Island Fiction

Told in Ruskin Bond's simple yet poignant style, the stories and poems in No Man Is an Island thoughtfully explore the many shades of friendship and camaraderie. Featuring classic tales such as 'The Woman on Platform No. 8', in which a mysterious stranger befriends a young boy, and 'The Crooked Tree', in which a writer and a hawker form an unlikely bond, this heartwarming collection is a must-listen.

The Islands Investigations International team is back! This time, Kyra Rachel and Noel Franklin are sleuthing around Quadra Island in the employ of Noel's old high school buddy, Jason Cooper. In a quiet wooded area of the island, Jason, his wife and two younger boys are worried for the oldest son in the family. Derek was discovered badly beaten in the woods by Campbell River and has remained in a deep coma for three weeks. Desperate to find out what happened to his son and why, Jason hires Noel and Kyra.

As a child, Henry Cadmus lived on Catalina Island, a scenic vacationland off the Southern California coast. But Henry's experiences were far from idyllic. Today, even though Henry has seen firsthand the horrors of war, the ghastly images that haunt his dreams are ones he associates with his childhood... and the island: a snarling pig-man holding a cleaver; a jackal-headed woman on a high balcony, dripping blood; strange occult rituals... and worse. If it was up to Henry, he would avoid the island entirely.

Evie Summers is a workaholic who struggles with shedding her ‘grind’ mentality until the consequences of her lifestyle become undeniable. Forced to take a much-needed vacation, Evie ventures off to Black Summer Island, a tropical paradise where dreams come true. Not only does Evie find rest and relaxation, but she also finds love unexpectedly. Is this just a four day vacation? Or is this the beginning of a life she never knew she needed?

1904: Ellen Copley is still a child when she leaves behind the sooty rail yards of Glasgow and crosses the Atlantic Ocean with a heart full of dreams. Yet within weeks of their arrival in America, her father has disappeared - leaving Ellen with resentful relatives, feeling alone and scared for her future. But then her kind Aunt Rose invites Ellen to stay with her large family in their rambling house on beautiful Amherst Island, which nestles like a jewel in the blue waters of Lake Ontario.

Ezzie Wynter can’t wait for Christmas on the beautiful Isle of Skye. Her island home sparkles at this time of year thanks to the snow-capped mountains and frosty winter walks, topped off with family gatherings with those she loves the most. But her peaceful Christmas idyll is upended when she hears that the Larson family – the owners of Rothach Hall – are flying in from Sweden for the festivities. As Manager of their grand Scottish manor house, Ezzie suddenly has decorations to hang, food to source and itineraries to organise.

When a fishing boat is wrecked off the treacherous North Sea coast and the body of a young woman washes up on the beach beside the iconic ‘Marsden Rock’, DCI Ryan cannot ignore the call to duty. With one already dead and more human cargo missing from the wreckage, Ryan and his team race to find the remaining souls - before it’s too late and their investigation turns to murder. As they uncover the seedy underbelly of Tyneside, cold and calculated opportunism clashes with the rock-hard arm of the Law, but there’s one thing that proves stronger than stone.

Tim Ryan can't shake the feeling that he is different from other teens, and not in a good way. For one thing, he seems to have his own personal poltergeist that causes fires and sets him up to be arrested for shoplifting. As a result, Tim has been sent to live on a rundown farm on a remote island off the coast of Australia with his crazy grandmother, a woman who seems to talk to the local spirits, and who refuses to cushion Tim from facing his difficulties.

Blown helplessly off course by a sudden gale, 14-year-old Andy Galloway is washed ashore on Admiralty Island, an immense wilderness known as the "Fortress of the Bears". As he struggles to survive, Andy discovers an unlikely ally in a large dog running with a pack of wolves. The dog leads Andy to food: but also to the strange cave of a mysterious, and almost certainly dangerous, hermit.

Dominic Cantori is an orphan. Ashamed of his situation, Dominic avoids making friends for fear of exposing his terrible secret. One day on a class trip to Ellis Island, a tour guide asks everyone about their families. Immediately, Dominic flees from the class and hides in a closet, where he falls asleep for hours.

Peg Toland and her father think they’ve found the perfect vacation spot: a beautiful, uninhabited Mexican island in the sparkling Sea of Cortez. Unfortunately, the locals who live on the coast do not agree. “That is no place to go,” they tell the Tolands with alarm. They will not explain why. Peg and her father should have listened to these mysterious warnings. Shortly after they arrive on the island and set up camp, the untamed landscape and isolation turn into a terrifying and deadly trap.

While young adults listen to this thrilling historical adventure, they’ll also gain fascinating insights into the historical and political complications of Prohibition. Set in the 1930s, it is the story of an Irish-American boy who concocts a dangerous plan to bust the liquor smugglers who are terrorizing his island home.

Jim Wekle's first day as a trooper on an island in Alaska could have gone better. It was raining, the coffee was bad, and within hours of stepping off the seaplane, he found a bikini-clad girl floating in a kelp bed. As Jim investigates who might have put the bullet in her back, he stumbles across a uniquely diverse and extraordinarily hilarious batch of island inhabitants. Puffing on his imported cigars, Jim soon learns that no one on the island is more unique, diverse, or hilarious than his unlikely counterpart: a man simply known as Kram.

Alibi Island is a legendary paradise hidden away deep in international waters. The only law is money. You’ve got to pay to play, but it’s all fair game if you’re rich enough. It's a lucrative business. What happens on the island stays on the island. That’s the promise. But it is a lie. Everything that happens is recorded. All of that footage becomes blackmail material down the line, as the island's secret power brokers look to cement their stranglehold on power. And when a senator’s daughter’s disappearance is linked to the island, all of its darkest secrets are at risk.

The first few months of school weren’t exactly easy: fated-mate from the rival clan, selkie attacks, and that minor, aka huge, plot to kill her. But things seem to be going from bad to worse. After watching a loved one’s horrific death at the hands of the alpha king, Nai decides another visit to Dark Row is in order. After all, a witch there knows the keeper of souls, and Nai wants her friend back.

In this fast-paced survival story set in Hawaii, electronics fail worldwide, the islands become completely isolated, and a strange starscape fills the sky. Leilani and her father embark on a nightmare odyssey from Oahu to their home on the Big Island. Leilani's epilepsy holds a clue to the disaster, if only they can survive as the islands revert to earlier ways.

The late Sheriff Alden Wallace has barely been laid to rest when another body is found on Shadow Island. Once again, former FBI agent turned interim sheriff Rebecca West’s vacation plans will have to wait. This time, the victim is the son of one of Shadow Island’s privileged elite. Found gruesomely posed at a picnic table in the park—suffocated, choked, and shot, with a cryptic note shoved in his pants—his death is as personal as it is disturbing.

It's the dead of winter on Gansett Island, and Riley McCarthy's mood matches the lousy weather as he and his family work to bring their new business, McCarthy's Wayfarer, back to life. He can't deny that he's been in a funk since Nikki Stokes and her twin sister, Jordan, left the island last fall without saying good-bye.

Young Plum is shocked to discover that she's been accepted to the Guardian Academy on Lotus Island, an elite school where kids learn how to transform into Guardians, magical creatures who are sworn to protect the natural world. The Guardian masters teach Plum and her friends how to communicate with animals and how to use meditation to strengthen their minds and bodies. All the kids also learn to fight, so they can protect the defenseless if needed.

The chase is over. For Rebecca, Daniel, and the rest of the Forgottens of Second Salvations, there is only one choice: Get with the program or die. But there's a spy lurking somewhere within the cabins of Angel Island, someone with contacts in the outside world. Ruth Black is determined to find out who it is before the world learns the truth about her - and about the special punishment ministry of her husband, the Reverend Matthew. Rebecca and Daniel are not destined to remain forgotten very long.