Set on an imaginary Caribbean island, this second outing for Michael 'Digger' Digson and his formidable partner, Miss Stanislaus, also works as a stand-alone story. Determined and loyal, they care about each other and the people they aim to protect. The smallness of place belies a bigger world with an interesting breadth of characters; I relished too the rhythms of the local dialect. A book which really gets under your skin, but in a good way.
Miss Stanislaus's visit and her attitude tonight was about the weeks of waiting for a verdict on her future with San Andrews CID. She was expecting me to understand her fears without having to spell them out.
Still, I was waiting for her to tell me. Miss Stanislaus was the only human I knew who, however much she tried, could not sidestep the truth.
She came out and placed herself beside me.
'Missa Digger, I love my job. Bes' fing dat ever happen to me. An' I good doing it, not so?'
'The best,' I said.
'If I lose it, I wouldn fall down an' dead, Missa Digger. But I don' want to lose my living becuz of a man that take so much from me arready. Else, nothing else make sense.'
'Miss Stanislaus, if you go, I go too.'
'Mebbe that's what they want?'
'Mebbe, Miss Stanislaus. Dunno.'
