I mentioned Trouble Island in December’s Treasures in My Closet post. I said I picked it up because it was set on an island in Lake Erie, and my hometown is on that lake. I also knew Sharon Short also writes as Jess Montgomery As Montgomery, she writes the Kinship mysteries set in the 1920s, and inspired by Ohio’s first female sheriff.

When Rosita McGee helped Aurelia Escalante escape to Trouble Island in 1929, a Canadian island in Lake Erie, Aurelia thought it was as a friend. Now, in the winter of 1932, she’s still working as a maid for Rosita, with no hope of leaving. She plans to steal a boat, but just before she does, she sees the Myra approaching. The flying flag indicates Rosita’s husband, gangster and bootlegger Eddie McGee, is on board.

It’s late in the winter season, but Eddie has an entourage of other gangsters, celebrities and bodyguards. He’s insistent that Rosita sell the island, but she refuses saying she won’t sell to the man she blames for the death of her only son. When Aurelia takes her daily swim in the freezing lake waters, she finds Rosita’s body tied under a pier. Aurelia is determined to find the killer while trying to hold onto her own secret, that she killed her gangster husband in 1929. But, a winter storm traps everyone on Trouble Island where they all face accusations of murder.

Short masters the descriptions of the fierce winter lake in an atmospheric suspense novel of murder, gangsters, and desperation.

Sharon Short’s website is https://www.sharonshort.com/.

Trouble Island by Sharon Short. Minotaur Books, 2024. ISBN 9781250292841 (hardcover), 336p.

FTC Full Disclosure – The publisher sent a review copy of the book, with no promise of a review.