This debut novel is a fictionalized version of the author’s experiences, emigrating from Zimbabwe. In the African shantytown called Paradise, Darling and her friends run free and loose. With the government in disarray formal education becomes an education of the street, but they always believe life holds great promise for them. For Darling, that promise is life in Destroyedmichygen, USA where her aunt lives. When politics turn to violence, teenage Darling is sent to America and tries to adjust to the overabundance and unsettling luxury of her new life.

For mystery readers who like a dose of exotic locale in their stories, Cox’s debut fits the bill. It’s late 1990’s Bangkok, with all its vices and humidity, where Boston PI Sebastian Damon is investigating a suspicious death claim for a US insurance company. To maneuver his way through the seedy establishments and corrupt bureaucracy, Damon gets one of his dads buddies from ’Nam to help out. It turns out the death was a fake, but for a noble cause—so Linda Watts can follow a trail that might lead to her US pilot father who is still alive in the hills of Laos.