The Rhythm of the August Rain

Royes’s lackluster fourth novel set in Jamaica (after 2014’s The Sea Grape Tree) finds self-styled sleuth Shadrack Myers and his friend Eric Keller running a modest bar and counting the days until the groundbreaking of a hotel that will replace the one they lost to a hurricane years ago. The arrival in Largo Bay of Shannon, Eric’s former wife, with their 13-year-old daughter, throws Eric for a loop. Shannon, who’s researching an article on Rastafari culture, also wants to investigate the decades-old death of a non-Rastafari woman, who was Shannon’s editor’s best friend and who might have had a Rastafari boyfriend. Luckily, Shad is happy to help her navigate a culture that isn’t always friendly to outsiders. Eric’s awkward attempts to connect with his restless daughter are charming, as is the flurry of activity surrounding Shad’s impending wedding to the mother of his four children, but the mystery takes a backseat to the minutiae of daily village life. The fascinating glimpses of the Rastafari movement aren’t enough to propel an otherwise sleepy, overlong narrative. (July)