Mystery set on St John, US Virgin Islands

16th October 2018

Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand, mystery set on St John, US Virgin Islands.

Irene Steele has just celebrated Christmas 2018. Her husband, Russ, has left to travel for work (which he does very regularly). Another New Year is approaching. Irene has technically just been demoted at the magazine where she works and she has no real clarity on what 2019 will hold. The news that her dear, adoring and caring husband has died in a helicopter accident near the island of St John in the U.S Virgin Islands shatters her life (this is the husband who organised a flypast with good wishes for her birthday).

Anegada (photo Wikipedia)

The location of his death – somewhere between Virgin Gorda and Anegada (that’s it on the left) – is, however, a mystery, as he would usually only travel across mainland USA from their base in Iowa City.  Already she senses that something doesn’t feel right. Beautiful St John in the US Virgin Islands has never been on the radar.

Her youngest son Cash has been having business difficulties and now rushes to join her visiting the island and check out the scene where he died. Her older son Baker has realised that he is in a marriage that makes neither partner happy and before he can take the decision, his wife Anna informs him that she is leaving him. Under this veil of sadness and distress he too accompanies his mother to St John…. “..such a somber mission in such an achingly beautiful place..”

It is on the island that they discover a fabulous villa owned by her husband, cleared out by his company under the watchful eye of his boss, Todd Croft, but a photo of Russ and a West Indian woman has been left behind. They are cosied up together and it transpires she was one of the party killed in the crash. The family comes to know his female companion as Rosie. Each son in turn vies for the attention of Ayers, Rosie’s best friend – possibly to try and glean more of the background of the relationship between Rosie and their father, but sexual frisson soon complicates the situation. Mum Irene, meanwhile is on a mission to quiz Huck, as he once knew Rosie extremely well.

The story as a whole doesn’t really deliver. It feels like it has all the components for a tragic familial mystery, with something much darker afoot, which are set out almost like wares on a table. For me there was no real depth either to the storyline or to characterisation. The end is clearly preparing the reader for the second book in the Paradise Trilogy Series (of which Winter in Paradise is the first) and thus tantalising threads are left open to be picked over next time – rather like a jigsaw piece awaiting its mate.

This author is hugely popular and therefore I wonder whether I should try one of her previous novels to get a real feel for her work.

In the Author’s Note it states that the story is set in 2019 but the setting per se is the island as it was in 2017 before the storms Irma, Jose and Maria reeked havoc in the region. Westin and Caneel Bay, mentioned in the novel, sustained a huge amount of damage. You can still however take The Reef Bay Trail (2.2 miles in length) – which the characters do in the novel – and which is known for its 3000 year old petroglyphs.

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