If you’re looking for a blood-soaked vacation, then my fourth novel Island Red is back in print and better than ever. Oh, and it’s available now!
Originally published in the summer of 2016, Island Red was on a hard and fast deadline to hit a specific release date. As such, I had to make a few hurried decisions in terms of excising certain scenes that I realized later on should not have been cut. While I’ve always been proud of the book’s over-the-top narrative, some of those concessions have bothered me in the six years since the book was released.
A few of the character arcs were grossly shortchanged, though I also regretted snipping one of my favorite gags involving a desperate islander’s attempt to swim off the ill-fated island.
I’ve gone back and restored some of that cut material, though I was careful to do it without sacrificing the pacing that has made Island Red such a popular book among readers all over the world (it was translated into German and I’m still getting fanmail asking me to expand the mythos).
That’s why this new edition also includes a 2022 short story called “A Soul to Cling to” that takes place a few years after the events of the novel. At one time, my original publisher wanted a sequel and while I did create a loose outline, the idea never got off the ground. I didn’t think I could return to this well without repeating myself.
This edition of Island Red also sports an original cover design created and painted by the brilliant Justin T. Coons. Happy to say he more than delivered:
Whether you’re grabbing this book for the first time, or you’ve already taken a trip to Crystal Key, Florida, there’s plenty of surprises in store for you so buckle up and make your choice below:
VACATION IS ABOUT TO GET BLOODY!
Crystal Key is the perfect island getaway… until a frilled shark turns the waters around it into a feeding ground. That’s just the start of the carnage, because whatever has made this docile creature into a bloodthirsty predator is also out to get the island’s residents. An alien parasite that transforms friends and family into mindless, murderous husks. When a hurricane descends, a teenage boy, his estranged father, and a low-level gangster must band together to escape the extraterrestrial onslaught. But how do you flee from a horror that can attack from above and below? Everyone is dying to figure it out.
ISLAND RED — terror to the last gasp.