What do you think?
Rate this book
Joe Wilder #1
Dance of the Mongoose
A CARIBBEAN ISLAND TEEMING WITH SECRETS—AND SUSPECTS
“I’ve been trying to imagine the murder scene. It probably went something like this...”
So begins the chronicle of Joseph Wilder, a struggling New York City writer whose approach to criminal evil is strictly literary—until a trip to his hometown in the Virgin Islands becomes his first case as a detective.
When he receives an urgent message asking him to return to St. Thomas, Joe goes home immediately. His oldest friend’s father, a judge with political ambitions, has been brutally murdered, and his friend is suspected of the crime. Back among family and childhood acquaintances, Joe soon learns that everyone he knows had reasons for wanting the judge dead, and someone he knows has made it happen. When he tries to untangle the web of secrets and lies surrounding the case, he remembers the old West Indies legend of the mongoose, possessed by the power to drive away evil: It is said that when the mongooses killed the last snake on the island of St. Thomas, they danced in victory by the light of the moon…
Joe Wilder may not have the same mystical power, but he’s determined to find the snakes in this case and drive them out—even if victory means putting his own life in danger. (T.J. Phillips is a pseudonym of author TOM SAVAGE.)
“I’ve been trying to imagine the murder scene. It probably went something like this...”
So begins the chronicle of Joseph Wilder, a struggling New York City writer whose approach to criminal evil is strictly literary—until a trip to his hometown in the Virgin Islands becomes his first case as a detective.
When he receives an urgent message asking him to return to St. Thomas, Joe goes home immediately. His oldest friend’s father, a judge with political ambitions, has been brutally murdered, and his friend is suspected of the crime. Back among family and childhood acquaintances, Joe soon learns that everyone he knows had reasons for wanting the judge dead, and someone he knows has made it happen. When he tries to untangle the web of secrets and lies surrounding the case, he remembers the old West Indies legend of the mongoose, possessed by the power to drive away evil: It is said that when the mongooses killed the last snake on the island of St. Thomas, they danced in victory by the light of the moon…
Joe Wilder may not have the same mystical power, but he’s determined to find the snakes in this case and drive them out—even if victory means putting his own life in danger. (T.J. Phillips is a pseudonym of author TOM SAVAGE.)
- GenresMystery
281 pages, ebook
First published August 1, 1995
11 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 16, 2024
A failing novelist returns to St. Thomas, the Caribbean Island of his birth when his best friend's father, a judge, and very important man, is murdered.
From there, you get the usual torpid mystery set in the area.
The novel tries for some magical realism, I think, but it doesn't work out.
From there, you get the usual torpid mystery set in the area.
The novel tries for some magical realism, I think, but it doesn't work out.
July 13, 2007
I found this book on the dollar rack at store. If only all the money I spent was so well invested. This book was just a fun little tale, which is all I could ask from a book.
February 25, 2013
The book starts with a vivid and detailed account of a machete murder...which turns out to be a reconstruction of the crime formed in the mind of the narrator,Joe Wilder, a moderately successful novelist and a not-so-successful playwright. The bulk of the novel is set in the Virgin Islands, and T.J. Philips (pseudonym of Tom Savage) makes good use of the locale, and does an even better job of showing how greed, envy and hatred can fester within the closed society. It's and entertaining and diverting story, but since the focus of the book is on social mores and the often-brittle and hypocritical nature of high society (even on a beautiful tropic isle, human nature is to create a class society) the constant examination of relationships may make for a too-slow pace for readers accustomed to more action and a more forceful protagonist.
May 10, 2015
Nothing spectacular here ! Average characters and plot!
June 18, 2016
I like to read books like this while vacationing in the Caribbean.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews