My Island Homicide by Catherine Titasey

My Island Homicide (UQP, 2013)

My Island Homicide is a crime novel, complete with a corpse, a range of suspects and details of police procedure. It is a crime story with a difference though, because it's set on Thursday Island, in the Torres Strait. I enjoyed reading this novel because of the snippets of creole throughout and the descriptions of island life. It made me want to jump on a plane and go and explore this remote part of Australia.
   The story goes something like this: Melissa, a missing person, is found dead in a well by the central character, the newly appointed Senior Sergeant, Thea Dari-Jones. Over a period of many months Thea falls in love with a local fisherman, adopts various stray animals, interviews suspects and eventually ends up arresting a man and sending him to court. By this stage the sergeant's love life has blossomed into something serious and she is heavily pregnant when the case goes to court. Throughout the whole story the threat of black magic lurks. I liked this touch as it is a theme I am interested in developing in my stories as well.
   Titasey has crafted a sound crime plot with interesting details and plenty of red herrings. My only criticisms would be that  the constant roll call of characters onto the page was confusing and some characters had little depth. I found I wanted to get to know them
better. Despite this, it was an enjoyable mystery.