John Enright was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1945. The reader gets a look at Samoan traditions and past, contrasted with what it has become.Īn interesting and instructive read, as well as being a tightly plotted novel. What is interesting about this novel is the way the author describes Samoan culture at every opportunity. Serious crime like homicides are rare, but in PAGO PAGO TANGO a relatively unimportant burglary has connections with much more serious money making. Natural resources have been plundered and the fishing is almost gone.

In reality the palangi are the controllers of the trade and the profits. Now the Samoan economy is also struggling to survive and traditional goods have been replaced by a thriving drug trade. Many of the traditional ways have already died, although Apelu can remember them being active when he was a boy, before his father took the family to San Francisco. Samoan culture and values struggle to survive in the face of onslaughts by palangi (North American culture).

The island is small, where every one knows everyone else. PAGO PAGO TANGO is a police procedural, the first of a series centred on Detective Sergeant Apelu Soifua. This book is set in American Samoa, on the island of Tutuila, at Pago Pago. I needed a book set on an island to complete my '7th continent' reading. I read this title as part of the 2013 Global Reading Challenge and through a suggestion made by Debra who follows my blog. As the evidence piles up,Īpelu follows a tangled trail between cultures, dead bodies, hiddenĬodes, and a string of lies on his hunt for the ugly truth buried at Open-and-shut case turns out to anything but. And that gulf never yawns wider than when a white family’s home in The line between two cultures: Samoan versus American, native versus Solving crimes requires a certain…finesse. One is a stranger and secrets are widely known but never discussed, The 'British Crime Novel' in this context is best crime fiction novel first published in English in the United Kingdom and does not reflect the author's nationality.Detective Sergeant Apelu Soifua spent seven years in the Sanįrancisco Police Department, where the job was just a job and solvingĬrimes required cool detachment. Winners Best Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade Barry Award for Best Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade Year The prize is named after Barry Gardner, an American critic. From 2007 to 2009 the award was jointly presented with the publication Mystery News. The Barry Award is a crime literary prize awarded annually since 1997 by the editors of Deadly Pleasures, an American quarterly publication for crime fiction readers. Peter May with the 2013 Barry Award for Novel, for his book, 'The Blackhouse'.

Pago Pago Tango by John Enright