Hi, I'm Christian Williams. "Rarotonga," a novel. This is available as an e-book and
also as an audiobook, but I always prefer the actual physical edition because when
you're reading a novel if something goes wrong on page 98, or on page 49 and
you've just lost interest or disagree completely
you can always throw the book across the room and when it hits the wall it makes a
very satisfying sound. Not that we think anybody will do that with
"Rarotonga," which is the story of the eccentric millionaire Robert "Bobby" Ayers,
who has disappeared again, this time alone on his 60-foot luxury sailboat.
Behind him he leaves the wreckage of a controversial life -- three ex-wives, angry
creditors and the shadow of a murder in his past. He travels the endless expanse
of the Pacific cloaked in stealth only to meet his future there in the
form of a young woman more mysterious than himself. Well, that sounds pretty
good don't you think? Hmmm! "Chapter One, Southwest of Midway Island. On the 87th day,
having rested, the multi-millionaire Bobby Ayres woke as he often did with a
remnant of a smile, residuum of a dream perhaps or the memory of having outfoxed
them all." He's on a 60-foot luxury sailboat. "Apres Vous was the name of the
yacht which coursed easily across the surface of the morning ocean. She had
begun life as a luxury sailboat designed for prince and princess and unusually
capable of sailing waters both vasty deep and worrisome shallow. Her hull was
long and sleek and brand new, or had been new, before the anchors of a dredge
failed in a winter gale and the windblown barge entwined
itself with the newly launched yacht and carried them both ashore. For
18 hours the rusty dredge violated her on a bed of mud. When the waters
retreated she lay scandalized and broken, a three million dollar loss. Bobby Ayers
bought her sight unseen by text message from Barcelona, directing salvation to
begin immediately at a boatyard in Mexico." Yes, 'Apres Vous' is really inspired
by Ted Hood's Little Harbor 60 or 63. what a marvelous boat, and you know when
somebody disappears, somebody has to find them, and under the terms of Bobby Ayers'
elaborate living trust his daughter Laura is stuck with the job of becoming
sort of an inspector general of his past, about which she doesn't know a great
deal. "The history of Laura's controversial father had been avoided by her all her
life on the advice of her mother, who stuck pins in it like a war map. There
were Robert Ayers' old business partners to deal with, and Laura had no facility
for business, or partners either, for that matter.
She herself bore some sort of personal liability in such case that she screwed
up the trust or failed to appreciate the corrosive nature of the fortune involved.
Robert Ayers realm of lawyers and real-estate buccaneers had never been her
world, and in fact the whole daughter-of-the-millionaire-thing was a trap...."
Well, Rarotonga. It's paradise. We're all headed there one way or another, and we'll see
if Bobby Ayers makes it. It may be true what Herman Melville wrote--"Are not half
our lives spent in reproaches for foregone actions, of the true nature of
which and consequences we were wholly ignorant
of at the time." Rarotonga. Here's a little more..."
There are places of dreams and
Rarotonga is one. Robert Ayres dreams it and all his life he has made dreams come
true. Millions of dollars. Three memorable wives. Titan of business from San Diego
to Kuala Lumpur, every turbulent indulgence of a turbulent and difficult
man. Rarotonga--the dream and the wreckage. Wreckage left behind in the fractured
lives of those around him--partners, lovers, enemies dead by an unknown hand,
the innocent and the guilty too, lives changed by Bobby Ayers, who has
disappeared again. He left port in his 60-foot luxury
sailing yacht three months before, and in his wake confusion and disarray. Tracked
by the Internal Revenue Service, trailed by his reputation and the memories of
those he knew and loved -- loved in his own way. Bobby Ayers -- liar, husband, father, king.
Gone again. Bobby Ayers, who you can try to forget
but suddenly there he is again, arms open wide and waiting. Where is he now?
Rarotonga. He has one child, Laura, daughter of the controversial
millionaire. Soulmate. Secret sharer. As he is complete, she is not. Not yet. Now the
lawyers open his living will, which places her in charge of finding him.
Laura, who has had with her father the bond of not knowing or asking, and who
preferred it that way. Laura, who if she finds him may also find herself. In
Rarotonga. His yacht gathers its power from wind and sun. It has air
conditioning, power winches, a freezer of elk and
maguro, cases of the finest wine. Food enough for years on a yacht that need
never seek shore. A yacht that has disappeared from every chart, cloaked in
stealth, plying the hidden Pacific somewhere. Find me, Laura.
Ask your mother, Julia, in her big house on Greenfield Hill. Ask Eleanor, who was
there first. Ask Vivian, who was there last. Ask Inge-Lise, who was with me in
Mexico. Ask Marika with the dolphin tattoos. Ask Eddie Small Peas, the arrogant
mobster killed in Philadelphia long ago. Ask Maurice, Laura, who loves you, and who worries.
Where are the answers?
Rarotonga