“an excellent work of mystery fiction” – Readers’ Favorite
“beautiful and unique” – Jessica Belmont
“great storytelling” – Nurse Bookie
Award-winning Finalist in the fiction: LGBTQ category of the 2020 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards and the 2021 International Book Awards.
About A Prison in the Sun
After millennial ghostwriter Trevor Moore rents an old farmhouse in Fuerteventura, he moves in to find his muse.
Instead, he discovers a rucksack filled with cash. Who does it belong to – and should he hand it in… or keep it?
Struggling to make up his mind, Trevor unravels the harrowing true story of a little-known concentration camp that incarcerated gay men in the 1950s and 60s.
Available in paperback and Large Print paperback Audiobook and Kindle, and also available in Spanish translation http://mybook.to/prisonsun
Read why Readers’ Favorite gave A Prison in the Sun 5 STARS!
“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.” – K.C. Finn
Why I wrote A Prison in the Sun
I wrote A Prison in the Sun to honour and remember all 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 following story in all sincerity.
Read a selection of reviews of A Prison in the Sun here
Read my blog post on the challenges I faced in the creation of A Prison in the Sun here
Isobel Blackthorn 