A gripping new novel inspired by a real place and events from the author’s family, Trouble Island is the standalone suspense debut from historical mystery writer Sharon Short.
 
Many miles from anywhere in the middle of Lake Erie, Trouble Island serves as a stop-o permanent home to two women: Aurelia Escalante, who servesff for gangsters as they run between America and Canada. The remote isle is also the as a maid to Rosita, lady of the mansion and wife to the notorious prohibition gangster, Eddie McGee. In the winter of 1932, the women anticipate the arrival of Eddie and his strange coterie: his right-hand man, a doctor, a cousin, a famous actor, and a rival gangster who Rosita believes murdered their only son.

Aurelia wants nothing more than to escape Trouble Island, but she is hiding a secret of her own. She is not a maid, but a gangster’s wife in hiding, and it has become clear that Rosita wants to keep Aurelia right where she is. When Rosita suddenly disappears, Aurelia plans her getaway, but instead finds Rosita’s body in the water. Then the group of criminals, celebrities, and scoundrels arrives, and an ice storm makes unexpected landfall, cutting Trouble Island off from both mainlands, and with more than one murderer among them.

Both a gripping locked room mystery, and a transporting, evocative portrait of a woman in crisis, Trouble Island marks the enthralling standalone suspense debut from Sharon Short, promising to be her breakout novel, inspired by a real island in Lake Erie, and true events from her own rich family history.
 
Contributor Bio(s)
 
SHARON SHORT is the author of fifteen published books. She is a contributing editor to Writer’s Digest, for which she writes the column, “Level Up Your Writing (Life)” and teaches for Writer’s Digest University. She is also a three-time recipient of the Individual Excellence Award in Literary Arts from Ohio Arts Council and has been a John E. Nance Writer in Residence at Thurber House (Columbus, Ohio). Sharon currently serves as President of the Midwest Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.