Sub-editor, Martin, and his wife, Angelica, are trying to piece their lives and marriage back together after the tragedy of the death of their daughter, Cali, but neither is succeeding particularly well. Martin becomes addicted to a pokey machine at a seedy club near his work that puts him in debt to the tune of $20,000, which, when presented to Angelica, causes a separation. Trying to come to terms with the breakdown of his marriage and the death of Cali, Martin flees to Fiji, ostensibly to further his research on a shipwreck off the coast of a remote island, which, it is rumoured, carried a cargo of gold coins. Quite quickly Martin finds himself staying at the low-rent Twilight Homestay and becoming involved with a cast of characters from the owner of the Twilight, Johnny Grainger, to the sensual and haunted Fijian women, Tabua. Along the way he manages to get himself into a complicated situation with a conman and a scheme to attract investors for the salvage of the shipwreck’s treasure. This book is diverting and competently written, but suffers from an overly diffuse narrative. It jumps about without focus and, as a result, it ultimately lacks narrative tension. Readers will enjoy the Fijian setting and the undercurrent theme of a man trying to get his life back on track.

Shane Strange is a bookseller at Riverbend Books, Australian Independent Bookshop of the Year 2006

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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