Mysteries and Thrillers Set on Islands
Islands have been an ideal setting for countless mysteries and thrillers over the decades. Agatha Christie set some of her classic mysteries, such as Evil Under the Sun and And Then There Were None, on islands with limited transportation.
Countless other authors down through the decades have set their stories on islands: both real-life and imaginary. They’re ideal settings for mysteries and thrillers because means of ingress and egress are limited: bridges, tunnels, boats, and planes. Without at least one of those things, no one has any way of getting on (or, more critically, off) of the island. If a murder takes place, the list of suspects is narrowed down to whoever was on the island at the time. It also means that the characters are trapped with a murderer somewhere among them. And one of them may well be the next victim.
In the hands of a skillful storyteller, the island becomes a character in its own right, setting the mood of the story, and becoming either a help or a hindrance. An island could be a luxurious, exotic getaway for a vacation or someone’s peaceful home by the sea. It could also be a desolate, isolated place cut off from the rest of the world.
It was supposed to be a fun family adventure in the Australian outback for Heather, her new husband Tom, and her stepchildren Owen and Olivia: a chance to bond as a new blended family. But that adventure all too quickly turns into a nightmare, when the family decides to take a side trip to a remote island with a wildlife refuge. And then a hit-and-run accident, and a group of people bent on revenge, puts the family into grave danger.
The peaceful life of a sleepy volcanic island in the Mediterranean is shattered when the bodies of three men, believed to be refugees, wash up on the beach. The villagers decide not to go to the police with their discovery but instead have the bodies buried. After all, the men didn’t seem to die by violence, and to tell the authorities would only cause all sorts of difficulties for the island and its people, correct? That decision heralds the beginning of a series of terrible events that gradually rip the island and the people apart.
On the edge of the Northern Atlantic lies a remote island. The islanders are an outwardly harmonious community—but all have their own secrets, some much darker than others. And when a strange disorder begins to infect them all, those secrets come to light.
Ferry service fails and contact with the mainland is lost. Rumors begin to swirl as a temporary inconvenience grows into nightmarish ordeal. The fabric of the once tight-knit island is unnervingly torn apart—and whatever the cause, the question soon stops being how or why it happened, but who, if anyone, will survive.
If you’re a fan of National Treasure and The Da Vinci Code, or simply love books about globe-trotting treasure hunts and mythical creatures, Preston and Child’s latest book about adventurer-thief Gideon Crew is for you.
Crew has an outrageous assignment: steal a parchment that’s part of the Book of Kells. When Crew discovers that the parchment also contains what may well be a treasure map. The treasure? Something extremely rare and valuable that could save the lives of millions. The discovery sends Crew and his associate Amy on a voyage around Central and South America, filled with escapades and discoveries straight out of Greek mythology.
A woman washes up on a small island off the coast of Crete, on the ominously-named Bone Beach, along with the wreck of a sailboat. She has absolutely no memory of who she is or what happened to her. A group of four writers staying on the island find her and begin to care for her. But the woman begins to suspect whether the writers truly have her best interests at heart, after it seems they are not going to keep their promises about alerting the authorities about her predicament.
Meanwhile, in London, the search is on for missing woman Eloise Shelley. She has vanished from her comfortable home, leaving behind two small children and a baffled husband. Her car is still at the house, and she has not taken her purse, passport, or other identification with her.
Is the woman on the island Eloise? How did she get there? And what do the people on the island want with her?
Related: Psychological and Domestic Thrillers Coming This Year
For Martin, his wife Alexandra, and their two little children, a move to the Swedish island of Orust seems like the perfect way to start over in life. Their new home is Martin’s family’s summer cottage, there are good friends living nearby, and Martin can start his own mussel farm. The illusion of a new, happy life is shattered when four-year-old Adam is believed to have drowned.
And then Maya, a photographer temporarily residing on Orust, starts looking into the matter, and she discovers that Adam is the latest in a series of little children that have gone missing by the sea on Orust over the decades…
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Erin Roll is a freelance writer, editor, and proofreader. Her favorite genres to read are mystery, science fiction, and fantasy, and her TBR pile is likely to be visible on Google Maps. Before becoming an editor, Erin worked as a journalist and photographer, and she has won far too many awards from the New Jersey Press Association.
Erin lives on the top floor of a haunted house in Montclair, NJ. She enjoys reading (of course), writing, hiking, kayaking, music, and video games.