Island Women

Passionate about conservation and fleeing an argument with her mother, newly qualified London vet Charlotte Walker has taken up a fellowship on the tiny South Atlantic island of Tuga de Oro to study the endangered gold coin tortoises in the jungle interior. She can claim the best of reasons for this year in paradise—What better motivation than to save a species?—but the reality is more complex. For Charlotte has secretly come to believe that she has her own connection to this remote and eccentric community, and she is finally determined to solve the mystery that has dominated her life.

Death is only the beginning. Shadow Island is a wreck. Buildings lay in rubble, construction crews swarm the island, and the aftermath of the Yacht Club Massacre has left many dead. But at least Sheriff Rebecca West put an end to the violence against young girls by dismantling the elite men’s club. Or so she thought. When a teenage girl is found stabbed and half-buried in a makeshift grave at the local cemetery, her arms carved with occult symbols, whispers of dark rituals and black magic spread through the community. The victim’s friends insist she died from the legendary witch’s curse.

Tragedy and mental illness have been dark companions of Rae Newborn for more than 50 years. Her life seems to start rebuilding itself, though, when she moves to a deserted island to restore the house her mysterious great-uncle built in the 1920s. But Rae senses powerful forces stirring on the island. Is the skin-crawling feeling she has of someone watching her only in her mind, or has something disturbingly real taken notice of Rae?

Emma Hooper thought coming home to small-town life and the family farm would give her a chance to rest and recover from a traumatic accident. But that was before she started seeing ghosts. It was before Grandma Hooper started singing on the roof, and it was way, way before anybody spotted a ghost in a 19th-century cavalry uniform coming out of an outhouse. Can Emma learn to handle her newfound ability to see spirits, while figuring out a confusing relationship with the handsome local doctor? All while solving the ghastly murder of Preacher Jacob?

After years away, Maura Shaw has returned to Newport, Rhode Island, to teach English at the academy. Behind her lies her life as the perfect Midwestern wife and mother, a life that seemed on the surface to be all she had ever wished for. That illusion vanished in a storm off Mackinac Island in the wake of an accident that engulfed Maura’s husband and her older daughter, Carrie. Now, with her son and younger daughter, she hopes to find a new beginning. Newport has never failed to infuse Maura with a sense of mystery and hope.

As the Shadow Island Historical Society prepares to raise funds to restore the island’s beloved lighthouse, someone else has other lethal plans. Instead of the presentation the group hopes for, they attract the attention of a madman claiming the historic monument is his family legacy before firing several shots and barricading the doors. Now, one hostage is dying and the rest fear for their lives. Interim Sheriff Rebecca West is no hostage negotiator, but she’ll do whatever it takes to ensure the elderly captives are safely released.

Deputy Tessa Black spots a man disturbing a grave in the local cemetery and gives chase. But when Tessa catches him, she learns that the ghoulish trespasser wasn’t robbing graves; he was burying a box of bones. With the help of her fiancé, park ranger Logan Wilde, Tessa discovers that the remains belong to a missing teenager from a nearby island. After the girl disappeared nine months ago, police labeled her a runaway. Now, though, it’s clear the teenager was murdered.

Just a few short months ago, Sheriff Rebecca West thought her toughest battles were behind her. But nothing could have prepared her for the turmoil she’s faced since coming to Shadow Island. Attempts on her life. Heartbreak. Betrayal. And that’s just the beginning. The worst is yet to come. Still reeling from the shocking discovery of who’s behind Shadow Island’s exclusive and depraved "men’s" club, Rebecca is determined to take them down. There’s only one problem. One by one, the members end up dead. Tongues cut out, hands chopped off—the message is clear...

During WWI, Lukia Mazurets, a Ukrainian farm wife, delivers her eighth child while her husband is serving in the Tsar’s army. Soon after, she and her children are forced to flee the invading Germans. Over the next 14 years, Lukia must rely on her wits and faith to survive life in a refugee camp, the ravages of a typhus epidemic, the Bolshevik revolution, unimaginable losses, and one daughter’s forbidden love. Sunflowers Under Fire is a heartbreakingly intimate novel that illuminates the strength of the human spirit, as shown by its courageous and inspirational heroine.

From the beloved author of The Divorcées comes a novel set in the 1970s during an island wedding, where the bride has recently left a sinister cult that might still be trailing her On a remote island off the coast of Virginia, family and friends gather to celebrate the wedding of Shay...

After a blizzard roared across the island in February, Lola Sheridan was forced to postpone her wedding to Tommy Gasbarro, the handsome Italian sailor who stole her heart two summers back. Their June wedding approaches—and the Sheridan women have a surprise party up their sleeves, one that will shock all involved and make Lola question her allegiances.

The path to power is paved with blood. In the wake of a landmark election on Shadow Island, the tide of power is set to turn. Newly elected Sheriff Rebecca West stands ready to dismantle the Yacht Club’s ruthless grip over the island. And she isn’t alone. She has her team as well as the newly elected chair of the Select Board by her side. But victory comes at a perilous cost. The ballots have barely been counted when tragedy strikes. The new Select Board Chair’s life hangs by a thread after a deliberate sabotage turns her victory drive into a fight for survival.

Now a successful blues singer, Lana's returning to Waikiki to control her own destiny when it comes to men, romance, and sex. This time, it's on her terms. Jason Koa is every woman's dream. While Lana would like to keep her distance, the passion is just too hot to ignore, even if Jason does make all the rules - on the island and in the bedroom. But his attempts to break Lana's shell reveal secrets neither is prepared to face.

When Anna St. James graduated college with a business degree, she never expected to find herself running a boarding house on a small island off the east coast. Now, settled into life as owner and landlady of the Moon River Boarding House on Frostfall Island, Anna couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Most of the time, Frostfall is a charming island with a busy fishing boat harbor and town that attracts summer tourists. But occasionally, quite occasionally, if that’s a phrase, there’s an unexpected murder. Without a dedicated police force, the locals look to Anna to solve crimes.

All communities have their secrets...but on Widow’s Island, there’s a skeleton in every closet, as Deputy Tessa Black knows all too well. When Tessa stumbles upon a half-buried body in the woods, a peaceful morning hike suddenly turns into a race to catch a killer. Tessa identifies the skeletal corpse as Aurora Franklin, a young college student and aspiring actor. She’d come to Widow’s Island for a summer job, only to be strangled and discarded. Aurora has been dead for over a month - and not a single islander has reported her missing.

A local man has fatally overdosed on fentanyl at the ice cream parlor after polishing off a salted caramel cone. No history of drug use, no needles, no signs of addiction—only a body filled with poison. Rebecca suspects something far worse than a tragic accident. But how does fentanyl find its way into a dessert? When a father and his two children are poisoned by fentanyl after eating at a local diner, Rebecca comes to a startling realization. A sadistic killer is playing a dangerous game of chance, turning routine moments into fatal traps.

Owen Lawry is days away from leaving Gansett Island to attend the trial of his father, who is charged with assaulting his mother almost a year ago. He has spent his entire adult life trying to outrun his violent past, but the upcoming showdown with the father he hasn't seen in more than a decade has him spending far more time in the past than in the present. His biggest challenge is convincing his pregnant fiancée, Laura McCarthy, to sit out the trip.

When two men kidnap former FBI agent Cate Wilde’s fiancé, the boldness of the crime rattles the community. Desperate to find the man she loves, Cate joins forces with the FBI and the local sheriff’s department to launch an investigation and bring Dr. Henry Powers home. Cate soon learns that a brotherhood of bank robbers abducted Henry in the hopes that he might be able to save their youngest brother, who had been shot during a robbery. But this man is beyond saving, which spells life-threatening danger for Henry.

When the town drunk ends up dead in a hit-and-run, FBI special agent Cate Wilde expects that solving the case will be cut and dried. But evidence quickly surfaces that the victim was involved with another crime. A crime that has gone cold for twenty years. A crime of personal importance to Cate. Cate’s best friend, Samantha, went missing at fourteen, leaving behind nothing except a jacket and an island full of unanswered questions. Samantha’s disappearance has haunted Cate for more than half her life, and she might finally be able to find some closure.

"Welcome to paradise," archeologist Susan Dunne hears on arrival at the Caribbean island to research petroglyphs and unravel the mystery of her brother's drowning. Was John murdered? This sunny tourist paradise conceals shadowy secrets - violent native unrest, a sunken treasure guarded by legendary Jumbies, and a bloodthirsty cult.