jnkay01
Written on Oct 7, 2014
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were about midway through their governance of the Caribbean islands during World War II when scandal found them again.
Edward already had abdicated England’s throne to wed Wallis Simpson, and they were exiled to the Bahamas to keep their suspected Nazi sympathies from causing trouble for Winston Churchill’s war effort. Then in July 1943, a murder in Nassau threatened to upend their unhappy reign atop the fragile social hierarchy enjoyed by the British elite on the island.
The body of Canadian gold mine owner Sir Harry Oakes was found stabbed, burnt and covered with feathers in his bed. It appeared, or was made to appear, like a ritual killing on an island uneasy about questions of race and culture. The investigation was botched and the duke’s summoning of detectives from Miami instead of Scotland Yard lent weight to allegations of a cover-up. The case remains unsolved.
Furnivall’s novel takes root in rumors of mob involvement in Oakes’ death and the main suspect’s suspicious alibi. The case is viewed through the eyes of bored yet plucky British heroines Ella, a diplomat’s dutiful wife, and Dodie, a waitress fleeing a turbulent past, making the best of social traditions that seem sweaty and itchy in tropical heat. The women quickly get caught up in a man’s world of violence and bloodshed.
“The Far Side of the Sun” adds more melodrama, sex and money to what already was a sensational mystery.