Will Prior is a former military policeman who seeks refuge in remote parts of German New Guinea after the horrors of the Boer War. While there he is pressed into assisting his friend Hauptmann Kessler to investigate a mysterious death on a secluded island.

The denizens of the island are a cult of sun-worshippers called the cocovores who have left the trappings of Imperial Europe behind. They welcome Prior and Kessler, but are dismissive of the need for their investigation, given that the deceased suffered from malaria. As Prior spends more time on the island he becomes much more concerned about what is going on there.

This book is more like a Rider Haggard colonial adventure than a gritty detective story, and is a breezy read. It's loosely based on factual matters, but there is a fair bit of invention from McKinty. Some of it seems fairly silly, and the author does show a worrying concern about penises, but it's not a bad read. I much prefer Euphoria as a novel about New Guinea, in that it convincingly immersed the reader in the native jungle setting, whereas in The Sun is God, New Guinea and its inhabitants are pretty much just wallpaper for McKinty to move his characters in front of. ( )

Adrian McKinty: The Sun Is God

This was a disappointment. I like McKinty's Inspector Sean Duffy novels known as The Troubles Trilogy for their social perspectives and insight into the sectarian civil war of The Troubles, as seen through the eyes of the much-flawed hero of Duffy, a Catholic in the largely Protestant police force, a man not much given to either social or professional niceties, and who has even less truck with sectarian bigotry.

The Sun Is God is an historical novel set in a completely different time and place: 1906-1907 in German New Guinea where a group calling themselves the "Naked Cocovores" lived in isolation, spurning modern society and believing that they had found peace and salvation in worshipping the sun, living communally, and eating only coconut and bananas. A couple of mysterious deaths occurred on the island paradise, and were never resolved.

This is the historical context that McKinty uses to introduce two fictional characters: Will Piror, a cashiered former British military policeman, inveigled to assist Captain Hauptman Kessler in investigating a suspicious murder. One of the island inhabitants supposedly died of malaria, but an autopsy back in the principal German settlement showed that he had drowned. Prior and Kessler are accompanied by Bessie Pullen-Burry, a British travel writer who joins at the insistence of the powerful landowner who is leasing the island to the group. Pullen-Burry was a real person who did write about her travels in the area, but mentioned the Cocovores only briefly.

The plot is almost a riff on the locked-room murder scenario: an isolated island, a man dying of malaria but who somehow drowns, and a dozen people who swear that they know nothing untoward about the death. Of course, things are not what they seem and cracks appear in the group harmony. Events move to a resolution and fiery denouement.

I was disappointed because I found the plot cliched and predictable, the characters undeveloped and the whole thing not very gripping. The plot setting was interesting and might have been turned into something more, but I couldn't help the feeling that McKinty coasted on the success and strength of the Duffy novels to get this one published.

This is a mystery taking place in German New Guinea the the beginning of the 20th century.
The leader of a cult of "Cocovores" decided that civilization was ending so it would be best to wait it out on this island, worshiping the sun, which was the source of life, and living exclusively on coconuts and bananas (as fruit that were closest to the sun) and hence becoming immortals. Strangely enough, this cult of mostly German followers, actually existed.
A rather washed up, ex military policeman, Will Prior, is asked to go out to the island with a representative of the German military, to look into the death of one of inhabitants of the island.
The author draws what a appears to be a very life-like portrait of what life on the island must have been like--the heat, the constant rain, the unending insects and the feeling of dread as more and more of the details of the lives of the cultists are revealed.
A good read. I didn't really find the change of voice towards the end of the story worked for me, where a different point of view was used from time to time, but I can see why the author chose it.
3.5 stars. ( )

Like a previous reviewer, I was surprised by this one. Quite unlike the other McKinty books I've read.

I enjoyed reading about German New Guinea. How many books have Kokopo as their setting? Certainly a first for me. Perhaps because it's based on real events, McKinty has given us a somewhat linear plot. Until the end anyway. Then, perhaps unable to resist his muse, he provides us with a plot surprise, a change of voice and a rollicking and satisfying ending. ( )

This is going to have to be another one of those reviews that comes with a disclaimer. I love Adrian McKinty's books. Although I will admit that it's always been the dark side, his flawed and controversial characters, and his noir stylings that I'd thought appealed particularly.

THE SUN IS GOD is none of that and yet there are glimpses. Based on elements of a true story, set in 1906 New Guinea, this is the tale of the investigation into the death of a man on a remote island in the midst of a community of nudist, back-to-nature "Cocovores". They eat only coconuts (and bananas as they grow at the top of trees and are therefore close to the Sun). They spend days sunbathing, they live in a weird sort of "Ikea-style" village of odd little pre-fab cottages, supported by local servants, and, whilst they are a small community, they make up for that with large bucket loads of odds.

Before all of that starts though, the reader is introduced to retired British military policeman Will Prior, who after serving during the Boer War ends up in the Germany colony of Herbertshöhe in the middle of the New Guinea islands. He has a loving relationship with a local woman who serves as his housekeeper, keeps himself a little distant from the mostly German ex-pat community, and is somewhat bemused to find himself pressed into investigative service in the pursuit of the truth of Max Lutzow's death.

Needless to say - oddity by the bucket loads - told in a most engaging manner. The central characters - Prior; local government representative, and fellow investigator Hauptmann Kessler and Bessie Pullen-Burry, intrepid lady traveller and reporter, shine. Glow and not just from sunburn. Somehow the oddness of the community into which they are thrust becomes endearing, and yet slightly threatening when viewed through Prior's eyes. Whilst the story is littered with eccentric characters, there are no caricatures. Even the favoured community of tipple Bayer aspirin and heroin ... well of course a bunch of people who believe in eating only Coconuts are going to have a drink like that. Of course.

Echoing much of the true story, McKinty warns at the commencement that there are some fictional characters, and some fictional elements, but in the main, the book follows the facts, as they are known. The deaths that took place on Kabakon during this period haven't been solved, although there's nothing held back in exploring or investigating the possibilities.

Whilst the subject matter, the setting, and the characters are very different from that which fans of Adrian McKinty's books could normally expect, it's what reminds you that aside from anything else, this author can write. Because it's much lighter THE SUN IS GOD is just the ticket for readers who find the darker side too much, but it also works for those of us who don't care. Especially those of us who would happily stump up to the cliché and read the author's shopping list should he be tempted to publish it.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-sun-god-adrian-mckinty ( )