Safe Return Doubtful

James’s debut novel tells the story of a battle of good against evil against the backdrop of a corrupt isolated village deep in the Jamaican countryside in the 1950s. The village’s ‘Rum Preacher’ is an alcoholic dealing with a damaged past by preaching morality, but frequently falling short of his own standards. A seemingly apocalyptic swarm of John Crows (vultures) herald the arrival of a self-proclaimed Apostle to the village, who immediately throws out the Preacher and heralds a regime of ‘fire and brimstone’. Sinners are dealt with mercilessly and epic confrontations between the preachers ensue. Though the villagers are sure the Apostle is a divine emissary against the evil Rum Preacher, the question for the reader to consider, as the pace gathers towards a terrific climax, is which of them is most flawed, and who will emerge victorious.
Written in the local patois, its strong stuff, in places shocking and grisly, but always compelling.