“Author Horane Smith has created a thrilling mystery in this lush Caribbean landscape. The Queen That Wears The Crown is like an intoxicating combination of escapism and reality. Every chapter takes the reader deeper and deeper,” – Independent Book Review
“The characters are lively and appealing…twisty…consuming mystery…” says Booklife Publisher’s Weekly.
TORONTO, Canada – Horane Smith, a celebrated Jamaican-Canadian writer, returns with his 15th book, The Queen that Wears the Crown, recently launched by the Canadian publishing house, Baymar Publishing.
Smith’s last novel, Morant Bay: Based on the Jamaican Rebellion, was published in 2017. The Jamaican-born author and former journalist said, “I took a hiatus to prepare for retirement and to concentrate on my manuscripts to determine which one should be published next.”
“I’ve a reservoir of unpublished works and the hope is to get all of them into print after finding the right publisher,” he said from his Toronto home, where he has lived since 1990.
History of “The Queen that Wears the Crown”
He explained that The Queen that Wears the Crown has an interesting history. 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 recommended it for their upcoming new writers’ series back then. However, he migrated to Canada shortly after and never followed up on it. “I placed it at the bottom of other manuscripts I had written,” he said.
“Two years ago, my wife asked me ‘whatever happened to that book,’ as she was the one who typed it on her Smith-Corona typewriter, shortly after we met,” he noted. “She recalled how it was a gripping tale, and I also remembered some of my friends in Montego Bay, where I lived at the time, lining up to read each page as I wrote it. Based on that level of interest, I decided to look at it again with fresh eyes. After I reading The Village Queen I decided to use the same characters but re-worked the plot to include contemporary issues like human trafficking and the deportees being sent here from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Baymar Publishing was quick to accept the revised work. I truly believe it has the potential to go places.”
The Queen that Wears the Crown takes place in a small Jamaican town in St. Elizabeth, where Smith was born. The story also moves to Brooklyn, New York, and Toronto, Canada. In the imaginary village of Parrot Valley, resembling his childhood home, concealed truths lurk, and threats abound.
It’s a tale of one woman’s fight for justice after three young girls go missing. When a deportee, who is the suspect, turns up dead, it complicates matters for Social Activist, Carmen Young. Her efforts to find the girls uncover a truth darker than she can ever imagined.
As the search for the missing girls slows in Jamaica, the situation in Brooklyn and Toronto is still unknown.
Determined to bring justice to her small, she discovers a web of lies that ties the crime to her own life, putting her upcoming marriage and future in jeopardy. With her fiancé charged for murder and a trusted friend turned into her worst enemy, there’s a race against time to unravel 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 that Wears the Crown is a tense drama where betrayal, deception, and the pursuit of justice come at a deadly cost,” Smith said.
Awareness of Human Trafficking
He said the novel intends to raise awareness of the seriousness and increasing incidents of human trafficking worldwide. “A couple of years ago, I heard a Jamaican police official decrying the number of cases of human trafficking rearing its ugly head in Jamaica. People need to be aware of its far-reaching consequences as human depravity reaches a new low with crimes of this nature. The problem of deportations is not going away, either,” he added.
Smith is famous for his popular novel, Lover’s Leap: Based on the Jamaican Legend. He also wrote its sequel, Dawn at Lover’s Leap. This sequel was a finalist in the USA Booknews Bestbook Awards for Historical Fiction. Morant Bay: Based on the Jamaican Rebellion completed the trilogy in the Lover’s Leap series.
Lover’s Leap was the basis for a study on Caribbean slave-master relationships. This study was done by an Egyptian English Literature professor. It was published in the respected journal Orbis Literrarum. This journal focuses on European and American literature.
“One of my early readers compares the intrigue and magnetism in Lover’s Leap, my best-selling novel, to that of The Queen that Wears the Crown,” he noted.
Award Winning Author
Smith is also the first recipient of the BURLA Award for Oustanding Contribution to African-North American and Caribbean Literature. The Jamaica-Canada Diaspora Foundation has acknowledged his impact on Jamaican literature with a recognition award. His other popular works are Port Royal, Reggae Silver, Seven Days in Jamaica, and Marooned in Nova Scotia. Marooned in Nova Scotia tells the story of the Jamaican Maroons in Canada. He also wrote By the Rivers of Babylon.
The Queen that Wears the Crown is available online, major bookstores, and www.baymarpublishing.com and horanesmith.com
