Mr. Caribbean
'Santo Domingo had a sweaty underwear vibe.'
Mark Rogers is the go-to man for the Caribbean as Jake Needham is for Asia.
No sugar coating, just writing about it how it is.
You know how their books are authentic in one regard, they are documenting the local colors and flavors conveniently glossed over in travel guides.
A breath of fresh air.
I've got better things to do than read fiction.
That's why I read real fiction, such as The Big Mango or Plunge.
Plunge is rocking in a really good way, reminds me of my trip on the outskirts of Mexico City with a coke-head immigration official, this is real and even feels it!
Homage to The Rum Diaries, there are the same sleazy characters, real estate developers and swarms of Suburbia folk, from Idaho to Nebraska, on package tours to the balmy Caribbean.
It's a sham, and I'm part of it, thought Turner, the travel writer.
Which is what makes this novel so plausible.
Mark Rogers is a travel writer, his work featuring in USA Today and the New York Times.
Plunge exposes the industry and the little infighting between advertisers, writers, and editors.
Add in the kidnapping of Turner's son, only nine years old, then you got the perfect setting for a book which easily could be titled Hell.
I'm a big fan of Mark Rogers.
I find him a very talented writer who makes the effort to read lesser known writers.
He's written scripts, novels, novellas and even edited works of his friend.
Where Turner is a frustrated writer, Rogers is making good.
It's never about him. It's always about the story.
He'll prefer to write a 70 k story than to let it be bogged down in double the word count.
What's not to like about this writer?
He's churning out the books. Each one gets better than the last.
I'd say he's found his voice in this one.
And he's one of the few American writers able to penetrate the Caribbean.
He knows it intimately.
It resonates with intimacy.
Watch your step, a dog turd approaching, past that second crack on the pavement, intimacy.
'Standing next to Sally I gestured at the ocean and the boulevard.’So, this is the Malecon. Kind of like a boardwalk. But with more dog shit, thieves, and drunks.’
Local color and flavor aside, the suspense builds up.
From journalist to 'Crisis Negotiator', Turner is drawing upon every inspiration, from Dirty Harry to plain common sense, ‘Until we had Dylan returned to us, these wads of cash weren’t leaving my possession.’
The suspense is building up nicely.
There's a lot happening between the lines in his work, which adds to its magic, said Mark Rogers of one of Vanya Vetto's travelogues. Like Mark, he's a seasoned traveler. Unlike Mark, he doesn't write thrillers set in travelogue land.
Likewise, I can return the compliment, there's also a lot going on in Mark Roger's Plunge.
You can just feel that the author is working in his real-life experiences.
You know he gets out of his hotel and explores the hinterlands, the grey zone territory between 'local' and 'will I come out of this alive'.
Leaving the tourist zones actually, have fewer sharks wanting to fleece you. But sometimes sharks follow you there. Few dare to roam the citie's slums or outer limits for that reason.
That's the razor wire edge that keeps me reading. He's been there and done that and he's setting a novel in it.
Plunge while you can.
The sharks are seeking out the blood that is mingling with the warm currents of the Caribbean.
Be warned, this isn't a feel-good Tom Cruise kicking back over cocktails in the Caribbean kinda story, it's so much more.
It's the dark side of tourism.
Will Turner turn to the dark side to save his kidnapped son?
"This isn't gonna be a fight," I said, hefting the tyre iron in my hand."It's gonna be a beating."
Take a deep breath and plunge...
