Joan Del Monte's Books
Mud Blood * Death Has A Yellow Thumb * Plonk Goes the Weasel
DEATH HAS A YELLOW THUMB
Someone is adulterating saffron, the world’s most expensive spice, and stealing fishing boats to smuggle it into the port of San Pedro, California. Augustine Peridot’s boat is taken and he’s asking questions, against the background of the vibrant ethnic enclaves of the muscular waterfront, an area he grew up in. In the violence that ensues, dead bodies start turning up with yellow fingers, a sure sign of handling saffron. And one of the bodies has Peridot’s knife buried in its back.Now caught in the midst of a murder investigation, and with an unwanted police interest in him, Peridot has a growing realization that the thefts may strike closer to home than he realized. Aided by a charismatic Sicilian boat repairman, he decides to enter the odd world of the exotic spice, counterfeited for years because of its high price. And he discovers a template for evil among the changing economics of the polyglot port, where the closing of the big fish canneries has created a trashed embankment of embattled men and women with frayed tempers.