Caribbean Humor Novel Takes Readers To The Quirky Side Of Paradise

By Tristan Ralston on 8th December, 2016

What happens when you inadvertently embezzle a half-million dollars and the Feds are on your tail? You change your name, bolt to a backwater Caribbean island and hire on as a scuba divemaster, of course. Problem is, third-rate bonds salesmen are lousy at hiding, and “tropics” doesn’t always mean “paradise.”

That’s the hero’s predicament in Blacktip Island, the second novel from award-winning author and Little Cayman boat captain Tim W. Jackson. The novel is a rollicking comedy for anyone who’s ever dreamed of trading the rat race for a carefree life of hammocks and palm trees.

“If Margritaville and Northern Exposure had a love child, they’d call it Blacktip Island,” Jackson said. “The land mass is fictional, but the people and happenings are spot-on for anyone who’s spent time on a small island.”

The islanders are quirky: a landlord who swears he’s Fletcher Christian reincarnated, a boss who likes fish more than people, a sloshed resort manager with a sex-crazed wife, a possibly ax-murdering neighbor, and a girlfriend who just might turn the hero in for the reward money.

The novel draws on Jackson’s 17 years working as a boat captain and scuba instructor on Little Cayman.

Before moving to the Sister Islands, Jackson was a journalist in Florida for a decade, then earned a master’s degree in creative writing from Southern Methodist University.

Jackson’s debut novel, Mangrove Underground, was a USA Book News Book of the Year award finalist for literary fiction. His short stories have appeared in literary journals worldwide.

Blacktip Island is available at local bookstores as well at online booksellers in hardbound, paperback and ebook editions.

Tim W Jackson. Author of Backtip Island and resident on Little Cayman