Book Description

Sixteen-year-old Rebecca Middleton and best friend Jasmine Meens make their "trip of a lifetime" to the Queen's "Jewel in the Atlantic," oblivious to secrets beneath the island's idyllic guise and to the horrors that await them on the dark side of Paradise. Sunny days and teal surf welcome the Canadian teenagers as they roam the twenty- square miles of the seemingly pristine British territory. But on this searing July night, a full moon, an unusual storm, a cancelled cruise, absent taxis, and chance meetings end in the gruesome kidnap, rape, torture, and murder of Rebecca Middleton. Emotions left over from long-standing racial inequities impact Becky's case from the moment of her slaughter--especially the hangings of two black men for the murders of five white men during those racially charged 1970s--a matter many still prefer not to discuss. Repercussions from the young Canadian tourist's death and its investigative and judicial failures create international uproar that catches the attention of famed U.S. forensic scientists Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Henry Lee. During an inquiry brought about by a tourist boycott of Bermuda, advocate LeYoni Junos exposes truths behind this tangled web of deceit.But it won't be long before LeYoni Junos suffers those consequences typically experienced by those who fail to "lie in the tide." Then, almost eight years after Rebecca's murder, the case catches the attention of British human rights lawyer Cherie Booth, QC, wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who terms Bermuda's responses "repugnant to justice." Meanwhile, despite responsibility for territories' "good governance," Britain treads lightly. This is a true story of murder, collusion, conspiracy, and cover-up designed to protect the secrets of privilege, and hide the poverty, violence and drugs that darken Bermuda's tranquil pastels, a third-world setting of mysterious beauty and international influence incongruent with its size.