When ex-cop and P.I. Max Mingus is released from prison in 1996, he walks away knowing that he would kill the two junkie child murderers again if need be. Still depressed from the accidental death of his wife during his incarceration, Max returns to Florida only to realize he can’t go home yet, his hurt still too fresh. Max registers in a local hotel, where he is contacted by Allain Carver, a rich white Haitian.

Carver has been after Mingus for a while, even in prison, but Max has chosen to ignore his requests for a meet. But when Carver presents an opportunity for a case that will take him to Haiti in search of Carver’s kidnapped five-year-old son, Max gives into the idea of a temporary escape from his sorrows. Unfortunately, the three P.I.s sent before Max have all ended badly, either dead, mutilated or missing. Maintaining his jailhouse persona, Mingus arrives in chaotic Haiti with few expectations.

In Haiti, Mingus is greeted by the ubiquitous posters of Charlie Carver, each marked with the symbol of Tonton Clarinet, a child-stealer of local superstition: “Myths are stronger than death.” All the disappeared children in Haiti are believed to have been seduced by Tonton Clarinet, a truly sinister figure in a country riddled with superstition.

In Haiti, Mingus is greeted by the ubiquitous posters of Charlie Carver, each marked with the symbol of Tonton Clarinet, a child-stealer of local superstition: “Myths are stronger than death.” All the disappeared children in Haiti are believed to have been seduced by Tonton Clarinet, a truly sinister figure in a country riddled with superstition.

In this colorful and corruptible culture, Mingus comes across bizarre characters, those of legend and lie: Vincent Paul, the King of Cite Soleil, a “cocaine Castro” with a secret El Dorado; and Max’s nemesis, Solomon Boukman, their fates on a collision course since Max put him in prison in the States. The more serious, if not immediate threat is from Boukman, returned to Haiti by the U.S.

Surrounded by the evil bred of greed and exploitation, Haiti offers a hellish landscape, Max surrounded by hougans, vodou, bokors and black magic, a seductive pull of darkness that threatens to obliterate anyone who will not bow to the ways of the country. In such a place, one man’s soul is a useless commodity, yet Max ignores the siren call of corruption.

Confronting a maze of half-truths, the emotionally impaired P.I. faces a challenge to his integrity, perhaps a battle for his very soul: “He’d never known a place so dark.” With characters straight out of Dante’s Inferno, this taut thriller in equal parts disturbing and eye-opening, Mingus perseveres in spite of obstacles with the aid of an unexpected ally. Stone’s edgy and provocative Max Mingus raises the bar in the genre.