Christina is passionate about crime fiction and, when she’s not scribbling, can be found immersed in an Agatha Christie novel.

In An Island Lost, Vilia Lea’s estranged mother dies leaving her an intriguing inheritance—a remote island on the tip of Papua New Guinea and a series of tantalising clues to the disappearance of Vilia’s father 30 years before.

Thus begins an enthralling family mystery that sweeps Vilia from the streets of Manhattan to the wilds of the Pacific. Along the journey she discovers what true love and family really mean.

Sipping latté in a New York café, Vilia is not surprised to hear her mother has drowned herself back home in Australia but she is shocked to learn she has inherited a tropical island with its strange clues.

Reluctantly, Vilia is swept out of her fastidious Manhattan lifestyle and into the wild unpredictability of remote Tubu Island.

Vilia follows a series of clues to uncover the truth about her father’s disappearance. Did he run off with the missing haus girl? Fall foul to a tragic accident? Or was there something darker, more sinister?

Along her journey, Vilia encounters proud headhunters, eccentric expatriates and an elusive witchdoctor with a story to tell. But is it a story she is willing to hear?

In this tale of discovery, Christina Larmer shows how searching for the truth far outweighs burying your head in the sand and hiding safely away.