When all the pieces fit all too well
Caribbean Life, MAR. 26-APR. 1, 2021 35
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Finders Keepers.
It’s all yours now, that cool,
unique, surprise thing that
suddenly turned up and you
laid claim to it. What once was
lost is yours now. Finders keepers,
except, as in the new novel
“The Jigsaw Man” by Nadine
Matheson, what’s found is a
dead body.
Looking as though it was
about to pay attention, the male
torso sat nicely upright against
the rocks near the Greenwich
Pier. Nicely, if that can be said
about a headless, limbless body
found along the murky water by
a young student. Not so nicely,
if you were Detective Inspector
Anjelica Henley, who’d been
given this case on her first
day back to work after being
on leave for a PTSD-inducing
trauma of her own and was
immediately assigned a rookie,
Trainee Detective Salim Ramouter,
as partner.
But one disarticulated, mutilated
body became two in short
order, both victims found by
the river and both, as it turned
out, were romantically tied in
life.
In death, there was another
tie: Henley and Ramouter
instantly realized that these
new crimes had a lot in common
with another set of cases.
Peter Olivier, who’d called himself
“The Jigsaw Man,” had
killed and dismembered several
people years before, and
there were similarities between
his crimes and the new cases.
Problem was, Olivier had been
in prison for two years, and
murderous habits he practiced
(but that were not made public)
seemed to have been copied.
When Henley mentioned the
victims’ names to Olivier, there
was recognition in his eyes and
she spotted yet another tie: the
new victims distantly knew the
imprisoned Olivier.
From his prison cell, Olivier
Book cover of “The Jigsaw Man: A Novel” by Nadine
Matheson.
fumed. Someone copied his
crimes and was stealing the
limelight, there were leaks to
the press and they were all
wrong, and DI Henley was
ridiculously off-course in her
thinking. There was only one
Jigsaw Man – everybody else
was a copycat – and Olivier was
going to escape from prison
and prove it…
Reading “The Jigsaw Man” is
a lesson in contradictions.
It’s good. It’s everything you
want in a thriller: an evil maniac,
another evil maniac, an onthe
edge detective, a love triangle
or two, and blood. Plenty of
blood, spilled in the most gruesome
way possible. For fans of
thrillers, the things that author
Nadine Matheson offers are like
sprinkles on ice cream: absolutely
necessary and the more,
the better.
And yet, there’s two big, nearly
insurmountable problems.
“The Jigsaw Man” is set in
Great Britain and, as such, is
formatted differently in many
ways that can cause confusion,
particularly in acronyms and,
most especially, in dialogue;
reading a conversation takes
an exhausting amount of attention,
lest you mis-attribute a
sentence or an important character
thought. It’s a hot mess,
exacerbated by an overabundance
of characters that are
thrown at readers, unsorted,
and all within the first few
dozen pages.
Overall, you’ll be thrilled by
this thriller, but also perhaps
annoyed, so keep that in mind.
If you can handle the latter,
you’ll love “The Jigsaw Man.” If
not, then keep away.
“The Jigsaw Man: A
Novel” by Nadine Matheson
c.2021, Hanover Square
Press
$27.99 / $34.99 Canada
496 pages
Author Nadine Matheson. Nadine Matheson
‘No Wedding, No Cry’ sweepstakes
By Nelson A. King
Over the last year, many couples
around the world had to
cancel or postpone their wedding
or honeymoon plans, but
one thing is for sure – love is not
cancelled.
Therefore, in the spirit
of romance, on Monday, the
Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB)
launched the “No Wedding,
No Cry” Jamaica Honeymoon
Sweepstakes.
“Couples, who show proof of
a wedding cancellation between
April-December 2020, can enter
to win an ultimate four-night
honeymoon to Moon Palace
Jamaica, complete with their
deluxe honeymoon package,
roundtrip airfare, airport transfers
and a romantic excursion
for two,” JTB said.
“With world-class hotels and
resorts, breathtaking natural
beauty and a soothing tropical
vibe, Jamaica continues to be
the leader in Caribbean destination
weddings and honeymoons,”
said Camile Glenister,
Deputy Director of Tourism
– Marketing, Jamaica Tourist
Board.
“In December 2020, the World
Travel Awards named Jamaica as
the ‘World’s Leading Wedding
Destination’ for the second consecutive
year and most recently,
Jamaica launched a Wedding
and Romance microsite, aptly
named ‘My Heart Beats JA’”, she
added.
Housed on the JTB website,
the “My Heart Beats JA” microsite
is “a repository of all things
romance, providing solutions
and options for anyone on the
romance journey under the categories:
Romantic Getaways,
Getting Engaged and I Do,” JTB
said.
“Content across the microsite
addresses consumer trends,
including more intimate and
private destination weddings,
and provides details on the variety
of romantic escapes Jamaica
has to offer,” it added.
JTB said Moon Palace Jamaica
is a 704-room AAA Four Diamond
resort located in Ocho
Rios, Jamaica.
It said the resort is one of
Jamaica’s most luxurious allinclusive
resorts, “which offers
guests the opportunity to
experience 17-acres of private
beach.”
Entries to the “No Wedding,
No Cry” sweepstakes must be
submitted between March 22,
2021 and April 12, 2021.
The sweepstakes is open to
legal residents of the 48 Contiguous
United States (including
DC), Canada (excluding Quebec)
and the United Kingdom, who
have the age of majority in his
or her state, territory or providence
of residence as of the time
of the sweepstakes start date.
To see official rules and
meet the deadline for qualified
entrants to complete the registration
process, visit https://
www.visitjamaica.com/weddingsweeps/.