Island Madness by
Tim Binding

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It is 1943, and the German army has been defeated at Stalingrad. The Russians have taken 91,000 prisoners; 145,000 German soldiers have been killed. The tide is beginning to turn. But on Guernsey and the rest of the Channel Islands, the only British territory to have been occupied by German troops, such a reversal is unimaginable. Here in idyllic surroundings, the reality of war seems a lifetime away. While resentment runs high, life goes on, parties are held, love affairs blossom and the Guernsey Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Society stages productions of Private Lives, Babes in the Wood and Peter Pan - albeit with suspiciously jackbooted pirates. But when a young local woman is found murdered, both the islanders and the Occupiers come to realise that this idyll cannot last. As food becomes scarce, and the war turns sour, island madness begins to grip them all.
Tim Binding was born in Germany in 1947. He is the author of In the Kingdom of Air, published by Jonathan Cape, and A Perfect Execution, published by Picador. He lives in Kent with his wife and daughter.

Here's what the members of the Reading Group based at our Raheny branch library think of Island Madness:

This murder mystery is set in Guernsey in the early 1940's during the Nazi Occupation. The diverse strands existing on the island are interwoven in the compelling story of a young woman, the daughter of a wealthy construction mogul, whose body is found on one of the many bunker type fortifications dotting the coast. The possible suspects range from German soldiers, to locals resentful of the widespread fraternising by local girls with the Nazi forces, to the forced labour gangs of foreign prisoners of varying nationalities brought in to build the fortifications. The wartime conditions are well observed, from the severe rationing and curfew imposed on the islanders, to the near starvation diet and appalling living conditions meted out to the foreign prisoners in stark contrast with the high living and reckless behaviour of the occupying army. How to survive the abnormal world of Occupation with or without honour or self-respect is handled in different ways by different people. Ned Landscombe, the reluctant head of the local police (all three of them!) has to decide how to deal with the local black marketeers who are essentially exploiting their own people, knowing as well the kind of punishment they will suffer at the hands of their German overlords. There is also the ultimately tragic figure of Van Dielan, the master builder who in some warped way sees his vision of grand engineering works fulfilled by collaborating with the Germans. As in many thrillers the final denouement is a little implausible and somewhat rushed. Yet the book has more to offer than the average thriller and is well worth reading. (Member of Raheny Library Reading Group)