Book Review: The Island Off Stony Point

Reviewed By: Pat Reid - RAM

The Island Off Stony Point     Amazon US TPB Amazon Canada TPB
Regis Schilken
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Kidnapping   FBI
Bridgeway Books, 2006, 216 pps.

Keith Sinteris and his wife Malena devise a very complicated scheme to steal the basilica tabernacle from a Catholic monastery and kidnap some monks in order to extort millions of dollars from the Catholic Church. A young man called Stony, Duane Wedick and Bartolo assist Sinteris and Malena. Bartolo made most of the arrangements for transportation and get away and he showed a lot of talent in this department.

Malena was really the brains behind the plan, which was devised not only to line the pockets of Keith and Malena and their gang but also to help her sister, Cynthia, out of a jam she had gotten into at the large company where she worked. Cynthia had used funds from the company where she worked that she did not have permission to use and the money needed to be put back immediately.

The heist went wrong from the first. The three monks were kidnapped but other monks were killed during the robbery.

The story dwells a lot on the kindness of Stony to the three monks who are kidnapped. The hideaway where the monks are kept is difficult to reach and it is hard for the reader to believe such a place could ever exist and if it does exist that the kidnappers would have the ability to come and go as they did in this book.

The conversations between the members of the gang, the police officers and the FBI all seemed rather stilted to me and did not read smoothly. The end left the reader up in the air about several aspects of the case.

I think the writer has potential and I would be willing to read another book by this author but I don’t feel that I can give a higher rating on this particular book.

Pat Reid - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Pat Reid - RAM