Island Madness

A novel of exceptional style and momentum, sustained at a high emotional pitch, and beautifully constructed. - Alan Furst, New York Times Book Review. At once a thriller and a moral tale, this taut, heart-stopping novel explores the deadly perils of collaboration on quiet, idyllic Guernsey in the Channel Islands, the only British territory to be occupied by German troops in World War II. It is 1943. The tide of the war is beginning to turn decisively and bloodily against Germany, but on Guernsey life proceeds blithely beyond the reach of brutal combat. Nazi officers party with local girls, love affairs blossom, the amateur dramatics society continues to stage theatricals. Then the body of a young woman, her nose and mouth filled with cement, is found dead in a bunker, and Guernsey's long-running comedy of collaborative manners sours into a dark drama of war horrors shared by the islanders and enemy alike. A suspense novel that remains faithful to the conventions of the genre while elevating them.... The atmosphere is more like that of a Graham Greene 'entertainment' than a thriller, and the result is richer, scarier, and more satisfying. - Washington Post Book World; This is a novel you hate to see end, even when the conclusion is so satisfying. - Chicago Tribune; As sad as it is gripping.... A candid account of the baseness of human nature during wartime, woven seamlessly into a stirring murder mystery. - Rocky Mountain News.