Matt Francis’s Murder in the Pacific series centres around Vanuatuan police detectives George Long and Jayline Oli. The first book in the series Ifira Point, winner of the 2024 Ned Kelly Award for best debut crime fiction, centred their investigation around Port Vila. The follow up, Mt Yasur, took the pair to the island of Tanna, home to the Mt Yasur volcano. Murder in the Pacific: Champagne Beach, takes readers to another idyllic part of Vanuatu – the island of Santo and what is reputed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. With, of course, a murder to be solved.
Murder in the Pacific: Champagne Beach opens with a different issue, though, that of sexual abuse of young women by the clergy. It is a similar complaint that sends Long and Oli to Santo but by the time they arrive both the alleged victim and alleged perpetrator have both left the island. Before they can leave, however, the decapitated body of a local land holder is found on Champagne Beach and when the investigating officer is incapacitated the pair have to take over the investigation.
Once again, Francis effectively weaves together the professional and the personal. In this case, it is because Santo is Long’s home and while there he stays with his parents and ends up doing some work in their restaurant. Francis uses the investigation to shine a light on the community of the island and continued to explore the issues that the communities of Vanuatu are managing – from foreign aid that comes with strings attached to the impact of the influx of tourists.
Murder in the Pacific: Champagne Beach is another great entry in this procedural series. Driven once again by a winning pair of characters whose lives continue to evolve as the series progresses, a great sense of place and a willingness to expose its complexities and dark underbelly using an engaging mystery.
Murder in the Pacific: Champagne Beach by Matt Francis
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