Tropic of Guile

(There is nothing more precious than ones own children. There is nothing as dangerous as ones own spouse. There is nowhere as deceptive as a tropical island with the appearance of paradise)

The tropical South Sea islands that make up Fiji are both beautiful and politically explosive. Despite colonisation and an ever-increasing Indian population, the once-were-cannibal Fijians have retained their land, their cultural traditions, their political power and the Ratu feudalism that underpins it. Shrugging aside democracy, the native Fijians have sought to retain their heritage by fair means and foul.

This battle began in April of 1987 when, for the first time, the citizens of Fiji elected a predominantly Indian government. Fijian soldiers ousted the government, democracy gave way to dictatorship, racial violence erupted in the streets and fearful Indians fled (or attempted to flee) the islands they considered home. Tourism ceased, property prices fell, the legal system was in chaos...

It is precisely the opportunity Vicky Mason's wealthy husband has been waiting for. He has a wife who has overstayed her welcome; he has two children he doesn't wish to share with that wife; he has money and property he is loathe to divide up, and he has a yen to live on a tropical island.

Alex Mason hastily buys property, at bargain-bin rates, on a small Fijian island, and widely proclaims his intention of building a state-of-the-art tourist aquarium. To the self-appointed coup government, beleaguered by international disapproval and a rapidly collapsing economy, Alex's aquarium project could be a much-needed feather in their cap. Eagerly they grant Alex residency permits for himself, his American wife and his two New Zealand-born children.

Vicky Mason is an optimist. That's why, despite the disapproval of her parents and friends, she married the dashing, mature and much-married New Zealander and let him take her home to Auckland. In the eight years since, she's been waiting for her marriage to 'come right' - when Alex gets used to her American ways, when the children are older, when Alex doesn't work so hard, when he learns to trust her, when he comes to terms with his temper...

Now, in a handsome home on a palm fringed beach how can they not be happy?

Thus it takes Vicki some time to realise that Alex's increasing contempt and cruelty is designed to drive her away. Under Fijian law 'desertion' would give him grounds for divorce, and custody of the children. If Vicki leaves without her beloved son and daughter she may never see them again. And Alex has removed the children's passports. She cannot, will not, leave.

A battle of wills begins. Vicki soon comes to understand how powerless her position is. Who can she turn to? Not her island neighbors, nor the Fijian police at the nearest mainland town. For Alex is the man with the multi-million dollar project that will provide work for the locals and kudos for the Fijian authorities. Everyone wants to be his friend.

Everyone, that is, except solo expatriate Val Cooper, who gives Vicki support - until Alex retaliates.

Licensed to abuse, Alex forgoes all restraint. His methods of psychological torture become sadistically inventive. At the point of choosing to die, Vicki is saved by Val, who packs her friend off home to the stunned family in Portland.

But within the month Vicki is back in Fiji to contest the custody claims Alex has set in motion. Little does she know that this is just round one of a battle that will take her four years and seventy-nine court appearances. In the one corner - Alex Mason, backed of the Fijian hierarchy; in the other corner, Vicki, with her In