Caribbean Fiction

On the rugged, wild, eastern shore of Barbados, Cindy and Clint are enjoying their dream honeymoon, when paradise quickly turns into hell. Cindy finds her newly beloved taken away from her, drowned in a freak accident in the ocean. The local police are quick to declare it an accident, to insist that he was caught in a sudden riptide. But Cindy, left all alone, is not convinced.

Rescuing Marlee Williams was my first mistake. Now, she thinks we're wingmen. That we have each other's back. And there's something about Marlee that makes me smile, makes me want to be a better man even as I want to lock her in my bedroom and kiss her until we both run out of air. So when she asks me to do her a favor, I'm all in. I'm her wingman, after all. Except she needs someone to knock her up, to give her the baby she craves, and then leave.

I've never met a woman I couldn't love - for one night. I'm the bad boy, the player, the sexy heartbreaker you meet in a bar and take home. And after my last hellish tour of duty as a SEAL, sun, sand, and sex are my new mission in life. Happily ever after? Pass. I'll give you the best 12 hours of your life, and then I'm gone because why settle down when playing the field is so fun? All that changes when I meet Valentina Fuentes.

Before they get engaged, Cindy urges Mattheus to meet his long-lost Caribbean daughter, whom he has never met. Sixteen years ago, after a one-night stand, the woman became pregnant, and Mattheus quickly left. Mattheus' beautiful, volatile 15-year-old daughter, Andrea, badly needs him, and she wants him to come to Anguilla, where she lives, so they can get to know each other. One caveat, though: He has to come without Cindy.

Cindy and Mattheus, finally away together for a much-needed vacation on the beautiful island of Aruba, are awakened by horrible shouts of despair. A guest at the hotel has just discovered his new fiancée dead under their window, sprawled out on the courtyard below, soon after he had proposed. The two had recently met online, had a long-distance Internet relationship, and had met in person only a few times. The entire hotel is terrified and mobilized. Was it suicide, or was it murder?

In Death by Obsession, the next installment in the number-one best-selling Caribbean Murder series, a huge destination wedding, merging two blueblood families, is about to take place in St. Martin, when Cindy and Mattheus get an emergency call from the father of the bride. He wants them to come down to the island immediately and dig up dirt on the groom. He can't shake his bad feeling about the guy, even though all his other investigations didn't turn up a thing.

Against the exotic backdrop of Jamaica and Florida, charismatic rock reporter Mick Sever investigates a reggae band's involvement with the violent deaths of young girls in this gripping mystery of music and murder. Led by their mysterious and captivating singer Derrick Lyman, the band seems ready for their big break. But after their first American concert, a beautiful young girl is murdered.

In Death by Engagement (book 12 of the Caribbean Murder series), Cindy and Mattheus joyously head to Aruba to search for a venue for their destination wedding. Thrilled, they enter the magical, romantic world of wedding planning and along the way meet another recently engaged couple also looking for a place to be wed.

When an old friend's husband goes missing, she calls Cindy for help. Fresh from her own tragedy, Cindy returns to the Caribbean, this time to the gorgeous, lush island of Grenada, to find him. Cindy, still grieving her own husband's death, stays at her friend's incredible villa on the ocean, as she does her best to help track down her friend's husband, Ames.

In Death by Temptation, Cindy and Mattheus arrive for a vacation at St. Lucia, a haven for honeymooners and destination weddings - but neither have any idea what destiny has in store. When their friend's daughter goes missing after a swim alone, a frantic search grips the island. Swept up in the horror, Cindy and Mattheus join in. When the dead body of another young woman turns up a few days later at the same beach, Cindy is convinced the cases are connected.

When her position with the government is eliminated, Charity Styles is faced with an uncertain future. The only part of her previous life that she truly enjoyed was sailing her classic sloop. The cruising lifestyle is wonderful and helps keep her mind centered, as she sails from one anchorage to another, looking for her true calling. But there are hidden dangers: marauding pirates, psychopaths, and drug smugglers run rampant throughout the Caribbean, leaving pain and suffering in their wake. In the Bahamas, someone close to Charity falls victim to the brutality.

Where Jerry Snyder goes, trouble follows. Someone tried to kill him and his bride on their honeymoon in the Virgin Islands. And moving there permanently is proving to be anything but tranquil.

Charity Styles had been the catalyst for the demise of many. But in the past that usually meant the end of a human life. As an assassin for the CIA, it came with the territory. But this time she feels responsible for the end of her friend’s relationship. She sets out on a voyage to find one of the partners in the hopes of rectifying the rift she helped create. Along the way, she encounters a deadly foe, bent on becoming rich regardless of how many must suffer or die.

In this fourth installment of the Jesse McDermitt series, Jesse faces an antagonist unlike any he's faced before, post-traumatic stress. A friend's son, who was dishonorably discharged from the Corps, is suffering from nightmares, brought on by the incident that was the catalyst for his discharge. With Jesse's help he learns to cope with his demons and gets his discharge overturned, so that he may once again serve the country he loves.

"La idea de salir a recorrer -y a contar- las grandes ciudades sudacas se me ocurrió cuando pensé que quería tratar de entender qué es hoy América Latina. Hace mucho que no lo intentamos y, en general, solemos conservar esa imagen rural, ecololó de una región que es, ahora mismo, la más urbana del mundo. Cuatro de cada cinco latinoamericanos viven en ciudades, pero no son ciudades como las que uno imagina cuando piensa en Barcelona o en París. Para saber cómo son -cómo es Latinoamérica- decidí volver a hacer eso que siempre me ha gustado hacer: ir, mirar, escuchar, pensar, contarlo."—Martín Caparrós.

Abraham Lincoln may have returned to history books, but other historical figures saw what he did - and now they know they can escape from their times, too. When Abigail Adams decides there's more to life than doing chores in the White House, she joins a crew of Caribbean pirates! Can siblings Abby and Doc set history straight? Or will they be the ones who need to be rescued?

In 1668, 15-year-old Kemosha is sold by a slave owner to a tavern keeper in Port Royal, Jamaica - the “wickedest city on earth”. She soon flees from a brutal assault and finds herself in the company of a mysterious free Black man, Ravenhide, who teaches her the fine art of swordplay, introduces her to her soul mate, Isabella, and helps her win her freedom.

Belinda is the cliché that everyone knows about, the poor little rich girl. She has everything anyone could ever want, except the one thing she wanted, the one thing she had possessed before the money had come flooding in. In the middle of the Caribbean, on an obscenely expensive cruise aboard a huge catamaran, she has to make up her mind between two things…her husband, or her soul.

Thomas Treadwell takes to the high seas as a sailor on a merchant ship as he searches for freedom, a difficult thing to find for a man such as himself in the 18th century. While he must hide his most essential self in the daylight, his forbidden desires are allowed brief tastes of secret passion under the cover of night and with faceless partners.    

En la literatura de Velázquez todo es retorcido. Si hay gore, éste es rosa. Si hay humor, éste es descabellado. Si hay amor, éste es un pretexto para el abismo. Pero la existencia de sus personajes no es una excentricidad inextricable, son seres comunes y corrientes que son arrastrados hacia la infamia por la tan irresistible atracción fatal, como le puede ocurrir a cualquiera de nosotros.

Despachador de pollo frito, quinto libro de relatos de Carlos Velázquez, nos lleva por una serie de protagonistas y entornos en donde la mentira y las triquiñuelas; el travestismo y la dipsomanía; el delirio y la enfermedad; la ruina y los desastres emocionales, configuran a través de su inconfundible prosa cáustica, sonora y veloz, un universo mordaz que termina siendo un espejo despiadado en el cual incluso el lector más escéptico se verá seducido y hechizado.

Un detective privado mexicano recibe la inaudita encomienda de desenmascarar a un falso Paul McCartney, un cinéfilo y sensible godín recibe un revés kármico a su prolongada carrera como rompecorazones, un director de orquestas xenofóbico con su propio pueblo llevará al borde de la locura a la comunidad de Tatahuila por sus conflictos con la autoridad, un travesti verá su vida arruinada a partir de una úlcera rectal que lo conducirá al camino de la redención pseudo-evangélica y un despachador de pollo frito arrastra una disputa con su jefe a un péndulo de venganzas y revanchas en donde el propio cuerpo será usado como el campo de batalla principal.

En estos cinco cuentos, Velázquez maneja a su entero placer el devenir de estos seres cuasi fantásticos de tan desposeídos, con un magistral manejo de la estructura y la forma que reverencia a los grandes maestros del género. Sin dejar nunca el sentido del humor como punta de lanza, conduce las tramas a partir de una premisa encantadora y envolvente, en donde todo mundo soltará una carcajada rotunda.