Island Fiction

Reclusive collector Cutter Merlin is seldom seen in Key West - lately, not at all. Officer Liam Beckett visits Merlin’s curious house and discovers the gentleman in his study. In his death grip: a volume of occult lore and a reliquary. His eyes are wide with fright, his mouth a horrified rictus where spiders now dwell. Kelsey Donovan returns to the old house to catalog her estranged grandfather’s collection of artifacts and antiquities, vowing to see his treasures divested properly.

Following the loss of his brother to the war in Europe, Canadian writer John Easley feels duty-bound to report the story that seems to have fallen into his lap: the 1943 Japanese occupation of the U.S. Aleutian Islands and the Allied attempts to drive the Japanese forces back into the sea. But when his plane is shot down over the island of Attu, he is exposed to the full fury of a wilderness known as "the Birthplace of Winds." He soon discovers that the island’s indigenous residents (U.S. citizens) have all disappeared and that he has one choice: surrender or face starvation and madness alone.

Aspen Davis is on a mission. She's determined to find out how and why she ended up captive on a South Pacific island where she was hunted and tormented for over five years. She's following the clues . . . even when they lead to some very dark places. Buck Moreno vows to protect Aspen no matter what. He understands her need for vengeance—he's been there—but he also sees the other side, and he doesn't want that life for the woman he cherishes. But she must come to this conclusion herself. In the meantime? He'll help her find the answers she seeks.

American doctor Tara Moore wants to disappear. On the run from an abusive husband, she seeks shelter on a windswept Irish island and dismisses the villagers' speculation that she is descended from a selkie - a magical creature who is bewitching the island. But when a ghostly woman appears to her with a warning, Tara realizes it was more than chance that brought her to this island.

Dr. Woodrow Moreland, a respected scientist, has invited Alex Delaware, psychologist/detective, to his home on a tiny Pacific island to help him organize his papers for publication. It's a light workload, leaving plenty of time for Alex and his girlfriend, Robin, to relax. But Alex can't help wondering why Dr. Moreland really invited him to the island. When he probes, he discovers a sour and unwelcome truth, and its discovery comes just in time to save Alex and Robin from the violence that threatens them.

A doctor is revered in Howl’s Edge. But not me. Because I’m an omega. Everything changes after I attend the Omega Ball. I’m auctioned off by my very own father. There’s a buyer with electric purple eyes…and now there’s nowhere for me to run.

Alice McDermott's masterful new novel is a vivd portrait of an American family caught at the crossroads of the tumultuous middle decades of the 20th century. Witty, compassionate, and wry, After This evokes the social, political, and spiritual upheavals of its time through the experiences of a working-class couple, John and Mary Keane, their four children, and the changes radiating through their Catholic community on Long Island.

Mallory Barrows has one last Christmas with her uncle. She’s determined to make it the best one he’s ever had. She knows when she asks what he wants as his final gift, it won’t be a tie or a new mug. He won’t need those where he’s going, and he’s quite happy about that. Mallory just didn’t think he wanted a miracle wrapped in paper and tied with a shiny red bow!

Rescue After Dark is the next heart-stopping novel in Marie’s Gansett Island series, featuring Gansett Island Fire Chief Mason Johns and Jordan Stokes. They’ve both been unlucky in love. Is their luck about to change? Reality TV star Jordan Stokes is taking time to figure out her next move - tucked away from prying eyes in her grandmother’s home on Gansett Island with her identical twin sister, Nikki. Eastward Look is the perfect place to heal and regroup.

Fifteen years after she left Prince Edward Island, Natalie O'Ryan had no plans to return. But when her fiancé, music producer Russell Jacobs, books their wedding in her hometown and schedules a summer at Rose's Red Door Inn, she sets out to put the finishing touches on the perfect wedding. But she can't possibly prepare for a run-in with Justin Kane - the best friend she left behind all those years ago after promising to stay.

The frigid swells off the coast of Antarctica buffer Team Cousteau’s kayaks as they weave through the icy water. They’re losing daylight, and at risk of failing their fieldwork assignment. But Cruz Coronado’s thoughts are elsewhere. Nebula is closing in, and time is running out. The evasive explorer spy is still out there. And in his gut, Cruz knows his final mission will have deadly consequences.

When a body washes up on the shores of Brownsea Island, DCI Lesley Clarke initially suspects suicide. But as she gets closer to the island's close-knit community, she starts to suspect foul play. Why did the victim argue with her closest friend days before her death? What secrets is the victim's manager keeping? And can Lesley get to the bottom of the mystery before someone else dies?

Where Jerry Snyder goes, trouble follows. Someone tried to kill him and his bride on their honeymoon in the Virgin Islands. And moving there permanently is proving to be anything but tranquil.

1951. Esther Durrant, a young mother, is committed to an isolated mental asylum by her husband. Run by a pioneering psychiatrist, the hospital is at first Esther's prison but soon surprisingly becomes her refuge. 2018. Free-spirited marine scientist Rachel Parker embarks on a research posting in the Isles of Scilly, off the Cornish coast. When a violent storm forces her to take shelter on a far-flung island, she discovers a collection of hidden love letters.

Seventeen-year-old Ariadne is in love with young British National Serviceman, Stephen Allenby. But her family are deeply involved with an organization campaigning for a union with Greece, and do not approve. And they’re not the only ones. It’s only a matter of time before Stephen is sent back to England, leaving Ariadne pregnant and alone. Stephen does his best to move on with his life. He marries Laura and has a baby girl called Cressida, but it’s not long before the cracks start to show and his marriage falls apart …

Dani Campbell is the latest darling of the Manhattan art scene. As a self-taught photographer, Dani is loving every minute of her sudden popularity, but has no idea how she got there, or a clue as to how to stay. On a shoot at an antiques barn, she discovers an envelope of old photos and sees in them what her photos are missing. Her search for their source leads Dani to a small Rhode Island town, a dilapidated American Gothic beach house—and Lawrence Sinclair.

June 1940. While her little sister, Rosie, is sent to the UK to keep her safe from the invading German army, Estelle Le Maistre is left behind on Jersey to help her grandmother run the family farm. When the Germans occupy the island, everything changes and Estelle and the islanders must face the reality of life under Nazi rule.

Travel magazine writer Celeste Bell is in a terrible mood. Not only was her flight to the Caribbean diverted to a Massachusetts island, now it looks like she'll have to spend Christmas there. Single and still mourning the loss of her mother a year earlier, Celeste is desperate to avoid any emotional entanglements and all holiday festivities. She just doesn't feel like celebrating. But that's exactly what community center director Nathan White and his young daughter, Abigail, want to do. Nathan is entirely focused on making sure that his daughter has a happy Christmas.

Hannah Rose Barrington is the island misfit. Orphaned at a young age, Hannah struggles to provide for her future, while her guardian, a weak-hearted island drunk, bleeds Hannah of her father’s inheritance. Caught between the classes of elite planters and white beggars, Hannah yearns to find a place to belong.

Maddie Chester is determined to leave her hometown of Gansett Island, a place that has brought her only bad memories and ugly rumors. Then she’s knocked off her bike on the way to her housekeeping job at McCarthy’s Resort Hotel by Gansett’s “favorite son,” Mac McCarth himself. He’s back in town to help his father sell the family resort and has no intentions of staying long. But when he accidentally sends Maddie flying over the handlebars, he moves in to nurse her back to health and help care for her young son. Soon he realizes he just may be “maid” for love.