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I'm a British-Australian author who lived in the Canary Islands in the 1980s. I wrote A Prison in the Sun to honour and remember those men imprisoned under General Franco’s regime because they were gay. On Fuerteventura, where this story is set, prison conditions were brutal and likened to a concentration camp. To the best of my knowledge, nothing substantial about this prison has been written in English. All of my research I conducted in Spanish. In 2008 the story of the prison broke after professor Miguel Ángel Sosa Machín interviewed prison survivor Octavia Garcia. I have known of the prison’s existence since 1989, when I lived in Lanzarote and my close friends from the island told me what went on there.
I have purposefully juxtaposed life in the prison with that of the present day, counterpointing the gravity of the prisoners’ situation with a touch of bathos in the main narrative, striving not only for balance, but also to entice reflection on who we were, who we are, and where we want to be.
A Prison in the Sun is my fourth Canary Islands’ novel and was written in keeping with that narrative style.
I offer the story in all sincerity.
Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite
A Prison In The Sun is a work of mystery fiction with plenty of intrigue and was penned by author Isobel Blackthorn. Forming the third book of the Canary Islands Mysteries series, this installment focuses on the difficulties facing ghostwriter Trevor Moore. Desperate to find his muse, the young writer takes up in a farmhouse in Fuerteventura, but no sooner than he’s landed there, trouble rears its head. After uncovering a huge sack of cash that seems to have no owner, Trevor is sent down the rabbit hole of a story that goes back to the fifties and sixties, where he discovers the ugly truth about the Franco regime, and how the island was used to persecute gay men for nothing other than being themselves.
Author Isobel Blackthorn explores many intelligent themes throughout this fascinating work, which gives a true literary quality to the cozy island mystery genre. As one might expect from a literary title, the story starts slowly and establishes Trevor’s character well, outlining the reasons why he is suddenly on his own and down in the dumps as he seeks solace in a Canary Islands break. Having been to Fuerteventura many times, I loved the description of the island itself and the history surrounding it, and the uncovering of both the prison and mystery elements of the plot was really well constructed and poignant in its presentation. Overall, A Prison In The Sun is an excellent work of mystery fiction for those who want to devour a literary sensation over a longer period.
