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A popular guy and sports star, Merv is looking forward to life after graduation. Although he has a steady girl in Gloria, he takes the opportunity to play the field when she isn’t around. However, he has a hard time finding work after school and finally takes a mysterious job offered through a man employing a girl, Angie, from his school who has a crush on him. The money is good, too good, and his parents and girlfriend want to know what is really going on. After fighting with them about it and cutting ties with them for a while, he eventually feels the same and snoops around.
Merv discovers his employer is smuggling drugs out of the company packaged as fruit juice. Merv is caught and faces certain death but is saved by Angie. After going to the police, the two are handed back to the drug smuggler by a crooked police officer. Merv manages to escape, leaving Angie behind. She is killed. Merv comes up with a plan to stop the smuggler and enlists Gloria’s help.
Griffiths’ debut is easy to read and well-paced. This short novel is packed with adventure and girls, and the author's protagonist resembles a young Jamaican James Bond. In addition, Griffiths does a great job creating antagonists who aren’t simply evil men but have back stories that allow the reader to be partially sympathetic, if not to their actions, at least to their motivations. This extra layer of depth in his antagonists will hopefully be explored even more in his next novel. As a protagonist, Merv is realistically flawed but also difficult to root for, especially because of his violence toward women as well as his manipulation of them. However, readers looking for a fast-paced adventure in a tropical setting will find plenty of entertainment in this novel.