HAITIAN GRAVES

A Canadian Mountie seconded to the United Nations in Haiti steps uncomfortably outside his job description.

Sgt. Ray Robertson is an adviser and mentor working with the national police force to help Haiti recover from its recent devastating earthquake. While he’s attached to Agent Pierre Lamothe and his team, they’re called to a gated mansion in one of the best neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, where a woman has been found dead in the swimming pool. Steve Hammond is an American married to a beautiful woman with two young children. The official story is that his wife, Marie, slipped and hit her head on the pool before falling in. From the first, however, Robertson doesn’t buy that scenario. A woman from the American embassy arranges for the body to be autopsied in Miami and, while she’s at it, does her best to shut down the investigation. Robertson is locked out of the case when the gardener is arrested for killing Marie. Even though Robertson is no detective, his curiosity is aroused, and he grows more suspicious when one of the guards from the Hammond home is seen wearing an expensive watch. Despite threats from the embassy and a cold shoulder from the local police, he persists in his inquiries and comes up with some disturbing answers.

Delany (Under Cold Stone, 2014, etc.) uses a slim and easily solved mystery to paint a thought-provoking portrait of post-quake Haiti.