Dead Man in Paradise

by JamesMacKinnon (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2007

  $10.08

  At nightfall on June 22, 1965, a soldier walked in from the outskirts of a small town in the Dominican Republic and reported that he had just shot and killed two policemen and an outspoken Canadian Catholic priest. It was the opening scene in a mystery that, forty years later, compels J. B. MacKinnon, a nephew of the murdered missionary, to investigate what many believe was a carefully plotted assassination. Dead Man in Paradise is a true story with the suspense of a classic mystery novel, the immediacy of reportage and the insight of a travelogue. More than any of these, it is a personal examination of one of the gravest challenges of our times: finding a balance between our longing to hold the guilty to account for their crimes and the deep human need to forgive.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2006

  $4.41

  A small part of that darkness is unforgettably explored in this, J. B. Mackinnon's first book. The author's uncle, a Catholic missionary priest from Canada, was shot dead one hot night in June 1965. Two policemen, who had apparently murdered him, were themselves found shot to death yards from his body. Not long before, the US had invaded the Dominican Republic in order to prevent a mildly reformist government from coming to power; and a couple of years before that, the long, bizarre reign of the dictator Trujillo had come to an end in a bloody tangle of intrigue and violence. The mystery of the priest's death was never solved. Forty years later, his nephew returned to the island to investigate the murders and their background. His courageous research has allowed him to write a masterly combination of real life thriller, travelogue and memoir. Dead Man in Paradise evokes the vibrant, fevered atmosphere of a poor and beautiful country that does not encourage too much examination of its past. Mackinnon meets former generals and politicians and revolutionaries, and ageing priests and villagers who remember all too well what it was like to live in mortal fear if they dared to challenge the landowners and the police. In the tradition of Philip Gourevitch and Adam Hochschild, this is a great piece of storytelling about politics and crime.