Kirkus Reviews QR Code
WHERE EVIL SLEEPS by Valerie Wilson Wesley

WHERE EVIL SLEEPS

by Valerie Wilson Wesley

Pub Date: Aug. 27th, 1996
ISBN: 0-399-14145-6
Publisher: Putnam

Where evil sleeps, it seems, is in Kingston, Jamaica—except that it doesn't sleep for long, because ever since Newark shamus Tamara Hayle spiced up her vacation by tagging along to a seamy bar with Lilah Love and her short-tempered husband Sammy Lee, the cast members (starting with Sammy Lee) have been dropping like flies. After a burst of violence leaves the bar deserted but for Tamara and two corpses, Tamara, flummoxed by the theft of her handbag (cash, plastic, passport), has to depend on that old devil Basil Dupre for rescue—and Basil, who talks like a combination of small-town seducer and New Age therapist (``What sorrow has made your heart grow so hard, Tamara Hayle?'' he reproaches her)—doesn't provide much refuge from a wild, mindless plot Wesley (Devil's Gonna Get Him, 1995, etc.) seems to be making up as she goes along. The body count of a Jamaican Big Sleep, but all other resemblances are strictly coincidental.