cover image Murder on Naked Beach

Murder on Naked Beach

J. J. Henderson. CDS Books, $11.95 (274pp) ISBN 978-1-59315-287-1

Jumping at the chance to leave slushy New York for sunny Jamaica, 30-something design journalist Lucy Ripken promptly sticks her nose into a death that no one else seems to think is murder (though of course it is). Soon Lucy is tangled up in a massive drug deal involving several of her less savory press-junket companions. Somewhere in there she falls for Harold Ipswich, mild-mannered reporter by day and DEA agent by night, who seems rather boring and has a disconcerting habit of encouraging Lucy to break the law. Fortunately, he has the advantage of being the only decent human being on the island other than the uniformly friendly and laid-back Rastafarian natives, whose favorite pastime is feeding Lucy plot-advancing information. First-time novelist and former journalist Henderson never passes up an opportunity to skewer her compatriots in the press corps or devote pages to the joys of architecture photography, leaving characterization and plot as thin as one of Lucy's swimsuits. Hopefully, she'll reshuffle her priorities before further developing the series.