Swimming the Garda by Audley Haffenden
SWIMMING THE GARDA is a murder mystery with a strong cultural feel. When the dead body of Paula Calvin is found on a beach in Jamaica, Detective Oscar Calwell is assigned the investigation. Calwell is a tarnished man seeking redemption. The stories from the people he interviews tell him he may be up against far more than a murder... Are these stories really connected to the case, or to Calwell and his tortured past? Click here to listen to an excerpt from the book.
Read an Excerpt from Swimming the Garda
The phone rang an hour before daybreak. Before the call, Detective Calwell had his day all planned. It was his first day off in weeks. It was to be a whole day at the Hope Botanical Gardens. His plan was to catch the No. 6 bus at the main downtown terminal and make it a slow, easy ride north, via Hope Road to the Gardens. But the phone rang. It was his boss, the superintendent of detectives. "I'm sorry about this Calwell," the super began.
Superintendent, Jonathan Mitchell's confidential tone told Calwell the call was important. It had been some time since the super had spoken to him using that confidential tone. Everyone in the department knew the meaning of that tone. It meant he had confidence in you, and was relying on you.... "We need you on this one, Calwell." His words carried a message of reprieve. For almost three years he had waited to hear those words.
Three years earlier he had a well-earned reputation as Mitchell's golden boy.... All that changed after the York Street Affair, as Pinky Lindo's column in the Daily Gleaner called it; or, the York Street Mango War, as the people in Jamaica called it. Everything Calwell worked so hard to achieve went out the window after Pinky's column came out. However, that was in the past. The phone call told Calwell he was about to be given a second chance. It was the chance he'd been waiting for; his opportunity to come out of the wilderness and regain the super's bright light.
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It was after eight a.m. when Calwell arrived at the beach club. His assistant, Tenn Sang, was standing inside the cordoned-off area with a writing pad in his hand. Sang walked Calwell pass the cabana and pointed to the body lying in the sand. If Calwell was harboring ideas that it would be an easy case, the thought went out his head when he saw the face of the dead woman. She was Paula Clavin, daughter of High Court Judge Oliver J. Calvin.
Her body was propped up by a broken-down wooden boat; next to a cabana, at the back of the exclusive Bournemouth Beach Social Club. Her hair was in a tussle, her mouth was jam-packed with sand, her thighs were thrown wide open and her skirt was ripped up the front. She was dead.
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About the Author
Audley Haffenden is a playwright and novelist born in Jamaica, West Indies. His work includes Toussaint: Angel Warrior of Haiti, Pushkin: a Poet's search for Honor,and A Hedgehog Jumps the Moon. Audley lives and works in New York City. Swimming the Garda is his first novel. If you would like to schedule an interview with Audley, please email audley@swimmingthegarda.com. For more information on Audley Haffenden's work, click here: http://www.thetoussaintproject.com/
ISBN-13: 978-1439261101
Genre: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Historical
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