April 23, 2007
S
tone’s adrenaline-packed debut is not for the faint of heart. Max Mingus, an ex-Miami cop and PI, wants to get his life back on track after a seven-year stint in Attica for the execution of three child molesters. Grudgingly agreeing to investigate the disappearance of Charlie Carver, the three-year-old son of a wealthy white Haitian family, Max finds himself thrown headfirst into the violent, corrupt world of Haiti in the mid-1990s. Max’s search leads him from the sprawling Carver compound to Cité Soleil, the country’s most notorious slum, pitting him against powerful drug baron Vincent Paul and the bloody legacy of the Carvers’ rise to power. Stone veers too often into the explicitly graphic, with numerous extended torture scenes, but readers accustomed to the grittiest of pulp fiction won’t be deterred. Stone, the son of British historian Norman Stone and a Haitian mother, vividly depicts a country and a man in turmoil. Despite an overabundance of plot elements, this thriller introduces a fresh voice that fans of hardboiled fiction won’t want to miss.