors' demands. As the movement grows but threatens to splinter over the course of Lent, leaders of both the activists and the authorities must grapple with the past to painfully usher in a different future.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 15, 2024
Murder sparks a feminist uprising. In the small Caribbean nation of St. Colibri, femicide is so prevalent--500 women killed in the past five to six years--that most residents are inured to it. Though feminist activist Tara Kissoon successfully campaigned to pass legislation against sexual and domestic violence and to establish an Office for Murdered Women within the police department, the situation remains unchanged. Newspaper journalist Sharleen Sellier is accustomed to her articles about local dead women going unnoticed, but when a foreign woman is found strangled in the city of Port Isabella the morning after Carnival, she and Tara sense an opportunity. The victim, Sora Tanaka, was a 23-year-old professional musician from Japan who regularly visited St. Colibri to play pan with a top steel orchestra. Tara initially suggests Sharleen write a story to sell abroad and attract international attention for their "local problem." Then Port Isabella's mayor holds a press conference blaming Sora's death on her skimpy costume and insisting that "it is up to women to avoid being molested" during Carnival. In response, Tara and Sharleen join forces with Gigi Lala, founder of the Port Isabella Sex Workers Collective, to organize an all-female occupation of a public square. As their movement gathers steam, the Office for Murdered Women's embittered male leader feels intensifying political pressure to arrest someone--anyone--for the crime; the perpetrator hunts for his next target; and Sora's ghost stays tethered to the tree under which she perished. Inspired by a real-life incident in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Roffey's vibrant take on a detective novel employs a kaleidoscopic close-third-person narrative and exquisitely rendered, emotionally complex characters to spotlight issues at once local and universal. The central mystery gets short shrift, but vividly drawn set pieces, dialogue delivered in a lilting patois, and a plot steeped in regional culture help invigorate the tale, lending it texture and palpable stakes. Powerful and empowering.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.