Devils Island

An island tour off the coast of Australia turns into a bizarre locked-room mystery in this suspenseful outing from Yunker (The Tourist Trail) and Raymond (My Last Continent). Marbury Island has become known as Devils Island thanks to a successful program to breed endangered Tasmanian devils on its shores. Kerry, a naturalist who spearheaded the efforts to save the devils, takes a job with a Marbury tour company after tiring of her arduous, emotionally taxing work with the devils. Her first group consists of six guests, and not long after they land on Marbury—which is uninhabited except for a park ranger who lives there part-time—a member of their party disappears. Things go from bad to worse when Kerry discovers unidentified human remains on a trail, with wounds suggesting the victim was mauled by a pack of Tasmanian devils. Soon, however, simmering tensions within the tour group convince Kerry there’s a murderer in their midst. Then someone else dies, and a storm isolates the group from the mainland. Yunker and Raymond keep their feet on the gas, enriching the familiar setup with the grimly fun possibility that the “killer” is a band of ravenous marsupials. This is one nightmare vacation worth taking. (Sept.)