PASSIONTIDE

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.