The first entry, “A Gringo Died Today,” kicks things off in a village in Guatemala. As the title suggests, the dead body of a foreigner is discovered on a beach; the story of how that dead body came to be there is one that lands a local in some serious trouble. In “The Eagle of the Desert,” an Englishman named Archie labors at an unpleasant yoga retreat in a Mexican desert run by a disagreeable American who calls himself Eagle. (Archie was present when the events of “A Gringo Died Today” occurred; he felt he needed to “get over something awful that happened on the beaches of Guatemala.”) “Teatime at the Cricket” takes the reader to England, where trouble ensues at a usually low-key Sunday cricket match. In “Whose Story?,” someone from that cricket match has a story to tell of an adventure in Greece—but the storyteller isn’t entirely truthful about his own actions. In “True Colours,” a businessman named Zach with an eye on becoming the new mayor of Oakland, California, is quite pleased with a new flag he is flying outside his home. Throughout the collection, the stories introduce knowable, nuanced characters. They come to life on the page, from Eagle, with his “long greying hair tied into a bun,” to Zach, who feels his flags say “more about him than words ever could.” In “Teatime,” Davies excels not only at describing the people involved but also at providing details about the sport at the heart of the story. (“Everyone says cricket is so slow but when you’re scoring it’s the fastest thing in the world.”) Occasionally, the outcomes prove predictable; for instance, it is clear from the get-go that the protagonist of “Whose Story?” will probably not amount to much of a hero. Nevertheless, the ways in which the stories intertwine add an additional level of intrigue to an already compelling cast of characters.
