New Zealand historian Druett’s uneven fourth Wiki Coffin whodunit (after 2006’s Run Afoul
) finds half-Maori navigator and “linguister” Wiki investigating theft and murder in Patagonia. It’s January 1839, and Wiki, as sheriff’s representative aboard the U.S. Exploring Expedition ship Swallow
, agrees to help outraged whaler Captain Stackpole, who claims to have been roundly cheated. Trader Caleb Adams took Stackpole’s money and vanished, along with the schooner Stackpole was buying. When Wiki goes looking for Adams, he finds only his corpse. The bill of sale has been stolen from Adams’s store and a clerk murdered as well. Gauchos, Indians, revolutionaries and adventurers flock across the beautifully rendered landscape. Druett’s meticulous research shows in the vivid characters (including historical figures), but irrelevant passages of lush detail smother the plot, letting it resurface only in a late and hurried blurt of exposition. A better balance between detail and story would have made for smoother sailing. (Dec.)
