Kingstown Burning
Action, Mysticism, and the Ganja Trade Feature in New Novel
Adventure, romance, and secrecy are explosive companions in a new novel by Afro-Barbadian American writer, communications specialist, photographer, and creative consultant Rachelle J. Gray.
It was be released on September 21st, 2020, in digital format, October 5th, 2020 in paperback and hardcover on October 13th, 2020.
After spending the earlier part of her career as a photojournalist at Barbados’ leading newspaper, The Nation, Gray founded the boutique multimedia agency GrayWorks Media in 2003. The consummate entrepreneur and adventurer, her work has since taken her across the Caribbean to capture in words and images its people, places, architecture, technology, lifestyles and culture. She has written for publications like Island Life magazine and Innovate Barbados and has served as editor-in-chief of Barbados’s first interactive magazine BimROCK.
In KINGSTOWN BURNING, an action-adventure and romance fiction, set between the islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados, against the backdrop of a regional ganja war, Rachelle J. Gray immediately immerses readers in the socialite world of affluent media personality Marley Cadogan to introduce a core cast of characters with one thing in common. Nubya and I-Am, Marley’s inner female circle, Nubya’s partner Judah, I-Am’s brother Shotta Forward and Marley’s on-again-off-again romantic interest Lee Mile become the centre of an unexpected eruption of gun-play and stunning mysticism in paradise. Ganja is the trigger. Error is punishable, and Marley, I-Am, and Nubya inadvertently discover what they are made of and are left to determine if that makes them heroes or villains.
Said Gray, “Since I was a student at the Barbados Community College in the 1990s I’ve had this idea of an action-adventure story set in the Caribbean that I wanted to tell. My original idea got shot down by a tutor, but over the years the idea has steadily been fed by events in the Caribbean that I couldn’t help but be intrigued by. When we hear about convictions linked to marijuana, there’s always more to the story and I wanted to explore that. Like Toni Morrison said, “If there is a book that you want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” After more than 20 years I’ve taken that advice to heart.”
View the book’s trailer here
