Smoke Island

When a flight from Mauritius to Perth crash lands into the sea, the chances of survival are slim.

But stranded on a little rescue dinghy in the middle of the vast ocean, there are eight passengers and one crew member who have survived the deadly incident.

Huddled together in unwanted intimacy and fearful danger, the survivors include an African M.P., a Transvaal farmer, an embittered Englishman from Kenya, a man hell-bent on personal advantage, a London clerk and a rich industrialist, now far from the security and splendour of his City boardroom.

There are women in the dinghy, too. A plain and man-hungry university lecturer; a young air hostess; and a Mauritian woman of great beauty.

Finding themselves in a life or death situation, the group must fight to survive as they are washed ashore on a coral island.

As the weeks turn to months, their chances of rescue grow slimmer.

The tantalising smoke spirals on the horizon seem to promise the chance of rescue, yet they are almost as distant and elusive as the world of civilisation.

In a world far removed from anything they have ever known, these strangers must learn to survive in a harsh environment with people they hardly know, who can turn on them at any moment...

A thrilling, tense novel of survival and human relationships from a bestselling author.

"Exciting" The Daily Telegraph

Antony Trew (1906 - 1996) had three careers: sailor, business executive, writer. The first was the sea. Returning to it during World War II he served with the South African and Royal Navies in the South Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Western Approaches where he commanded the escort destroyer HMS Walker, principally employed on Russian convoys. He was awarded the DSC.
After the war he resumed his work with the Automobile Association of South Africa of which he was Director General and in his spare time wrote Two Hours to Darkness; published by Collins in 1963 it was an immediate bestseller — over 3,500,000 copies printed in 16 languages. On the strength of it he retired early and embarked on a third and highly successful career as a writer.


Genre: Mystery