“Few things draw a crowd to the beach faster than a human body part washing ashore.”

Davin Goodwin’s 2020 debut, DIVER’S PARADISE, featured retired US ex-pat detective Roscoe Conklin, who conducts dive excursions and owns the YellowRock resort in Bonaire, a small Caribbean island.

Now, Conklin happens to be nearby when a human leg beaches. It has a distinctive tattoo, the “ankle wrapped in wire, the obvious conclusion was foul play.”

"Goodwin’s well-crafted mysteries, à la John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels, are a study in police procedural investigative forensics."

Erika is the likable and adept gal Friday who manages YellowRock and much of Conklin’s lax life. The tattoo leaves no doubt: it’s Rulio’s trademark. Rulio is more than Erika’s nephew. He’s her de facto son ever since the death of his biological parents when he was a toddler.

Conklin runs afoul of suspicious characters while investigating Rulio’s presumed homicide. For one thing, gal-pal Arabella is a Bonaire detective. Other complications come in the form of suspected money laundering by someone at Paradise Cove, a snazzy new resort. He receives needed info from Bonaire’s top cop, Inspector Schleper, who disappears after engaging Conklin to sleuth his fickle wife, Tessa, a friend of Arabella’s sister, Ruth. “Arabella was in the middle of this mess as much as I was.” Withhold information about crimes from a cop, or potentially damage a love relationship? Conklin’s mental scales of justice seesaw at warp speed.

The Netherlands Antilles “ABC” islands consist of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, although Bonaire is the easternmost island paradise for divers and sun-worshipers. Those who have not traveled during the two-year pandemic paranoia, open a bottle of Bonaire’s signature beer, Bright, and enjoy “another splendid day in paradise.” As Conklin opines, “Drinking was never a waste of time.”

Goodwin’s well-crafted mysteries, à la John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels, are a study in police procedural investigative forensics. A former flight instructor, real estate investor and scuba diver, Goodwin works in the technology industry and shares life with his wife, Leslie, in Wisconsin.