Trouble Island
In this atmospheric suspense novel inspired by the author’s own family history, a dangerous group of guests is stranded on a remote island in the middle of Lake Erie in 1932. Trouble Island used to serve as a way station for gangsters on the run between America and Canada, but it is now the home of Rosita, a former singer and the estranged wife of the dangerous bootlegger, Eddie McGee. Rosita’s maid-cum-companion is an accused murderess on the run, who now calls herself Aurelia Escalante. Even though it is freezing winter, Eddie, Rosita’s husband, arrives for a house party with an ill-assorted collection of guests, including Rosita’s identical cousin, a corrupt cop, a doctor, a famous actor, and a rival gangster who Rosita believes murdered their only son. Shortly after the group arrives, Rosita disappears. When Aurelia discovers Rosita’s body in the water, she realizes she is being set up for a second murder. Then an ice storm cuts Trouble Island off from the rest of civilization, and what begins as a gritty, hard-boiled take on gangster life turns into a classic golden age mystery.
Short’s command of the conflicting demands of the two genres can feel uneven. The story’s twists and turns are inventive, but they sometimes feel jarring in conjunction with the unflinching depiction of desperate, abused women in a society that offers them few options. But Trouble Island is well worth reading for the detailed portrait of the criminal underbelly of Depression-era Toledo.
