A Rendezvous in Haiti by Stephen Becker

223 Pages
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media, Open Road Media
Release Date: January 12, 2016

Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Kidnapping, Military

Lt. Bobby McAllister met Sgt. Louis Paul Blanchard in Belgium in1918. Blanchard was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Victoria Cross for his outstanding service. He made an impression on the senior officers. The following year McAllister is sent to Haiti to lead a team of marines. The Whites believed they were superior, and the native inhabitants were savages and should be treated as slaves. McAllister did not necessarily share these beliefs.

Blanchard is also in Haiti but for different reasons. He has made a life on the island with several women. Although he is white, he is accepted by the locals. He is friends with Boniface, a local prominent business owner and cock fighting organizer, and Martel, a guerilla leader. He is tired of the way the island is being overrun by the marines and wants to shake things up. He decides he is going to take a white person hostage, but not any white person. He is going to take Caroline Barbour, General Barbour’s daughter and the love interest of McAllister. He believes this will either keep the marines on base or will provide a most needed ransom.

When McAllister hears of Caroline’s kidnapping, he immediately takes action to get her back. He joins forces with Father Jean Baptiste. Together they travel the island looking for Blanchard and Caroline. They are heading towards Martel believing Blanchard would bring Caroline to him.

The book has a steady pace, the characters are developed, and it is written in the third person point of view. The scenery is very descriptive, and the author does a good job making the reader feel immersed in the story. I had a hard time getting into the book, but once I did, I was committed.

In Steven Becker’s A Rendezvous in Haiti, Lt. Robert Macalister is in the country shortly after World War One to quell an uprising. When the rebel leader kidnaps the General’s daughter, Macalister’s love interest, the Lieutenant must go to extraordinary lengths and make unthinkable choices to get his lover out alive.



A Rendezvous in Haiti is exquisitely set in post-World War One. Becker expertly describes the squalid conditions in the island and weaves rich, historical, detail into the narrative. The storyline has potential, and there are some attractive elements. However, the plot has an uneven feel to it, and the dialogue is crass at times, giving the book a heavy feel. The climax of the novel feels flat because the love-interest aspect does not end sufficiently. In addition, readers may find the coarse language as well as some subject matter objectionable. As a result, it is difficult to recommend A Rendezvous in Haiti.







I was given a free copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

The movement to find and republish once-popular crime fiction is often puzzlingly silent about reasons for particular choices, and this is a good example of what happens. It was first published in 1980, set in the immediate aftermath to WWI, and a bit all over the place. I recommend the Amazon review which mentions that the inevitable woman character is captured by gorillas. Perhaps not the best of Stephen Becker.

Against the backgounr of World War first, and one of the many revolutions that have bloodied Haiti after, Caroline lives an extraordinary life for a woman of her time, and not just because she is a colonel's daughter. Strong and independent, pursuing her love affair with a soldier who, in some ways, seems to be less that her, and not only socially. But when the woman is kidnapped for political reasons and, in a sort of Stockholm syndrome she falls in love with her captor, himself a war hero, but that, after having had the lungs ruined in Ypres, has decided to become a mercenary rather than continue to be a soldier, the true character of her boyfriend will come out, because he does not need a virtuous woman, but one who knows how to cry.
An unusual and intriguing book, with truly "live characters".
I thank Open Road Integrated Media and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Becker is he of my favorite authors and an unheralded treasure. This book about the army and Haiti in 1918 is a fine example of Becker's writing. Terse, descriptive and earthy. A little bit of Hemingway- a little bit of James Jones. Read this book and look for,others by Becker, especially one of his most popular, Covenant with Death.

Stephen Becker is one of my favorite writers, a person I wish I had met before he died. Here we have a tale set during the brutal US occupation of Haiti in the early 1900s.

Marine Lt. Robert McAllister is able to keep some intellectual distance from the brutality and waste of this war against the people of Haiti until his fiancée Caroline Barbour is kidnapped by the insurgents. Caroline is no wilting lily, she is the daughter of a Marine and she rides and shoots as needed to protect herself from harm. However, neither she nor McAllister are able to protect themselves from the pity and sympathy evoked by the colorful, warm, and savage people of Haiti.

Although "Rendezvous in Haiti" is not as strong as his other books, Mr. Becker, once again, brings us lively, supremely self-aware human characters. As always his portrayal of McAllister as a man who loves women with his eyes open is outstanding.

I received a review copy of "A Rendezvous in Haiti" by Stephen Becker (Open Road) through NetGalley.com. It was first published in 1980 by W. W. Norton.

For more Stephen Becker see:

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2I33RNXHU459K/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
https://www.amazon.com/review/RZ0RKLL30EUGO/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
https://www.amazon.com/review/R3M362U7ETE1XI/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

A Daring Rescue in Haiti

Lt. Robert McAllister, a US Marine, is serving as an aide to Colonel George Barbour in WWI. He admires his much decorated colonel, but wants to get into the action himself. He’s also in love with Carolyn, the colonel’s daughter. After a week together in Paris, McAllister sees some action and a year later is sent to Haiti to put down a peasant uprising. Teddy Roosevelt uses his big stick philosophy to interfere in unstable countries in the Caribbean to protect the Panama Canal.

In love with McAllister, Carolyn follows him to Haiti, but instead of a romantic adventure with her lieutenant, she’s captured by the gorillas. McAllister rushes to save her, but the adventure turns out to be more difficult than he imagined.

I enjoyed the historical detail in this book, but it’s not one of Becker’s best. I liked A Covenant with Death much better.

This short book is long on historical detail and relatively short on character development. If you’re interested in this period, the book is worth reading, but if you’re looking for a love story, you may be disappointed.

I received this book from Open Road Media for this review.

This book is great on historic detail, but is limited in establishing the environment. I delayed writing a review to think and determine what the story was really about. The story shows in detail the results of exposure to violence and depravity. It could be a love story, but the net effect is to describe falling out of love. The story followed a linear time line to bring various specimens of humanity together. At the end, it just petered out. It makes for an interesting character study, but not a memorable book.

I do not lan to review this book because it did not get my interest- i did not Finnish reading it.

A short novel set at the end of World War I and in the island country of Haiti during the years after WWI military hostilities ended. Lt Robert McAllister, a career member of the U.S. Marines and Sargent Paul Blanchard first briefly meet at a parade ground in Belgium while receiving medals for action during the battles of Ypres and Passchendaele during the war. Blanchard coughs blood onto McAllister's boots and roundly curses the war.
About a year later McAllister commands a squad of Marines in Haiti which is supervising a peace forced by the US against a group of Rebels. The object is to put down a rebellion by the natives against the occupation of the United States Theodore Roosevelt, ex president of the US had unilaterally promoted a policy of "protecting the Panama Canal" via the use of "Gunboat Diplomacy" and the use of American troops to invade and hold various tiny Caribbean Republics. Roosevelt utilized his mantra of "Walk Softly and carry a big stick" to militarily occupy these countries. One example was the Republic of Haiti and it's sister country The Dominican Republic sharing the island of Hispaniola .
While I fault Mr Becker's prose as more than a little helter skelter the book does touch upon a period of American history not very well delineated in novels. The gist of the plot involves the kidnapping of an American colonel's daughter by rebel forces and the attempts to free her by her fiancee, Robert McAllister. Stephen Becker's descriptions of the lives of the Haitian population, the conditions of the rebels and their motivations and the interaction between US forces and the Haitians is well worth the reading of the book.

I do not plan to read/review this title as this is not a subject of interest to mr