Spy Island

After the death of her parents in 1916, Abigail Maduro is sent to the Danish West Indies to live with her Aunt Esther, a bad tempered spinster, and her houseful of eccentric servants. Despite the island's veneer of tranquility, St. Thomas is a hotbed of German spies and saboteurs who use their Hamburg-America Line steamers to aid the Kaiser's war effort. When a mysterious stranger suddenly appears in town, Abigail is drawn into the conflict. In the soft-spoken, scholarly Erich Seibold, she finds the friendship she has been craving, even after she learns that Erich is really a deserter from a German U-boat. Their idyllic interlude comes to a crashing halt when the island's German consul also discovers Erich's identity and blackmails him into committing sabotage and murder. After a melee involving the Danish governor, Erich is thrown into prison and Abigail must choose between her safety and Erich's life. Action and adventure abound in this colorful historical novel that brings to life a fading West Indian sugar colony in the last days of Danish rule.