Island

This absorbing adventure should reap even more raves than did Perry's award-winner, The Butcher's Boy, and its successors. Exciting, funny and moving moments blend in events set afoot by Harry and Emma Erskine, abetted by fellow con artists. Flying from a mobster Harry cheated, the couple land in Miami where they enlist a Caribbean smuggler, Lord Carnavaron, in a new scam. Aboard his boat, the three travel to various locales where they recruit other partners on the way to Harry's objective, an uninhabited island far off the shipping lanes. The companions turn the place into an exotic attraction for wealthy vacationers who fulfill Harry's dream of the riches he and his friends intend to accumulate. But they have established the island as an independent country, home to uprooted Caribbeans, and its affluence draws the attention of secret government agencies as well as the Mafia. Here the story builds into unexpected, irresistible dimensions. As armies attempt to take over the country, the author intensifies our feelings for his beguiling group, roguesrogues in name only. (March)