The Sun Is God
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Colonial New Guinea, 1906. A small group of mostly German nudists live an extreme back-to-nature existence on the remote island of Kabakon. Eating only coconuts and bananas, they purport to worship the sun. One of their members, Max Lutzow, has recently died, allegedly from malaria. But an autopsy on his body in the nearby capital of Herbertshöhe raises suspicions about foul play.
Retired British military police officer Will Prior is recruited to investigate the circumstances of Lutzow’s death. At first, the eccentric group seems friendly and willing to cooperate with the investigation. They all insist that Lutzow died of malaria. Despite lack of evidence for a murder, Prior is convinced the group is hiding something.
Things come to a head during a late-night feast supposedly given as a send-off for the visitors before they return to Herbertshöhe. Prior fears the intent of the “celebration” is not to fete the visitors—but to make them the latest murder victims.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Based on an actual 1906 incident on New Guinea's isolated Kabakon Island, this desultory mystery provides a striking contrast to McKinty's previous book, the taut In the Morning I'll Be Gone. The small German cult known as the Cocovores live naked on Kabakon, where they worship the sun and eat mostly coconuts, a regimen they believe confers immortality. When a member dies and an autopsy is performed on the mainland, murder is indicated. The region's German government sends former British military police officer Will Prior, still healing from the traumatic carnage he witnessed in the Boer War, to the island. Insect bites, the group's bizarre drug-laced diet, and their insistence that the death was natural, slow his inquiry. By the time he guesses the truth, his collapsing health and the Cocovores' efforts to protect themselves jeopardize his ability to report it. Despite the fascinating historical details, the novel never makes its most enigmatic characters more than merely curious.
