THE HONEST FOLK OF GUASELOUPE

N.Y.: Soho Crime, 2015. 1st ed. A fine, unread copy of the Advance Uncopyedited Edition, due out December 2014. 323 pages. The second mystery by Timothy Williams, CWA award-winning grand master of crime fiction, set on the sun-drenched Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. It is technically part of France, subject to French law and loyal to the French Republic. But the scars of colonialism are still fresh, and ethnic tensions and political unrest seethe just below the surface of everyday life. French-Algerian judge Anne Marie Laveaud relocated to this beautiful Caribbean island confident that she could make it her new home. 1990: Laveaud has been living and working in the French Caribbean département of Guadeloupe for more than a decade, but her days are still full of surprises--for example,the fact that every witness Anne Marie interviews grills her about when she's going to get remarried. She is only just starting to investigate the increasingly suspicious suicide of a high-profile environmental activist and media personality when she is pulled off the case. Is it because she was getting too close to the truth? But the new case she's been assigned takes precedent. The body of a white female French tourist-- only 24 years old--has been discovered on a nudist beach, where it seems the young woman was raped and murdered. The victim's remains offer no clues about her final hours--she was found without any of her belongings, and it seems she was dead at least three days before anyone spotted her corpse. What turned this woman's vacation in paradise into a final nightmare? As always, the story of a murdered white woman has attracted the attention of international media. Furthermore, the economy of Guadeloupe, so dependent on the tourist industry, could suffer a terrible hit if this case isn't brought under control with some quick, impressive police work.. First Edition. Pictorial Wrappers. Fine/No Jacket. Advance Uncorrected Proof.