Lynne Marie Taylor

I’m often asked where the idea for Death on the Island came from.

It started with a place.

On my many trips to Malta I kept seeing this haunting building on Manoel Island – the old Lazzaretto, once used to quarantine travellers arriving by sea. You can spot its arches from Valletta and from the ferry to Sliema, and I couldn’t stop wondering about the stories locked inside those walls.

Imagine being a first-class passenger on a grand steamship, almost home from Bombay – only to be marched into quarantine because someone on board has died of cholera.

Strangers thrown together. Fear in the air. Nowhere to escape.

And then… a murder.

That single “what if?” became the spark for the whole novel.

Death on the Island is published on February 25 – and I can’t wait to finally share it with you.