Islands

A 5-star Review:
Islands by Sara Stamey is a romantic suspense story. Susan Dunne is an archaeologist who travels to a beautiful Caribbean island on a grant to study petroglyphs. She has a second agenda in mind, though; investigating the death of her brother the year before. After he died, presumed to be an accident, Susan received a letter from him, a letter that indicated something more sinister. The island is far from the Paradise that it appears to be at first glance. As Susan gets stuck into her investigation, she finds that she has to join forces with Vic Manden, the man who happens to be the main suspect in her brother’s death. Susan has to battle against her own misgivings, restive natives, and spooky goings-on, and that’s not to mention her psychic visions. Will Susan find out what happened to her brother? Is she in deeper than she can handle?

Islands by Sara Stamey is a gripping read. There was quite a bit of scene setting in the early parts of the book and I thought it was going to be slow going. But, all of a sudden, we are off and running on a romping adventure, an adventure full of action, lots of spooky happenings and a little bit of romance. This is a proper page-turner, a book that, when it grabbed, held on for dear life, not letting go until the exciting ending. Ms. Stamey has a real flair for writing, clearly knows how to research the background for a book, and knows how to draw a reader in and hold onto them. The character development was done in such a way that you truly felt you knew the main characters inside out and could identify with them throughout the story. This is an excellent read, ideal for fans of true thrillers and suspense stories – you won’t be disappointed.

First place, Chanticleer Paranormal Suspense:

ISLANDS by Sara Stamey – a contemporary thriller that combines the lure of the Caribbean with gritty reality.
When anthropologist Susan Dunne goes to a Caribbean island to investigate a mysterious stone carving, she finds that it is not only the ancient past that haunts her, but a ghost from her closest family.

Susan is drawn to the islands by a crumpled letter from her murdered brother, who before his death made a find that could lead her to academic fame. If she can locate his discovery, she may be able to prove that a petro-glyph hundreds of years old is of African origin, predating the incursion of Columbus to the Caribbean. The combination of her professional dreams and the nightmare of John’s violent killing quickly pull her into the bloody heart of the region’s notorious voodoo cult. Seeking an old, wise professor, Phillip Holte, who may know where to find the petro-glyphs, she is aided and at times thwarted by John’s grieving girlfriend Laura, and by John’s worst enemy, possibly his killer, Victor Manden.

With Vic dogging her tracks and Laura watching from the sidelines, Susan, perilously naïve concerning the secrets of the island people, believes she is close to her goal when she finds and is befriended by Phillip. But she continually ignores the warnings of those who know better than she the danger she’s in. Almost too late she realizes that someone she has trusted is a force for savagery and suffering, pulling her into a morass of occult horror beyond her worst imagining. Before her island visit is over, Susan will have to confront the most primitive aspects of her own nature.

Author Sara Stamey has lived some of what she has created in the fictional Islands: she is a world traveler, who, like Susan and her Caribbean companions, is an avid scuba diver. Stamey knows the region, colorfully painting the searing sunlight, the sparkling clear underwater world viewed by divers seeking buried treasure, the ubiquitous sweet and sometimes doctored rum drinks, and the tight, tense lines drawn between island “natives” (actually former slaves) and the “continentals,” the name given to the minority whites, former plantation masters now trying to cynically exploit their properties as a glitzy tourist trap.

Mystical, romantic, intellectually and viscerally stimulating, Islands deftly depicts a woman’s encounter with deadly lies and the chance for true and lasting love.

“Just a touch of turbulence, folks. Buckle up.” Maybe archeologist Susan Dunne should have heard the pilot’s voice over the speaker as a larger warning, about what lay ahead of her on the Islands of the Caribbean. Curl up with a hot mystery that’s set in a sunny, tourist mecca. Join this Pacific Northwest scientist as she digs deep into the culture, the history and the motives of current residents, within this garden paradise.
No stranger to investigating mysteries, Susan Dunne specializes in discovering and researching clues to discovering ancient petroglyphs and their associated history. These are boulders and rocks with primitive carvings. An intriguing dimension that enhances their allure is that many of the carved designs that are found worldwide are surprisingly similar. Susan is working on a theory and wants to consult with an anthropologist who was last reported to be hiding out in the Caribbean. She is on the hunt to find him and her search turns up some unexpected and ominous results.
But Susan also holds a secret of her own, the last letter from her dear brother. He recently drowned while living on this island as he was diving for treasure at a sunken ship that’s guarded by legendary voodoo, Jumbies, and a bloodthirsty cult. Susan wants to solve the mystery surrounding his death. She unlocks some most disturbing secrets and will need to face fears of her own in order to try to stop evil from overtaking her.
The history, legends and culture of the Caribbean are integrated delightfully within this suspenseful story. The characters and their passionate motivations are artfully revealed throughout the course of the plot. Descriptions of the luscious setting, both above and below waters, during adventurous scuba dive explorations, are to be savored.
The author, Sara Stamey, wrote an early draft of Islands when she was living in the Caribbean, working as a scuba instructor and guide. She originally wrote the book as a stand-alone novel. At the end she felt that the characters had more to tell, so she started a sequel set in Belize and Guatemala, where she has also spent time. Sara’s journeys include treasure hunting, backpacking worldwide, operating a nuclear reactor at Hanford, and owning a farm in Southern Chile. Returning to her home town in the Pacific Northwest, she taught creative writing at Western Washington University for several years.
This author has several other exciting books as well, including her most recent The Ariadne Connection, which is a science fiction thriller.

"A superior mystery and suspense novel with solid characters, some very spooky goings-on, and lots of wonderful writing... An intellectual thriller? Absolutely. It's a fast read, a stomping, vivid ride, the work of a woman who is passionate about lots of things."

Winner of the Genre Award