Jack Tartarus, a photographer, has returned to his family's house on Crab, an island off the east coast of Vancouver Island. After mulling it over for ten years, Jack has decided to tear his family's house down, board-by-board, just as his father built it up. He purchases a wrecking bar. Struggling with the first piece of siding, his wrecking bar jammed between ancient planks, it seems the house is determined to remain. The people on Crab Island are also angrily opposed to his plan--including his responsible sister, his self-centered niece, a beautiful woman he knew intimately long ago, and Turtle, the hardware store clerk and the island's self-proclaimed guardian. In a story about families and family history, Jack's calculated plans for demolition are fired by the memory of his parents and the other losses he has felt. Like the others who have retreated to Crab Island, Jack has come to a place where he must make peace with the house, in order to construct his future.

The Islands Investigations International team is back This time, Kyra Rachel and Noel Franklin are sleuthing around Quadra Island in the employ of Noel's old high school buddy, Jason Cooper. In a quiet wooded area of the island, Jason, his wife and two younger boys are worried for the oldest son in the family. Derek was discovered badly beaten in the woods by Campbell River and has remained in a deep coma for three weeks. Desperate to find out what happened to his son and why, Jason hires Noel and Kyra. As the two get to know the sleepy island community, they're surprised to discover that Derek may have been in on a drug deal--but why? Others in the community describe him as a decent young man with a good head on his shoulders--what could have possibly pushed him to deal in drugs? Kyra and Noel aren't even certain the drug deal is connected to the attack, so who would want to hurt this young man and why? Kyra and Noel are determined to find out what circumstances could have drawn this happy family into such dark territory. Also available in paperback.

The Islands Investigations International team is back This time, Kyra Rachel and Noel Franklin are sleuthing around Quadra Island in the employ of Noel's old high school buddy, Jason Cooper. In a quiet wooded area of the island, Jason, his wife, and two younger boys are worried for the oldest son in the family. Derek was discovered badly beaten in the woods by Campbell River and has remained in a deep coma for three weeks. Desperate to find out what happened to his son and why, Jason hires Noel and Kyra. As the two get to know the sleepy island community, they're surprised to discover that Derek may have been in on a drug deal--but why? Others in the community describe him as a decent young man with a good head on his shoulders--what could have possibly pushed him to deal in drugs? Kyra and Noel aren't even certain the drug deal is connected to the attack, so who would want to hurt this young man and why? Kyra and Noel are determined to find out what circumstances could have drawn this happy family into such dark territory. Also available in hardcover.

Sandro Vasiliadis, a nurse at the Whidbey Island General Hospital, has died of an apparent heroin overdose. When his grieving mother bends over to kiss her son's corpse at the viewing, she shrieks, "That's not Sandro " Convinced that her son must still be alive, Maria Vasiliadis hires Kyra Rachel and Noel Franklin to solve the mystery. With questions of foul play continuing to swirl around the death, the detectives' inquiries lead them deeper into Sandro's life and eventually to a medical clinic that specializes in transgendering. The second in the Islands Investigations International Mystery series, "Always Kiss the Corpse" takes Kyra and Noel's investigation from the rush of Seattle to the seeming peace of the San Juan Islands in this thrilling page-turner. It's only once the detectives come to understand Sandro in life that they unlock the secret to his death. Also available in hardcover.

Rose Gill Marchand, a paraplegic, brilliant botanist and co-owner, with her husband, of Eaglenest Gallery on Gabriola Island, finds the body of Roy Dempster, their gardener, sprawled dead on the gallery grounds. An RCMP investigation ensues, without immediate success. Upset by a suggestive gossipy article about the murder in the local paper, Rose's husband, Artemus, calls on Noel Franklin, an ex-investigative reporter living in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, and asks him to find evidence that will eliminate the spreading rumours. Noel agrees to start looking into it and asks his long-time friend Kyra Rachel an insurance investigator from Bellingham, Washington, to assist him. As Noel and Kyra's inquiry proceeds, they discover that islands like Gabriola hide secrets far more mysterious than murder, far more dangerous than gossip, as each investigator falls prey to the depravity of those they need to trust. This is the first novel in George Szanto and Sandy Frances Duncan's "Islands Investigations International" detective novel series.