Island Fiction

As a storyteller, Maureen Nash can't help but see the narrative cues woven through her life. Like the series of letters addressed to her late husband from a stranger—the proprietor of The Moon Shell, a shop on Ocracoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. The store is famous with shell collectors, but it's the cryptic letters from Allen Withrow, the shop's owner, that convince Maureen to travel to the small coastal town in the middle of hurricane season. At the very least, she expects she'll get a good story out of the experience, never anticipating it could end up a murder mystery.

When Joel Shields dies, Robin Grover's only goal is to get her four best friends back to Five Island Cove to celebrate the life of Kristen's husband. She alone has stayed in the cove while everyone else couldn't wait to get away. Alice Keller comes instantly, because her mansion in the Hamptons and her husband's infidelity is smothering her. Not only that, but Kristen has always been like a mother to her, and she wants to support her.

I is for Island.... It’s picnic time! Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose pack up a basket and wade out to Squall Island. Right away, they find a 100-dollar bill in the sand! But when they come back the next day, the entire island has mysteriously disappeared. What is the secret of Squall Island?

"You'll never make it!" With encouragement like that, author Mickey Thomas, in a fit of youthful testosterone, and with meticulous inattention to detail, decided to embark on a once-in-a lifetime 3,400-mile bicycle trek from Montana to Alaska. While riding through knee problems, illness, homesickness, infatuation, bad weather, and meeting a host of quirky and hilarious characters, Mickey, and his group rides over some of the roughest roads and most desolate scenery in North America. Along the way, he discovers an inner strength as well as a new physical stamina he never had.

When a man washes up onto Shadow Island, Sheriff Rebecca West has a moment of déjà vu. This isn’t the first body the ocean spat out on one of her beaches, but it’s the first one she’s found alive. Barely. The brutal gunshot wounds to the victim’s hand and the lower part of his face indicate he was shot offshore and dumped overboard, but there’s no boat or perpetrator. Just a few cryptic clues before the victim becomes unresponsive.

Two years ago, police officer Andrea Brady fell madly in love with a black-muzzled, slightly rumpled German shepherd who showed up at her house one misty autumn day. Now, with the brave and intuitive Justice as her expert K-9 drug sniffer, she's found an unbeatable partner. Then the unthinkable happens. A savage attack leaves a teenager dead and Andie trapped in every cop's worst nightmare. Placed on administrative leave, she's pursued by media and investigated by a deputy sheriff whose handling of the high-profile case could earn him a coveted promotion.

Police Chief Aggie Malone is facing her first Christmas as a married woman, and hoping for a relatively uneventful holiday in the quiet Gulf Coast community of Dogleg Island where she, along with her perspicacious border collie Flash, is in charge of keeping the peace. She is still trying to find her place in the big, boisterous Grady family, but unlike Flash - and her own husband, Deputy Sheriff Ryan Grady - Aggie does not see the appeal of the holiday, and the magic of the season is completely lost on her. The old-fashioned Christmas Grady has planned for his bride begins to unravel when Aggie's investigation into a homicide hit-and-run leads to the arrest of her own brother-in-law and exposes a crime syndicate that's responsible for spreading millions in counterfeit bills throughout the southeast.

Far in the future, Earth’s oceans have risen. Coastlines have changed to create new islands far from shore. Even worse, Earth has been invaded by aliens known as the Hunters. They are masters of camouflage and enjoy hunting down humans and other creatures for sport. On the island of Humanhattan, one family is ready to make the dangerous trip to the safety of the government Fortress. But when Rio and his friend, Ani, are separated from their parents, they have to rely on their wits and quick reflexes to avoid the deadly Hunters. Will the two young friends survive until help arrives?

With Category 2 Hurricane Ethel expected to make landfall on Gansett Island, residents are scrambling to prepare for a direct hit. Meanwhile, Piper Bennett is on her way back to the island to help Laura Lawry at the Sand & Surf Hotel and runs into her months-long crush, RI State Police Lt. Jack Downing, on the roughest ferry ride of her life. Sparks have been flying between the two of them for months. Will the storm help to move things along or will confessions from Jack’s past derail their fledgling romance?

Kill-crazy mercenaries, gargantuan monstrosities, and a "sixth sense" that may be a death wish in disguise. Augie Brunthouse's first day of work is not going well. It all started with Chuck Vestiglio's exile and subsequent suicide on his private island, derisively dubbed "Supersize Island" by the press. Now the disgraced hamburger baron's unhinged son has vowed to silence the family's critics with a psychotic plot to grow beef better. Alas, his wildly illegal biotech experiments have gone wrong in a very BIG way. Somebody needs to look into it.

Charlotte Amelia Etheridge has cowered to her mother’s sharp tongue and endless demands for the last time. In a fleeting moment of rebellion, she recklessly asks a foreigner from the Leeward Islands for a dance. But her one courageous act lands her in a compromising position. Forced to wed a stranger, Lottie leaves the only home she’s ever known to reside on the isle of St. Kitts.

For decades, the singular and provocative paintings by Cree artist Kent Monkman have featured a recurring character—an alter ego of sorts, a shape-shifting, time-travelling elemental being named Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. Though we have glimpsed her across the years, and on countless canvases, it is finally time to hear her story, in her own words. And, in doing so, to hear the whole history of Turtle Island anew.

Cassandra Haslam loves plans. Lunch plans, wedding plans, and floor plans—they all bring her joy. In fact, she's had her entire life planned out—career, marriage, and family—since age 10. She's smart, hardworking, and a go-getter, and everything has fallen into place so far. Until her husband dies suddenly, right when she's about to enjoy the fruits of all of her hard work and planning, leaving Cass reeling and...well, without a plan. When her youngest graduates three months later, making her an empty-nester, Cass decides it's time to make a new plan for herself. A paradise plan.

One of Ian Rankin's top ten books of 2021. When you have a problem that can't be solved, you call John Tyler. Nine people are trapped on an anthrax-infested, government-controlled island off the west coast of Scotland when the door to their decontamination chamber suddenly stops opening. The only man who can fix the door – the onsite technician – is dead. Was it an accident? Or was he murdered? On an island populated by an international team of scientists with a military-grade bioweapon readily available, the motive to kill is strong, and death is laced into the very soil.

Detectives Macleod and McGrath join a bizarre cast of characters at a remote country estate on the Isle of Harris, where fantasy and horror are the order of the day. But when regular accidents happen, Macleod sees a killer at work and needs to uncover what links the dead. Hampered by a snowstorm that has closed off the outside world, he must rely on Hope McGrath before they become one of the victims.

It's the grand opening of Daybreak Island's cat cafe, where customers can get cozy with an assortment of friendly felines - and maybe even take one or a few home. Co-owner Maddie James is purring with excitement over her new warm-and-fuzzy venture, until she becomes entangled in a petty drama between one of her volunteers and a wealthy woman who insists on adopting a calico kitty. The catfight that ensues is bad enough for business. But when the snubbed socialite is found dead with a tell-tale catnip toy on the scene, suspicion lands squarely on Maddie's staffer.

New Year's Eve, Loloma Island, Fiji. At one of the most exclusive island resorts in the Pacific ocean, the champagne is poured, the fireworks are ready, and the countdown to new year is just beginning. It's set to be a night that no one will forget. Especially when a body washes up on the shore... But it's impossible to find answers when everyone here has a motive.

A call for help from a former colleague leads Maine game warden investigator Mike Bowditch and his girlfriend Stacey Stevens on a sea kayaking trip to a research station far off the coast. Stacey spent summers interning on the island, a sanctuary for endangered seabirds, and they are shocked by the atmosphere of tension they encounter when they come ashore. The biologists are being threatened and stalked by a mysterious boatman who they suspect is trespassing on the refuge late at night.

Dear Listener, Island Flame is a classic tale of romance on the high seas, featuring two extraordinary characters: the headstrong Lady Catherine Aldley and the legendary pirate Jonathan Hale. No book is more special to me. I was thrilled when it was published, and now, more than thirty years later, I am just as excited to share it again with you. I don’t have to tell you that their tumultuous escapade sizzles with passion (lots of passion!), but what I hope you will take away most from Cathy and Jonathan is that dreams do come true - in love and in life. Mine did, and I hope yours will too.

It’s November 1935 and Polly spends her days in paradise, cracking coconuts and swimming in the warm surrounding waters of the South Pacific. Every day is filled with blue skies, the familiar rhythm of island drums and dance, and nightly feasts of freshly caught fish and harvested vegetables shared with the other villagers. If only she could be at peace, but this great descendant of the famed mutineer, Fletcher Christian, longs for adventure and change. Her wily spirit finds just that when a steamship arrives ready to trade.