The Island

April 1, 2022
An American family's trip to see koalas and Australian wildlife becomes a life-and-death situation after they kill an innocent woman in a car crash and her family seeks revenge. Tom, 44; his second wife, Heather, 24; and his kids, Olivia, 14, and Owen, 12, are in Australia, piggybacking a family vacation onto a business trip. After a difficult year that saw the death of Tom's first wife and his marriage to Heather--whom the kids dislike--a group trip seems like a way to bring them all together. Renting a car to drive to the coast in search of interesting animals seems like a fun excursion. But while stopping at a roadside stand for food, the family gets to talking with some local people, and they end up on a tiny ferry to a remote private island in search of the wildlife they haven't yet seen. Once on the island, one thing leads to another, and Tom, driving too fast, hits a woman on a bike, killing her instantly. Over several generations, the family that lives on the island has become a law unto itself, and after realizing that the woman is dead, they seek retribution--whether it will be via death, rape, or cash is to be decided by Ma, the head of the family, and Danny, the husband of the woman who's been killed. Some elements of the survival story feel more like convenient plot points than believable developments, and the writing is occasionally overwrought as McKinty seeks to make weighty statements about life, death, and spiritual links to the natural world, but on the whole, McKinty has written an exciting thriller that follows Heather and the others as they seek to run, hide, and survive the elements until the police--whom they have no way of contacting--can arrive. An engaging thriller that, despite some flaws, contains storytelling that pulls readers compulsively onward.

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Starred review from April 18, 2022
Deliverance meets The Road Warrior in this harrowing survival thriller set in Australia from bestseller McKinty (The Chain). Heather, a 24-year-old Seattle massage therapist, has recently married surgeon Tom Baxter, a widower who’s 20 years her senior. She’s also taken on the responsibility of caring for Tom’s children, 14-year-old Olivia and 12-year-old Owen. Olivia and Owen view Heather as “too young to be a real mom,” and Heather agrees. When Tom is invited to give the keynote speech at a medical conference in Melbourne, he packs up the family, saying they can make a mini vacation of the trip. Given the incessant demands of the kids to see koalas and kangaroos, Tom agrees to pay an exorbitant sum to take a ferry to a small private island, which turns out to be the home of the unsavory O’Neil family. A penknife Heather received as a gift from an Aboriginal man on the mainland comes in handy after an accidental road death leads the vengeful O’Neils to target the Baxters. How Heather and the children wind up pooling their abilities to stay alive against all odds makes for an exhilarating ride. McKinty is a master of suspense. Agent: Shane Salerno, Story Co.

September 1, 2022

Heather Baxter has always wanted to travel the world, and when her rich new husband whisks her off to Australia for a trip with his two children, it's a dream come true. That dream, however, quickly becomes a nightmare after a deadly car crash makes them the target of a manhunt by a family of Australian locals. Isolated on the family's private island, Heather must rely on skills she learned from her parents to survive the brutal wilderness and barbaric O'Neill clan. Author McKinty (The Chain) delivers a fast-paced thriller that will have readers on the edge of their seats. Alternating points of view and muddled inner monologues help maintain the atmospheric tension. McKinty uses rich detail to engross readers in a narrative as chilling as the Australian summer is hot. Narrator Mela Lee gives a captivating performance with a variety of convincing accents, bolstered by a smattering of sound effects, including gunshots. VERDICT This audio will appeal to listeners seeking a sinister and suspenseful tale of survival, an adrenaline-fueled story of the lengths one would go to for family; recommended for fans of Candice Fox, Alice Feeney, and Rachel Hawkins.--Lauren Hackert

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Starred review from March 15, 2022
McKinty's The Chain (2019) ran the table in terms of sales and critical acclaim, and now he's delivered another knockout stand-alone. A trip to Australia seemed like an opportunity for Tom Baxter, a Seattle doctor, and his new wife, the much-younger Heather, to help Tom's two teen children, Owen and Olivia, get over the death of their mother only a year ago. First mistake: in search of koalas, they pay a scruffy group of men, part of the O'Neill clan, to ferry them to the isolated Dutch Island. Second mistake: Tom, driving too fast, runs over a young woman. Third mistake: they hide the body and try to escape before the creepy O'Neills figure out what happened. Of course, they're captured, and after Tom is knifed by the dead woman's husband, Heather, Owen, and Olivia hightail it into the forbidding landscape surrounding the O'Neill compound. Fortunately, they have resources they don't immediately recognize: Heather knows a thing or two about survival, and the kids are both whip smart, if only they could stop hating Heather. The chase that ensues under the blistering Australian sun is expertly choreographed and breathlessly exciting, but the novel hits another level entirely through McKinty's portrayal of the developing relationship between Heather and the teens (whom she initially didn't want in her life anymore than they wanted her). The family-in-peril story is a familiar trope, but here both the peril and the family are like no other.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The Chain was McKinty's breakthrough novel in 2019, and this one, accompanied by a major national media campaign, could be every bit as big.

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