DARK DRUMS

An Irish bound-girl, Kate Donley, doubles for Amber with trim of tropics and eeriness of obeah. She has set her sights high, when she reached Jamaica, and determines to let nothing stand between her and her goal, Rune Hall, replica of an Irish castle. Her methods are murder, theft, adultery- and the sorcery which she has forced the high priest of obeah to teach her and has then turned against the oppressed natives. In the end, her methods make even her own son turn against her, while the reader finds it impossible to work up either sympathy or sustained interest in this depraved woman. Authentic, detailed background of the late 18th, early 19th century Jamaica, but a story that stretches the credulity too far, and offends the sensibilities.