Len Buonfiglio Caribbean Mystery Series
FREEDOM DROP
by Brian Silverman
May 19 - June 27, 2025 Virtual Book Tour
SYNOPSIS:
A Len Buonfiglio/St. Pierre Caribbean Mystery
Len Buonfiglio is a former New York bar owner and family man. He has the perfect life until he yearns for more—for something he knows will destroy everything he had, but something he can’t resist. He makes his choice and that, along with a traumatic event, shatters his world. His life and what he had now broken, his only choice is to leave the city and his family. His flight takes him to the remote Caribbean island of St. Pierre where he opens a sports bar that he runs with his friend and partner, a young local islander named Tubby Levett.
In Freedom Drop, a genial tour guide, Rawle “Big Tree” Johns is a suspect in an American woman’s fall from a cliff and held in custody. John’s mother enlists Buonfiglio to help free her son and to prove that he had nothing to do with the woman’s death. Conflicted by the need to spend time with his sixteen-year-old daughter who he hasn’t seen in two years, Mr. Len as he’s known on the island, reluctantly agrees to help.
Buonfiglio’s search for the truth reveals that there are other, much more powerful forces involved in the woman’s death that threaten both his life and his family. In the course of his investigation, he confronts a high-ranking island politician, the local superintendent of police, the dead girl’s mother, and, ultimately, a shady yet powerful outsider investor. Was the girl’s death an accident or did Johns cause that accident? Or was she murdered? The lack of clarity—the mystery of what really happened to the girl—he realizes, reflects the enigma that is St. Pierre. It’s a riddle that, despite living on the island for several years, he still cannot solve.
Book Details:
Genre: Mystery
Read an excerpt from FREEDOM DROP:
Published by: April 7, 2025 by Down & Out Books
Praise for FREEDOM DROP:
"An impressive debut…Silverman capably captures the feel of his setting en route to a satisfying conclusion. A sequel is warranted."
~ Publishers Weekly
"Silverman had me at the Caribbean setting, and held me with his fully human characters—of both good and bad natures—and their situation."
~ SJ Rozan, Edgar-winning author of The Murder of Mr. Ma
"A mystery steeped in authentic Caribbean atmosphere. Silverman knows his territory, as does his hero, an ex-Marine-turned-sleuth who discovers that, even in paradise, things aren’t always what they seem."
~ Wallace Stroby, author of Heaven’s a Lie and Some Die Nameless
"A buddy book, a whodunit, and a family drama, Freedom Drop is mystery magic."
~ Reed Farrel Coleman, author of Sleepless City
"Brian Silverman’s Freedom Drop is an exciting and welcome new addition to the crime writing pantheon."
~ S.A. Cosby, author of Razorblade Tears and All the Sinners Bleed
Author Bio:
Brian Silverman’s writing career has spanned over 30 years. He has written about travel, food, and sports for publications including the New York Times, Saveur, Caribbean Travel and Life, Islands, the New Yorker, New York, and others. From 2004 through 2013, he was the author of the annual Frommer’s New York City guidebook series. He co-authored the acclaimed Twentieth Century Treasury of Sports with his father, Al Silverman.
His short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including Mystery Tribune, Down and Out Magazine, and Mystery Weekly. His stories have been selected to appear in The Best American Mystery Stories in 2018 and 2019, and The Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories 2021. His other short fiction has appeared in publications such as Down and Out Magazine, Mystery Magazine, Dark Waters, and Vautrin. Freedom Drop is his first published novel. He lives in Harlem, New York, with his wife, Heather, and his sons, Louis and Russell.
Catch Up With Brian Silverman:
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Review:
Exciting action, tragic deaths, and secrets someone will kill to keep hidden.
Freedom Drop is the first book in author Brian Silverman’s atmospheric Len Buonfiglio/Caribbean Mystery series set on the island of St. Pierre. The tale’s tough action and magnetic main character are definitely a winning combination.
Having gained a reputation among his bar patrons and native neighbors for being able to help when the police can’t or won’t, bar owner Len Buonfiglio reluctantly takes on the case of a local man accused of complicity in the death of a tourist just as his 16-year-old daughter, Kasie, arrives for her spring break visit. His involvement is swiftly noticed by someone who doesn’t want him poking around in the case, and Len is soon visited by a pair of toughs with hard methods of persuasion in mind. Len Buonfiglio, or Mr. Len as he is known to the other inhabitants of St. Pierre, is a quiet, reluctant hero, dogged in his pursuit of the truth, and armed with only a sharp mind, clever wit, and rusty martial arts skills.
The plot follows Len as he learns of the arrest of “Big Tree” Rawle Johns, a local tourist guide known for his quiet, dignified manner and obvious love for his island home and her history. Well acquainted with the respected single father of one, Len is skeptical of Big Tree’s involvement in Deanna Gould’s death the previous year at the island’s historic and sacred landmark, the Freedom Drop, which until recently had been ruled an accident or suicide.
Len is returning home from picking up Kasie at the airport when they witness police taking Big Tree into custody. He is soon contacted by the man’s elderly mother, who implores Len to intervene with the police on her son’s behalf. The story escalates quickly as strangers to the island interfere with Len’s low-key inquiries. At the same time, he attempts to reconnect with his only daughter on her first visit since the dissolution of his marriage to her mother five years earlier. The visits from outsiders are surprising, and the results are shocking. I could understand Len’s immediate concerns for his daughter’s safety and his conflicting emotions about ending her long-awaited and much-anticipated first visit earlier than planned, as well as what he would tell his ex-wife when he did so.
The author’s writing absolutely drew me into his story from the very beginning, and Len and other characters, such as Tubby, soon felt like people I actually knew. Similarly, Silverman’s vivid, evocative descriptions of his settings placed me side by side with Len on St. Pierre. The plot is gritty, and the action is decisive as Len works his way to the truth behind the young woman’s death almost a year earlier.
I recommend FREEDOM DROP to mystery readers who enjoy a
reluctant and less traditional yet still resolute private investigator protagonist.
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