The Spice of Life

The fascination of islands is, for me, endless .The final port of call on my recent trip to the Caribbean, before returning to Barbados, was Grenada, the Spice Island, and it proved to be rich in natural beauty as well as vibrant in culture, with warm, friendly people. Every island has its distinct personality, shaped in part by the climate, and Grenada (unlike, say, Aruba, which has an arid, desert-type climate) is rich in flora and fauna, but also vulnerable to hurricanes. Among the places I visited was the lake in a volcanic crater,close to the nature reserve which is home to some very affable monkeys.

I haven't been able to track down any Grenada-based crime stories. T.S. Stribling's Poggioli, who I have mentioned in my last two posts, detected crimes in Barbados, Martinique and Hait as well as Curacao, but his later cases were set in the US. But there is certainly an appetite for Caribbean crime, if the popular success of Death in Paradise (set on a fictional island, but filmed in Guadeloupe) is anything to go by. Will some author be encouraged to write a new series, in which a detective moves from one Caribbean island to another, solving mysteries as he or she goes? I wouldn't be surprised. After all, what a wonderful part of the world to "have" to visit to research!

And the sheer variety of islands was brought home to me again last night, when I watched the first part of the new Shetland story, based on Blue Lightning, and set on Fair Isle. Very different in mood and temperature from Grenada, of course, yet in its way equally appealing. Visiting some of the Scottish islands (I've been to Mull and Skye but that's about it) is high on my to-do list. In the meantime, my trip to the Caribbean has provided a host of happy memories.