Legacy of the Tropics

Stories that shatter the myths of stereotypical islands of paradise; a rewrite and expansion of the novel, “The Tropics,” where two women fall prey to nature's wrath during inclement tropical weather, face death at sea, and are tested to the limits of survival.


In “Promises,” during the late 1960s, the ketch, Mercy, sinks during a sea storm off Culebra near the Virgin Islands. Ciara Malloy assumes custody of her drowned fiancé’s son and learns a devastating secret about the boy that changes her life forever. In “Adrift,” in the late 1990s, underwater photographer Lillian Avery gets caught in a rip current and swept out to sea off Kauai in Hawaii. In facing death, she finds a way to leave a message behind. Years later, in “Reunion,” the two former neighbors from Puerto Rico reunite on Kauai. A hurricane wreaks island-wide havoc. Ciara is missing, presumed dead. Among the rubble, Lillian finds Ciara’s memoirs; a life history that threatens to expose secrets tightly held since the sinking of the Mercy.