Hi, everyone!
I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review today on the release of Isobel Blackthorn’s A PRISON IN THE SUN (Canary Islands Mysteries Book 3).
Below you will find a message from the author, a book blurb, my book review and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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A Message from the Author:
I wrote A Prison in the Sun to honour and remember all those men imprisoned under General Franco’s regime because they were gay. On Fuerteventura, where this story is set, prison conditions were brutal and likened to a concentration camp. To the best of my knowledge, nothing substantial about this prison has been written in English. All of my research I conducted in Spanish. In 2008 the story of the prison broke after professor Miguel Ángel Sosa Machín interviewed prison survivor, Octavia Garcia. I have known of the prison’s existence since 1989, when I lived in Lanzarote and my close friends from the island told me what went on there.
I have purposefully juxtaposed life in the prison with that of the present day, counterpointing the gravity of the prisoners’ situation with a touch of bathos in the main narrative, striving not only for balance, but also to entice reflection on who we were, who we are, and where we want to be.
A Prison in the Sun is my fourth Canary Islands’ novel and was written in keeping with that narrative style.
I offer the following story in all sincerity.
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Book Blurb:
After millennial ghostwriter Trevor Moore rents an old farmhouse in Fuerteventura, he moves in to find his muse.
Instead, he discovers a rucksack filled with cash. Who does it belong to – and should he hand it in… or keep it?
Struggling to make up his mind, Trevor unravels the harrowing true story of a little-known concentration camp that incarcerated gay men in the 1950s and 60s.
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My Book Review:
RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars
A PRISON IN THE SUN (Canary Islands Mysteries Book 3) by Isobel Blackthorn is a literary book with two mystery subplots; one past and one present featuring a millennial ghostwriter questioning his sexuality. This book is easily read as a standalone. I have not read the previous books and I believe the series is based more on the location than the characters.
Trevor Moore has made a decent living as a freelance ghostwriter, but after a difficult divorce two years ago he has been personally stagnant. He has lost his identity as a househusband and full-time father. Now his bi-sexual ex-wife is remarrying her girlfriend and he is struggling with his own sexuality.
Trevor decides to rent a farmhouse on Fuerteventura an island in the Canary Islands chain to work on his own novel. He is tired of producing for others and receiving no credit. The farmhouse is next door to a hostel that he learns was once a labor camp for gay men during the Franco regime. While it seems like an interesting bit of history to base a story on; it also seems too depressing.
On a trip into seaside caves, Trevor finds a backpack. No one on the beach claims it. When he gets it home and opens it, it is full of a large amount of cash and a packet of old handwritten pages. While he struggles with his conscious on whether to turn in the money or not, a body washes up on the beach a few days later. He also discovers the packet of pages is a personal account from a prisoner from the labor camp.
Can Trevor use the personal account to bring the story of the labor camp to life in his own words? And what of the dead body and the decision to be made about the backpack?
This was a very different type of book for me because it was more literary than genre mystery. The author intertwined the past and present mystery subplots equally throughout. Both were interesting and intriguing. There is a lot of emphasis on Trevor questioning his sexuality which I can understand with the tie into the labor camp, but I did not feel it was necessary as many times as it appeared throughout the book. The ending is abrupt and leaves you with many questions which was frustrating for this genre lover who wants everything tied up at the end, but it is what you would expect in a literary work.
This book is a bit out of my comfort zone, but it is well written and worth the read.
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Author Bio:
Isobel Blackthorn is an award-winning author of unique and engaging fiction. She writes dark psychological thrillers, mysteries, and contemporary and literary fiction. On the dark side are Twerk, The Cabin Sessions and The Legacy of Old Gran Parks. Her Canary Islands’ collection begins with The Drago Tree and includes A Matter of Latitude and Clarissa’s Warning. Her interest in the occult is explored in The Unlikely Occultist: A biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey and the dark mystery A Perfect Square. Even her first novel, Asylum, contains a touch of the magical. Isobel is at work on her fourth Canary Islands’ novel, a sweeping historical work based on her own family history. Her short story, ‘Lacquer’, appears in the esteemed A Time for Violence anthology. Isobel is currently at work on a full non fiction biography of Alice A. Bailey.
Isobel was shortlisted for the Ada Cambridge Prose Prize 2019, for her biographical short story, ‘Nothing to Declare’. The Legacy of Old Gran Parks is the winner of the Raven Awards 2019.
Isobel writes non fiction too. Her writing appears in journals and websites around the world, including New Dawn Magazine, Paranoia, Mused Literary Review, Backhand Stories, Fictive Dream and On Line Opinion.
Isobel’s interests are many and varied. A humanitarian and campaigner for social justice, in 1999 Isobel founded the internationally acclaimed Ghana Link, uniting two high schools, one a relatively privileged state school located in the heart of England, the other a materially impoverished school in a remote part of the Upper Volta region of Ghana, West Africa.
Isobel has a background in Western Esotericism and she’s a qualified Astrologer. She holds a PhD from the University of Western Sydney, for her ground-breaking research on the works of Theosophist Alice A. Bailey, the ‘Mother of the New Age.’ After working as a teacher, market trader, and PA to a literary agent, she arrived at writing in her forties, and her stories are as diverse and intriguing as her life has been.
Isobel performs her literary works at events in a range of settings, gives workshops in creative writing, and writes book reviews. Her reviews have appeared in Shiny New Books, Sisters in Crime, Australian Women Writers, Trip Fiction and Newtown Review of Books. She talks regularly about books and writing on radio, in Australia, and on occasion in the UK and USA and Canary Islands.
British by birth, Isobel entered this world in Farnborough, Kent, as Yvonne Margaret Grimble. She has since been Yvonne Rodgers, before changing her name completely in 1996 to Isobel Schofield. After a number of years as Isobel Wightman, she is now very happily and permanently Isobel Blackthorn. Isobel has lived in England, Australia, Spain and the Canary Islands. She now lives on Australia’s southern coast with her cat, Psyche. You can find out more about her other achievements here.
Author Social Media Links:
https://isobelblackthorn.com/
https://www.facebook.com.Lovesick.Isobel.Blackthorn/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5768657.Isobel_Blackthorn
https://www.instagram.com/isobelblackthorn/
