After a long stay in England, a love affair that fell apart, travel to Africa and the Caribbean, Mitch Roberts is headed home.Home to his ranch, his horses, and maybe -- or maybe not -- his detective profession. But if Roberts is looking forward to an uneventful life, he has farther to go than a return to southern Colorado. His problems start when a beautiful airline flight attendant suggests he meet her for a drink at her favorite bar when he stops over in Miami. The bar's parking lot, however, comes equipped with two thugs who knock Mitch out, take his passport, credit cards, and every cent in his pocket and drive off in the rental car. Desperate, Mitch finds the phone number of the only person he knows in Miami -- a former college acquaintance, Bobby Hilliard a rather sleazy character who has made a lot of money in questionable ways, and is now an art dealer.When Mitch finds the woman from the plane at the man's mansion; he is quick to realize he has been set up. But an offer of a sorely needed large fee tempts him, and he accepts a job. He is to go to Haiti, find an agent whom Hilliard had sent down with money to buy a large number of paintings and who has disappeared, and buy more paintings to replace those that are lost. Haiti is dismaying. The police and officials openly scoff at Mitch and his mission and more subtly let him know that he should stop nosing around.He is half-ill from the tropical heat and humidity and sickened by the poverty and fear that is everywhere.The atmosphere of Haiti's dark folklore pervades daily life -- the frightening Baron Samedi is a very real presence.Mitch is convinced that Hilliard's agent has been murdered and the art stolen, but he is driven to go on, as much to earn his fee as for a feeling deep inside that the quest has some meaning for him.With a Haitian guide, a poor, educated, desperately loyal man, Mitch travels the country tracking down the artists of the missing paintings in remote towns and buying more of their art.Dold's books are inevitably highly praised; he is an extraordinarily fine writer whether his subject is a mediocre lawyer accused of murder (The Devil to Pay) or a female Chinese-American police detective outwitting the leaders of a drug ring (Schedule Two).His sense of place is so vivid and so strong the reader is with him, in the Congo, in Jamaica, at Christmastime in London.Samedi's Knapsack, imbued not only with criminal machinations of more than one kind, but with the beliefs of the Haitian people in evil spirits and the living dead is another strong and colorful thriller to burnish his fine reputation as a writer. AUTHORBIO: Gaylord Dold was born in Kansas and raised in rural southern California in the good old days.He has lived in California, Florida, Kansas, and London, England, where he attended the London School of Economics.Over the years he has published twelve crime novels, many of them highly acclaimed. He has traveled widely in the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa.These days he's back on the prairie of southern Kansas, where he lives with his wife, Megumi, and their dog, Aki.He is working on a new novel.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The ninth installment in this respected series finds peripatetic ballplayer-turned-PI Roberts in turbulent post-Duvalier Haiti in an absorbing and exotic mix of murder and vodun, or Haitian voodoo. (The title, incidentally, refers to Baron Samedi, the supposed God of Saturday nights, who puts captured souls in his knapsack.) Bobby Hilliard, an old friend from his ballplaying days, asks Roberts to travel from Miami to Haiti to buy some artwork for his galleries; Hilliard's previous courier disappeared mysteriously with a large amount of money and some valuable paintings. After surviving an explosion in a church, Roberts returns to his hotel room to find a dead chicken, its throat cut, doused in blue paint an obvious voodoo curse; the same thing happened to his predecessor. Violence, betrayal and a devastating hurricane follow. The story shifts into high gear when the action switches to Haiti, where the Tontons (the corrupt local police) rule the streets. The squalor and poverty prevalent throughout the island are memorably evoked: "Beggars hounded them for blocks. As they walked along the dust-choked residential streets of Port-au-Prince, Roberts could hear the Creole pleas echoing in the alleyways. Three limbless men on small four-wheeled carts pushed themselves behind him, beseeching him for anything money, gum, trinkets, food." In all, it's a diverting mystery that posits a sometimes poignant image of a troubled and troubling country ruled by voodoo politics.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In his ninth outing, PI Mitch Roberts (Hot Summer, Cold Murder) quits London after three years and meets with bad luck upon returning to the States. Forced to depend on the kindness of an old, once crazy friend (now a dealer in primitive Haitian art) in Miami, Roberts first winds up in the Keys, where he discovers two dead Haitians, then in Haiti, close on the trail of an art agent who disappeared with the friend's money and/or newly purchased art. Anti-foreigner sentiments, machinations of the Ton Ton Macoutes, and various feminine temptations keep excitement levels high. Rich description and evocative prose complete the picture. For all collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A winner,
This review is from: Samedi's Knapsack: A Mitch Roberts Mystery (Hardcover)
After spending three years in London, Colorado private investigator Mitch Roberts begins the trek home. On the way to Miami, Mitch flirts with stewardess Rosemary Collins, who suggests he meet her at the Tropical Lounge, just off the Miami-Dade International Airport. However, once in the lounge's parking lot, a masked dude holds Mitch up taking his money and credit cards. Mitch's efforts to obtain a replacement credit card fails so feeling stranded he calls former minor league baseball teammate Bobby Hilliard, a crazy person, for help.Bobby assists Mitch with some cash, new clothing, and a place to bonefish in the Keys. Bobby later offers Mitch a deal of several thousand dollars to take care of something on Hispaniola. Apparently, someone stole Haitian art that was headed to one of Bobby's Florida galleries. Bobby wants Mitch to find the thief. Reluctantly, Mitch agrees not aware the danger he will face in Haiti. The latest Mitch Gaylord mystery, SAMEDI'S KNAPSACK, is an exciting tale that moves rather quickly forward. The key (no pun intended) to the tale is that author Gaylord Dold insures his prime characters seem genuine though a bit flaky, which in turn adds essence, reality, and enjoyment to the plot. Fans of a fun to read private sleuth series will want to try other Gaylord stories as well as other novels by Mr. Dold who is solid gold when it comes to novels. Harriet Klausner
3.0 out of 5 stars
A weak entry,
By
This review is from: Samedi's Knapsack: A Mitch Roberts Mystery (Hardcover)
Some of the early stuff is very good. The Haitian stuff,not. Didn't buy the hero's ineptitude in the big confrontation. He's been around, but doesn't act it. Hope for better.
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