The wait is over. Author Horane Smith’s fifteenth novel, The Queen Wearing a Crown, has just been released.
His previous book, Morant Bay: Based on the Jamaican Rebellion, was published in 2017, and the Jamaican-born author and former journalist explained: “I took a break to prepare for retirement and concentrate on my manuscripts to determine which one should be issued. published next.”
“I have a stash of unpublished works and I hope to print them all when I find the right publisher,” he said from his home in Toronto, where he has lived since 1990.
He told The Jamaica Observer that the Queen wearing the crown has an interesting story. It was his first novel written in Montego Bay in 1977 under a different title, The Village Queen. Smith said it was submitted to Kingston Publishers (now LMH Publishing), which at the time recommended it as an addition to an upcoming series of new authors. However, he immigrated to Canada shortly thereafter and never pursued the case. “I put it at the bottom of the other manuscripts I wrote,” he said.
“Two years ago, my wife asked me what happened to this book because she was the one who wrote it on a Smith-Corona typewriter shortly after we met,” he noted. “She recalled that it was a gripping story, and I also remembered some of my friends in Montego Bay, where I lived at the time, lining up to read every page as I wrote it. Given this level of interest, I decided to take another look at it with fresh eyes.
“After reading The Village Queen, I decided to use the same characters but reworked the plot to include contemporary issues such as human trafficking and sending deportees here from the US, Canada and the UK. BayMar Publishing House quickly accepted the revised work. I really believe it has the potential to go many places.”
Called “a thrilling mystery in a lush Caribbean landscape” (Independent Book Review) with “vibrant and compelling characters” (Booklife Publishers Weekly), The Queen Wears the Crown is set in a small Jamaican town in the south-east of St Elizabeth, where Smith was born , and extends to Brooklyn, New York and Toronto, Canada.
In this fictional town of Parrot Valley, which resembles the landscape of Smith’s birthplace, secrets run deep and danger lurks in every shadow. This is the story of one woman’s fight for justice after the disappearance of three young girls. When a deported suspect turns up dead, the situation of social activist Carmen Young becomes more complicated. Her efforts to find the girls uncover a truth darker than she could have ever imagined. While the trail of the missing girls in Jamaica goes cold, the scenario in Brooklyn, New York and Toronto, Canada, remains an unseen and unexpected piece of the puzzle.
Determined to bring them to justice, Carmen uncovers a web of lies that connect the crime to her own life, putting her future marriage and future at risk. With her fiancé accused of murder and her trusted friend becoming her worst enemy, a race against time begins to discover the truth. As dark secrets and hidden motives come to light, Carmen realizes that the real enemy is closer than she ever imagined.
“The Queen Wears the Crown is a suspenseful drama in which betrayal, deceit and the pursuit of justice come at a deadly cost,” Smith said.
He told Bookends that the novel aims to raise awareness about the seriousness and growing number of human trafficking cases around the world. “Several years ago, I heard a Jamaican police officer condemn the number of human trafficking cases that had come to light in Jamaica. People must be aware of its far-reaching consequences as human depravity reaches new heights as a result of crimes of this nature. The problem of deportation does not go away,” he added.
Smith is well known for his popular novel Lover’s Leap: Based on the Jamaican Legend and its sequel Dawn at Lover’s Leap, which was a finalist for the US Booknews Bestbook Awards for Historical Fiction. Morant Bay: Based on the Jamaican Rebellion, concluded the Lover’s Leap trilogy.
The Lover’s Leap also served as the basis for a study of the relationships between slave masters in the Caribbean, conducted by a professor of Egyptian English literature and published in the respected literary journal Orbis Literrarum, an international journal devoted to the study of European and American literature.
“One of my first readers compares the intrigue and magnetism in my best-selling novel The Lover’s Leap to The Queen Wearing the Crown,” he noted.
Smith is also the first recipient of the BURLA Award for Outstanding Contribution to African-North American and Caribbean Literature. He was also recognized by the Jamaica-Canadian Diaspora Foundation for his contributions to Jamaican literature. His other popular works include Port Royal, Reggae Silver, Seven Days in Jamaica, Marooned in Nova Scotia: A Story of the Jamaican Maroons in Canada and By the Rivers of Babylon.
BayMar Publishing is a small Canadian press dedicated to bringing the stories of diverse authors to life.
The Queen Who Wears a Crown is now available online, in major bookstores, at horanesmith.com and www.baymarpublishing.com.
