TITLE: Rose Hall's White Witch: The Legend of Annie Palmer
AUTHOR: Mike Henry
REVIEWER: : Barbara Nelson
PUBLISHER: LMH Publishing Ltd.
MIKE HENRY, chairman of LMH Publishing, has written his first novel, Rose Hall's White Witch. It is " ... a torrid love story set in the steamy climate of the tropics ..." and a version of the well-known legend of the 'White Witch of Rose Hall'.
It begins with the prologue that sets the stage for the action between two women, Annie Palmer, the estate owner, and Millie, a free black girl, who are caught in a love triangle with Robert Rutherford, a newly-arrived English overseer.
In the brief historical foreword that follows, Henry tells the Rose Hall story - how it started with the sugar plantation called True Friendship, owned by Henry Fanning, and how it passed from 1746 through the years to 1820 when John Rose Palmer married Annie May Patterson.
A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
Henry describes Annie as "beautiful beyond compare ... with eyes as black as ackee seeds."
The book has thirteen chapters and the story moves quickly from Robert Rutherford's arrival in Montego Bay (after spending nine months travelling from London to the islands) to his introduction to Annie (the white witch). Later, he is seduced by Millie who tells him "you would be a good father for my children" and 'I 'fraid fi what she (Annie) will do to you, for if anything happen to you mi heart would break."
Henry has written a very entertaining and gripping story and the action builds up to a very dramatic and colourful end. Throughout the book there are a number of exciting scenes - for example, where Rutherford has a run-in with an arrogant slave called Aaron, and again when Takoo (Millie's grandfather who has hopes of building a new Negro nation like the one in Haiti) takes Annie hostage near the end of the story.
The final section of the book is devoted to Rose Hall today. There are a few editorial blunders in the book and I would have liked to see some captions accompanying the black and white photographs at the end.
We can, I hope, look forward to some more exciting novels from Mike Henry.
