Island of Secrets
1957 London. Iris Bailey, a talented amateur portrait artist, is working in a typing pool for a firm of architects when she receives an invitation from an American acquaintance Nell Hardman to fly to Havana and draw portraits at Nell’s stepfather’s forthcoming third wedding celebrations. Hugh Hardman is a film director, whose second wife, famous actress Jean Summers, had died in dubious circumstances, having seemingly fallen off a yacht and drowned in the Gulf of Mexico. He is now marrying Jean’s daughter, his own stepdaughter, Lana Mickelson. For Iris this is a wonderful opportunity to escape the humdrum, sexist, unreconstructed life of 1950s England for a stay in the sleazy, humid glamourous pre-Revolutionary Cuba. But she is plunged into a dangerous vortex of duplicity, mob-rule, sexual threat and violence, staying at the wedding party’s luxurious house in Cuba, which belongs to Bruce Bonini, a shady American property developer. Although at times she feels utterly out of her comparatively innocent depth, there is a hard-nosed and somehow unbelievable tenacity and curiosity about Iris that allows her to question her subjects and investigate the complex mysteries of the families for the week she is in Cuba and learn more about the death of Jean Summers.
The author (Tammy Cohen) portrays the physical heat and lush surroundings of Cuba to perfection – anyone who has been to the Caribbean will immediately recognise and be taken back to the unique smells, noises and atmosphere of that part of the world. The plot and narrative place are excellent, even though it is a little Godfather-ish (sinister mobster and gaming cartels, Cuba before Castro and a lavish society wedding – all duly checked) and we also wander off in another direction with a tantalising appearance of an idealised family home – Manderley. Despite its implausibility, the story engages the reader entirely and is a pleasure to read.
