jemidar

I must admit, when requesting this ARC of Tango in Madeira by Jim Williams from LibraryThing I was expecting a very different book than the one I got. I was expecting a light, quirky cosy mystery. Yes, there is a murder which is solved by the protagonist by the end of the book. Yes, it is also peopled by numerous quirky characters, including cameos from George Bernard Shaw and Agatha Christie, but as delightful as all that is it’s thankfully not the sum total of this well written novel.

Set on the island of Madeira in the early 1920s, this often funny and poignant novel weaves various themes around the central story of the murder of an unknown man called Robinson. The author has a good feel for the setting and times so the first half of the novel is an enjoyable meander through the expat and local communities of post WWI Madeira. Around the halfway mark, the tension ramps up significantly and we are plunged into the mystery proper. As always there’s a lot more to it than first meets the eye.

On the whole, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read which also provided plenty to think about.

ARC provided courtesy of LibraryThing: Early Reviewers and Marble City Publishing. Thanks!