The Woman Who Lost Her Soul

The Woman Who Lost Her Soul by Bob Shacochis follows the story of detective Tom Harrington as he travels to Haiti in the late 1990s to investigate the murder of photojournalist Jackie Scott. Upon arrival, Tom is plunged deep into a world he knows nothing of, riddled with crime, corruption, and poverty. As Tom digs deeper into the mysterious circumstances behind Jackie’s murder, he finds that her life was not exactly what it seemed, and he starts to realize just how deceiving appearances can be.

The novel spans fifty years and four different countries, examining how the phenomenon of war comes to be and the emergence of modern-day America specifically through the war on terror. Shacochis does this by dividing the complex narrative into five books, each providing a different piece of the puzzle, offering insight into America’s place within the current sociopolitical climate.

The first book covers events that occur between 1996 and 1998 in Haiti, making frequent jumps in time. The present-day of the novel is 1998 Haiti, when Tom is investigating Jackie’s death. He and Jackie became involved in 1996, over the final days of the Haitian Revolution. As Tom goes about the investigation, he is reminded of the woman he once knew and the excitement of their relationship. The more he learns, however, the more he realizes he did not really know this woman at all. He soon learns that Jackie’s real name was Dorothy Chambers and that she had a mysterious relationship with U.S. Special Forces operative Eville Brunette.



Book 2 is set in Eastern Europe in the mid-1940s. The storyline focuses on the fallout of the Second World War, specifically on traumatic events that have occurred in the life of a young Croatian refugee. Stjepan Kovacevic eventually changed his name to Steven Chambers and had a daughter, Dorothy Chambers. Together with his mother, Marija, Steven escaped from the Balkans, avoiding becoming another casualty of war. Still, he never quite overcame his hatred for his tormentors, passing on his intense desire for revenge to his family, including his daughter Dorothy.

The third book explores Dorothy’s life with a specific focus on her teenage years. She spent most of her later teenage years at a high school in Istanbul in an attempt to procure as much distance between herself and her parents as possible. Dorothy’s diplomat father, unpredictable as ever, tends to drop in and out of Dorothy’s life at a moment’s notice.

While in Istanbul, Dorothy becomes romantically involved with the young Muslim rebel Osman. At the same time, it is revealed that Dorothy has experienced extensive sexual abuse at the hands of her father; their relationship only becomes more complicated when he requests that she come to his aid in a particularly tricky diplomatic situation by agreeing to pose as a prostitute. Dorothy reluctantly accepts her role in the mission, but things don’t go according to plan. Dorothy ends up running off with Osman in an attempt to escape the situation, but he is soon killed by rival rebels. Devastated by the loss, Dorothy decides that the best course of action is to return to her dull life in America to live with her mother.



Book 4 shines the spotlight on Eville Burnette, delving into his personal history as well as his involvement with government special forces and agencies, and his relationship with Steven and Dorothy Chambers and their Secret Service work, as well as with Tom Harrington. At the end of the book, Dorothy has died and Burnette is accompanying her body back to the United States.
At the beginning of Book 5, it is revealed that Dorothy’s death was actually staged as a tactic to enable her to escape after her secret service work in Haiti had put her life in danger. A voodoo priest gave her a potion that made it appear as though she were dead; when she reached Miami, another priest revived her, after which she went into hiding.

Dorothy goes off on a holiday with Burnette as she recovers from the shock of being both temporarily dead and brought back to life. During their trip together, the two become romantically involved. They avoid the issue of what will happen to Dorothy, pretending as though her life is not still in danger. It is only when her father raises the issue that they are forced to face the reality of the situation. The second half of the book describes the aftermath of Dorothy’s death in a bombing in Africa. It focuses on her final encounters with both Burnette and her father. After attending a funeral in the Balkans, Burnette finds himself at Dorothy’s grave, contemplating their relationship and their history. The book ends with Burnette’s realization that the desire for revenge is capable of corrupting even the most innocent of souls.