“St. Paul resident Charles Locks has signaled his arrival in the land of Carl Hiaasen, in the Lesser Antilles, a story with the kind of murder and romance that my customers can’t get enough of.”
— Mitch Kaplan
Former President, American Booksellers Association
Owner of Books and Books, Coral Gables, Florida
Greater Trouble in the Lesser Antilles
Charles Locks
Scarletta, 296 pages, $14.95
Author contact: chasman@grantsburgtelcom.net
The Queue’s editors and Advisory Board were simply amazed by the quality of this manuscript. It’s incredible that it was overlooked by other publishers. Captain Brian, part-time sailor/philosopher and full-time hedonistic hero, lives on a fictional Caribbean island, the type of paradise you seek to escape your problems. But for Captain Brian, trouble has a way of finding him. First, his good friend Leif the Thief is mysteriously murdered. Then the seductive Billie insists that they team up—in more ways than one—to solve the crime. A menacing federal agent and a hostile local police official further complicate Captain Brian’s previously carefree existence. All of this adds up to an entertaining mixture of shady characters, sunny places and escapist tropical fiction.
Charles Locks was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, including fifteen months of service in Vietnam, he majored in English literature at Macalester College. Locks lived for several years on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He owned and operated Lucy’s Restaurant, a popular establishment where he met the characters that inspired his tropical novel, Great Trouble in the Lesser Antilles. He was also a co-contributor to Cass Gilbert, Life and Work: Architect of the Public Domain, published by W.W. Norton in 2001. Locks lives in Wisconsin.
The Buzz
Greater Trouble in the Lesser Antilles’ sales have taken off! Locks is in the midst of several tours around the country, having finished touring the Caribbean. See if he’s coming to a bookstore near you [PDF].
“This debut mystery delivers more than a clever title. Locks owned and operated restaurants in the Caribbean and evidently picked up enough local color there to fill several bookcases. Everybody’s a character on the fictional island of St. Judas, including the book’s narrator, Captain Brian Clancy, and his recently murdered friend, Leif the Thief. The local police are corrupt and a joke, so Captain Brian (almost everybody here has a nickname—Pirate Dan, Mechanic Jim, etc.) and the unattainable island heartthrob, Billie, launch an investigation of their own. In the end, justice is meted out, but the mystery element is not the book’s strength. Instead, it’s the collection of eccentric characters and madcap happenings. St. Judas may be a kind of paradise, but it’s also a hideout for refugees from the mainland, eccentrics who bask in the hot sun of the island’s chaos. Locks, through Captain Brian, draws a vivid picture in intelligent, finished prose. Immature, perhaps, but no dummy, Captain Brian is a saltwater philosopher who comes to know that there’s more to life than paradise.”
— Marx Swanholm
Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A leading contender for best beach read of the season is St. Paul native Charles Locks’ ‘Greater Trouble in the Lesser Antilles,’ published by Minneapolis-based Scarletta Press. Locks, a Vietnam veteran who attended Macalester College, draws on his experiences in the U.S. Virgin Islands for the hilarious plot of ‘Greater Trouble.’ Capt. Brian, part-time sailor and philosopher, finds trouble when his friend Leif the Thief is found dead, and Billie… suggests she team up with Brian to find the killer. Brian… just wants to savor paradise, but a smarmy federal agent and a mean local constable are making his life miserable. The story floats along, kept aloft by booze, camaraderie, boats, some drug-running and tropical sunshine.“
— Mary Ann Grossmann
St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch
“How is it that out of the deep, cold winter of Minnesota comes such a vivid, wild ride of a novel set in the sun drenched, palm tree studded islands of the Caribbean?… St. Paul resident Charles Locks has signaled his arrival in the land of Carl Hiaasen, in the Lesser Antilles, a story with the kind of murder and romance that my customers can’t get enough of.”
— Mitch Kaplan
Former President, American Booksellers Association
Owner of Books and Books, Coral Gables, Florida