A Funeral in Eden

George Buchanan is the Sultan of Kaitai, a remote island in the tropical Pacific in the period between the wars. He rules with detached benevolence amid a tiny enclave of Europeans (less than ten) and a rather vague number of native islanders, descendant of two previous generations of Buchanans who have managed an effective independence by balancing off the various major (colonial) powers of the region, and have maintained Kaitai in a sort of timewarp, hoping to hold the outside world enough at bay to ease the inevitable transition to modernity. Buchanan and his fellow expatriates pass lives of idle tranquility, having drinks at the club and speculating on what, if anything, is true in the stories each tells about their past. Until one day a strange vessel, a "lugger", appears in the harbor with a crew of two (a sinister Chinese sailor and a "Port Darwin boy") bearing Mr. Goulburn, seemingly an author here to "rusticate" on holiday. Goulburn, after tramping through the interior, is about to leave .. when he turns up dead, seemingly drowned on his way to his boat. Is the death an accident or murder? Who was "Goulburn" and why was he really on Kaitai? Who among the residents (or was it Goulburn's mysterious crew?) had reason to fear him? Was it even Buchanan himself, seeking to prevent intrusion of the modern world? In a plot worthy of an Agatha Christie locked-manor mystery, Buchanan displays wit and steel at odds with the initial impression of congenial bumbling, as through resistance and false leads he investigates the killing, and of necessity, the obscured backgrounds of his subjects. All in all, a most satisfying read, and I give a 5* rating on the basis of what I have mentioned so far. However ..... And now for the caveat. Some, perhaps many, will find the book so irredeemably offensive as to be unreadable. Throughout there is a rather startling degree of callow racism, of the colonial "white man's burden" sort. Though there are only a handful of racial epithets, the island's natives (actually any non-whites, such as Smith's boat crew) are routinely referred to as anonymous "boys". The natives, as viewed through the eyes of the white inhabitants, are stereotypical 'innocent savages', and are mere background, not actors in the drama. One must note, however, that the book was originally published in 1938, when imperialism was still in full sway, if beginning to crumble. It is also unclear how much is the author's own voice, and how much reporting what the typical flotsam of empire would say or feel.