 Domino
Island by
Desmond Bagley HarperCollins,
2019
Domino Island is
Desmond Bagley’s “lost” novel. The manuscript (ms) was discovered by the
researcher Philip Eastwood at Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival
Research Center where Bagley’s papers are housed. Along with the ms—titled Because
Salton Died—were letters between Bagley and his editor at Collins, Bob
Knittel, and handwritten notes on the ms, identifying planned changes for
publication, but Bagley pulled Because Salton Died from Collins
and the changes were never made. There are a couple hypotheses about why
Bagley stopped work on the book. The first and most obvious is Bagley decided
it was a hopeless project and there is some evidence supporting this. In the
letter to his editor accompanying the ms, Bagley wrote, “I had a bad case of
‘writer’s block’[.]” He had started and abandoned four “standard Bagleys”—adventure
thrillers—and he decided to try something entirely new to get his creative
energy going. So, in the early days of 1972 he began working on an Agatha
Christie-style traditional mystery, or whodunnit, but Bagley
wanted to rework the novel into his usual fare because: “My method of writing is singularly ill-adapted for
the writing of a whodunnit. I begin with a situation and let it develop, and
the plot follows where the development leads; whereas a whodunnit should be
meticulously worked out in a synopsis before a key on the typewriter is
touched.” The second hypothesis—and
my favorite of the two—involves the film, The Mackintosh Man,
which was based on Bagley’s 1972 novel, The Freedom Trap.
Doubleday, Bagley’s American publisher, wanted a novel like The
Freedom Trap that could be marketed in tandem with the film’s
release in 1973. Bagley’s next novel, The Tightrope Men (1973),
seemed to oblige this request since it is similar in theme to The Freedom
Trap. But both thoughts are purely conjecture since, as far as I know, no
one has uncovered any direct evidence to support one theory over the other
for Bagley’s motive for ditching Because Salton Died in
favor of writing The Tightrope Men. Now on to the review: Bill
Kemp, a former Royal Army officer, is a highly competent and well-paid
insurance consultant working for Western and Continental Insurance Co. Kemp
is sent to the Caribbean Island nation, and former British colony, Campanilla,
to investigate the death of the well-heeled David Salton. Salton’s
decomposing corpse was discovered in a small boat off Campanilla’s coast, and
the local coroner ruled the cause of death as a heart attack. Kemp’s
investigation is supposed to be nothing more than a simple “check-the-box”
operation, but things start unwinding when he arrives on the island.
According to a police captain, Kemp’s body was too far gone for a cause of
death to be determined. And Salton had enemies everywhere. He was involved in
island politics, and he’d been railing against the island casinos—rumored to
be owned by an organized crime syndicate—the banking industry, which
specialized in moving money discreetly for wealthy clients without paying
much local tax, and the current and very corrupt government. Domino Island’s
origins as a whodunnit are visible in the finished book. The mysterious death
of David Salton. The wide spectrum of suspects. Kemp’s observations of the
police’s inadequate original investigation and his developing and then
discarding of suspects and murder theories. But the climactic resolution of
the mystery is far from traditional—although a portion is set in something
like a drawing room—with a bunch of action and a conclusion that would be
difficult for any reader to guess because there simply aren’t adequate clues
in the narrative. Which is okay, because Domino Island works
well as an adventure thriller through its exotic location, bullet-flying
action, and Kemp’s tough guy persona. Domino Island isn’t
Bagley’s best, but it’s a welcome addition for any of Bagley’s regular
readers. * * * This is a slightly
updated version of a review published on Feb. 17, 2022. |
|
a
little more about Domino Island… After Because
Salton Died was found, Bagley’s literary estate allowed the
screenwriter Michael Davies to make the changes identified in the manuscript
notes and from the correspondence between Bagley and Knittel and Domino
Island was born. According to Philip Eastwood’s Afterword, Bagley’s
“typescript, of approximately 89,000 words, bore on its title page: NEW
NOVEL BECAUSE
SALTON DIED (if you think of a better, please do) And more than 47
years after it was written, the publisher did find a better title with Domino
Island. * * * Check out Amazon’s page
for Domino Island For more
information about Desmond Bagley and his work, check out The Complete
Desmond Bagley at Amazon |
