Customer Reviews

Murder on Tiki Island: A Noir Paranormal Mystery In The Florida Keys

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I'm absolutely in love with the state of Florida. I feel most at peace when I visit there, and this is especially the case when I'm near the ocean. I'm also a Tiki enthusiast, so I was immensely excited when I heard author Chris Pinto had written a new paranormal murder mystery, set in the backdrop of a Tiki themed resort in the Florida keys. What's more, the story falls under the genre of noir fiction, a writing style of which I've always been a huge fan of.

The story is set in 1956, and follows Detective Bill Riggins, a tough New York City cop with an affinity for jazz and bourbon, and a distaste for crooks and scum. After a spirited interrogation of a drug pusher, officer Riggins takes a forced vacation to Tiki Island, located in the Florida Keys.

During Detective Riggins excursion, he gets mixed up with the resort owners seductive daughter, as well as a blonde bombshell who isn't entirely what she appears to be. Along the way, he gets wrongfully suspected of a brutal murder, and is forced to question his core beliefs when paranormal activity starts running rampant.

While I knew this book had the makings of a great story, and covered many of my personal interests, I had no clue just how good of a read this was going to be. This is solely due to the authors imagination and storytelling abilities. He paints such a vivid and clear picture of the settings he describes, it feels as if you are truly transported to another place and time. Whether it was a cold fall day in New York, or a sultry night in the Florida keys, I clearly got a vivid sense and feel for the environments, places, and things, which were so eloquently described by the author.

It was obvious to me that Chris Pinto is well versed with the genre of pulp noir, and is an immense fan of mid century culture. Detailed descriptions of mid century cars, decor, clothes, social culture, and lingo, are all incredibly accurate and era specific. If one had to perform research for a novel like this, I could easily see it taking several years to complete. Chris Pinto is indubitably a lifelong study in regards to the aforementioned topics.

Every character is successfully brought to life by the authors storytelling, which in turn adds to the books lifeblood. In fact.. the protagonist seemed so real, I couldn't help but wonder if the author drew upon himself as the basis for the character. There are parts of this book that had me biting my nails in suspense, and others that had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end.

Just as the characters are superbly written, so are the environments and situations described in the story. As an aspiring author, I would love to pick the writers brain about how the heck he could be so descriptive when describing surroundings like Key West back in the 1950's, not to mention eerie depictions of haunted houses and paranormal activity that takes place in the story.

Reading books before bedtime has long been a ritual of mine to wind down at the end of the day. However.. reading this book had the opposite effect on me. Many a night ended with me reading for an hour or two past my bedtime because I simply couldn't put it down. I truly can't remember the last time I read a page turner like Murder on Tiki Island. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of mystery, pulp noir, paranormal, and mid century retro goodness. And if you're not, you will be after reading this book!

Oh, gosh what a great book. Love the settings. Did I say I loved the settings? Chris Pinto makes you feel like you are there every step of the way. A must read!

Sensuous, stylish, steamy and downright spooky, Chris Pinto's "Murder on Tiki Island" reads like a hipster's handbook. Set mostly in 1950s Southern Florida, with narrative flashbacks to the Great Depression, the book pops with pastel Art Deco/mid-modernist imagery and iconography; snappy period patter and witty first person prose; and cinematic descriptions of impossibly exotic beach resorts, incredibly cool cocktail lounges and neon-lit nightclubs, all wrapped in ambient weather reports and snazzy fashions. This pulpy paradise pulsates with pinup pulchritude, the loving recreated retro-landscape pleasingly populated with hard-boiled dicks, bodacious burlesque babes, mysterious mermaids, ghoulish ghosts, and a colorful cast of supporting characters. The story fits neatly into Pinto's richly developed mythology that was first introduced in his excellent debut novel "Murder Behind the Closet Door," since it also features rugged Detective Bill Riggins, a supporting character from that similarly structured 1970s South Jersey supernatural saga. This is a dreamy literary dish mixed with tasty elements of Mickey Spillane and HP Lovecraft, with a musical dash of Martin Denny for extra sensory spice.

If I would have had the time, I would have read this book in one go!
It has everything in it I like. Tiki`s, the paranormal & a fantastic story with lots of surprises.
I was drifting away into an exotic world of Tiki`s, Mermaids and Cocktails, surprised by the twists of the story line and got lots of goosebumps as the story unfolded.
Highly recommended! I loved it from start to finish!

The book was amazing! I couldn't put it down. It was exciting, suspensful, spooky, entertaining, emotional .... The story takes you on an adventure that keeps you reading. The ending is a complete surprise which makes the whole journey absolutely worth it! I highly recommend this book to people who like a good mystery, surprise and books that make you think.

review of "Murder on Tiki Island: A Noir Paranormal Mystery In The Florida Keys" Kindle version.

I read the previous work by this author, Murder Behind the Closet Door, and was an automatic pre-sold reader of whatever he might do next. I was not disappointed, in fact I like this novel much better.

It was refreshing and exciting to meet yet again Detective Riggins, as a younger man. It's the 1950s and he is already growing into a heroic figure, wrestling fiercely with his own invited demons of alcohol and lust. Yet, those are only youthful demons, and don't yet dominate him but rather colorfully twist teasingly around his solid moral compass. Detective Riggins is no saint, far from it. He is though a strong soul you can share too many drinks with at a remote tropical bar and in the morning depend on to have your back in a Key West alley.

Character development is ensured and rich and that alone would sell me on this book, but wait, there's more! I especially liked, and have yet to see it before, an opening prior to the show where Mr. Pinto takes an important step in storytelling. He offers up a musical playlist that the adventurer might enjoy while reading the story. I did indeed purchase those songs and played them while I read, my Fedora hat comfortably on my head, my feet propped up on an old leather footstool, an evening cocktail at my side. His research into the time period shows an understanding of a slice of Americana only our parents or grandparents enjoyed. And, Mr. Pinto takes us there, deeper than those black and white polaroids we found in the attic recently. We feel the world as a younger, fresher old friend, one that we now know better because of hearing a little history, a little backstory.

In the 'whodunnit' style of good mysteries, I found myself choosing the bad guys incorrectly at first, and then later when discovering the real "bad guy" found I could empathize with their circumstances. Often, we learn over the years a better way to distinguish dramatic crimes as either children of pure evil or good people put into impossible positions. Murder on Tiki Island has both, and eventually shows us which is which. It doesn't preach or condemn the characters and their behavior but lets the reader take up those tasks on their own.

Lastly, being a Tiki fan of the first order, I enjoyed the weaving of that theme throughout the book. This book frames quite a picture: the tropical heat, the thunderstorms offshore dancing with the sea and a little island beneath it all. It fit very well with the islands of Florida, a favorite place of mine since the late 1950s. I have often wondered what the world misses now that those hardy souls, those lucky souls, enjoyed prior to massive development and tourism. My guess is that they enjoyed some, hated some and lived it the best they could. Murder on Tiki Island took me there for a few hours, showed me the good and the bad and in a very subtle way entices me to await the next adventure from Detective Riggins.

Everett Peacock

Thia moves much faster and is far bloodier then Pintos first book, Murder behind the closet door. I couldnt put it down...read through it in 4 days. Then started again to make sure I caught it all.

And so much there is to catch! Spirits coming for revenge, a troubled daughter trying to run from the apparition of her mother, an evil old man waiting for his punishment. Hurricanes and tropical disasters. Pretty girls after the same man.

And a hard boiled NYC copper out of his element among the palms and jacarandas of the tropics.

Perfect settings...description makes you feel you are really there.

Ending, even though you think you know whats going to happen....you still wont guess it!!

Highly recommend!!!

Just finished this book and LOVED it! I could not put it down.
Really looking forward to starting Tiki Chris Pinto's next book.

The book was amazing! I couldn't put it down. It was exciting, suspensful, spooky, entertaining, emotional .... The story takes you on an adventure that keeps you reading. The ending is a complete surprise which makes the whole journey absolutely worth it! I highly recommend this book to people who like a good mystery, surprise and books that make you think.