9 Days – A Jamaican Country Mystery – Dr. Conrad Dyer

9 Days – A Jamaican Country Mystery, a young boy talks about his family and those surrounding him. Spoken in first narrative provides the reader to place themselves in the shoes of the characters.
The story sets in a small town in Jamaica, where a body was brought ashore after the Hurricane Charlie. In 1951, Hurricane Charlie killed more than 150 people in Jamaica. However in this case, that didn’t happen, “a murderer was on the loose” Hurricane Charlie was not affiliated with this death. Someone killed this woman, and that person was in the small rural town of Jamaica, where everyone is a suspect. The woman was in a water tank, where she drowned before washed ashore. The narrator in this case is the one who evaluates each individual to the woman.
In the first chapter, before the hurricane, the narrator’s dog has become motionless and stops barking, this signifies death of someone and the dog senses this. A gathering occurred to calm the villagers, but everyone was pointing at the other, and claiming that the dog is just hungry. Many accusations lead to J.B., a strong man who is usually compared with Samson. His conduct is usually scary, for people make rumors about him, even though most of it is not true, however they still live off the fact that he has done those things.
After J.B. left the narrator found a beautiful pocket knife, this belongs to J.B., and the young child felt as if it’s a perfect gift for him. Young as he may be, he hoped that with the knife with him, he can be as strong and feared as J.B.
9 days according to African rural society, believes that ghost are real, and the 9 days after someone’s death there would be a celebration. In this case Granny’s death; after the nine days, uncle Vinn arise from his slumber. This is a proof that Granny lives on. Uncle Vinn pretending to not know what happened the night of his attack, his personalities have completely changed. The story of the woman’s death, shows that when the attack happened the woman ran to hide from the man, so she hid in a tank. Since Uncle Vinn couldn’t remember this was the story everyone lived by. However, the narrator has a strong feeling that Uncle Vinn knows who the killer is and is pretending not to know. Who knows why? Maybe he was threatened by the killer? Or, someone he loves dearly is a murderer, and he is hiding the identity out of sincere affection.