Black Rain Falling by Jacob Ross

Black Rain Falling

Jacob Ross

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.

Extract

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.'

 

 

Parallels
  • Black Water Rising by Attica Locke
  • Smaller and Smaller Circles by F. H. Batacan