Review of Freedom Drop
- jodiwebb9
- Jun 23
- 3 min read
Brian Silverman;s first Caribbean mystery is Freedom Drop. Check last week's posts for his interview and giveaway HERE and a review of his latest Calypso Blue tomorrow.
More About Freedom Drop
Len Buonfiglio is a former New York bar owner and family man. He has the perfect life until he yearns for more—for something he knows will destroy everything he had, but something he can’t resist. He makes his choice and that, along with a traumatic event, shatters his world. His life and what he had now broken, his only choice is to leave the city and his family. His flight takes him to the remote Caribbean island of St. Pierre where he opens a sports bar that he runs with his friend and partner, a young local islander named Tubby Levett.
In Freedom Drop, a genial tour guide, Rawle “Big Tree” Johns is a suspect in an American woman’s fall from a cliff and held in custody. John’s mother enlists Buonfiglio to help free her son and to prove that he had nothing to do with the woman’s death. Conflicted by the need to spend time with his sixteen-year-old daughter who he hasn’t seen in two years, Mr. Len as he’s known on the island, reluctantly agrees to help.
Buonfiglio’s search for the truth reveals that there are other, much more powerful forces involved in the woman’s death that threaten both his life and his family. In the course of his investigation, he confronts a high-ranking island politician, the local superintendent of police, the dead girl’s mother, and, ultimately, a shady yet powerful outsider investor. Was the girl’s death an accident or did Johns cause that accident? Or was she murdered? The lack of clarity—the mystery of what really happened to the girl—he realizes, reflects the enigma that is St. Pierre. It’s a riddle that, despite living on the island for several years, he still cannot solve.
More About Brian Silverman
Brian Silverman’s writing career has spanned over 30 years. He has written about travel,
food, and sports for publications including the New York Times, Saveur, Caribbean Travel and Life, Islands, the New Yorker, New York, and others. From 2004 through 2013, he was the author of the annual Frommer’s New York City guidebook series. He co-authored the acclaimed Twentieth Century Treasury of Sports with his father, Al Silverman.
His short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including Mystery Tribune, Down and Out Magazine, and Mystery Weekly. His stories have been selected to appear in The Best American Mystery Stories in 2018 and 2019, and The Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories 2021. His other short fiction has appeared in publications such as Down and Out Magazine, Mystery Magazine, Dark Waters, and Vautrin. Freedom Drop is his first published novel. He lives in Harlem, New York, with his wife, Heather, and his sons, Louis and Russell.
Catch Up With Brian Silverman:
Thoughts on Freedom Drop
Len Buonfiglio is a rich character. Throughout the book there are hints at secrets in his past, relationships, and earlier adventures on St. Pierre. It made him feel very real and made me want to know more. The only negative was, some of the hinted at events seemed so key to who Len is but we only got just one or two vague details. Guilt. Heroes. Pepper sauce. For a moment, I thought I had mistakenly started with Book 2 which was why there were so many brief mentions of the past. But no. I found this aspect a little unsettling, as if I had missed something. Could it be that those events mentioned are covered in Brian Silverman's earlier short stories?
As for the plot of Freedom Drop, I found it an interesting puzzle with danger heightened by a visit from Len's teenaged daughter. This book does a great job of shifting between tropical beauty and fun in the sun and stress and thrills. I think the beautiful descriptions succeed in making the violence even more jarring. I would read another St. Pierre mystery, half for the mystery and half to uncover some more of Len's past.
Ready to Read
