Publisher: Flatiron Books & MacMillan Audio
Release Day: March 4, 2025
Many thanks to Flatiron Books for a complimentary arc of this title and to MacMillan Audio for the audiobook. Opinions expressed are my own.
Review first published in Mystery & Suspense Magazine
From the beloved, New York Times bestselling author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves, a novel about a family living alone on a remote island, when a mysterious woman washes up on shore.
Review:
WILD DARK SHORE by Author Charlotte McConaghy is a hauntingly beautiful love letter to nature as well as a warning to those who habitually abuse her. McConaghy has a gift for lyrical prose that slides through you like a majestic bird gliding on air while delivering a punch to the gut with the power of angry waves crashing on the shore. WILD DARK SHORE is a story about the fight for survival by both humans and nature. It's a story about family, human nature and impossible choices. There's an air of imminent danger permeating each page throughout this story, so my advice is to get comfortable before beginning this hypnotic voyage because you won't feel safe and secure again before finishing. Shearwater Island (setting based off of Macquarie Island) is an isolated island near the Arctic Circle and home to the one of the world's last seed vaults (based on Svalbard Global Seed Vault) and its caretakers, Dominic Salt and his three children - eighteen year old Raff who doesn't understand or know how to control the rage brewing within him; Fen, seventeen, who prefers spending her nights on the beach among her beloved seals; and nine-year-old Orly who is obsessed with botany and the wonder of the natural world; and then there's Dominic, a man riddled with grief and guilt who's haunted by the ghost of his dead wife and completely at a loss as to how to hold his fractured family together. With sea levels rising daily, the team of researchers previously working on the island have all gone home, leaving the Salt family the sole occupants. Their mission now is to pack up the precious seeds for transport and be ready when the ship that comes every six months arrives to carry them to a safer place. The enraged sea threatening to swallow the island has other ideas.
During a terrifying storm, Fen drags a woman's body from the water and is startled to find her still clinging to life. The family nurses Rowan back to health as they tip toe around one another each guarding dark secrets. Who is the mysterious woman of the sea? Where did she come from? Why is she here? From Rowan's perspective, who is the Salt family? Why do they live here in isolation? What big secret are they guarding with their lives? For all of them, the biggest question is who smashed all the communications equipment on the island? Cut off from the rest of the world, things quickly escalate, and it becomes a fight for survival. Who will be left standing in the end?
Author Charlotte McConaghy sweeps readers away to discover one of earth's remaining wonders in a remote corner of the world, highlighting the dire consequences of climate change through captivating prose that beckons you into a breathtaking story impossible to turn away from. The story is rendered through short past/present chapters via multiple points of view that change with each chapter, allowing readers to feel, if not understand, each character's emotional turmoil. The short chapters and blunt change of point of view could be confusing, but through the author's skillful manipulation of story, character and reader, it serves to build the suspense through every twist and turn to a shocking climax. McConaghy's vivid prose brings the setting to life as another character, portraying all the beauty and wonder of an island that can turn deadly in a heartbeat with both known and unknown threats. The sense of extreme isolation emits claustrophobic, locked room type vibes with no hope of rescue in sight. The pace is driven by an ever-increasing sense of foreboding, a suspicion that all is not as it seems on the tiny island in the middle of nowhere. With a storm brewing both offshore and on, times running out. Who can be trusted with their lives?
WILD DARK SHORE is an epic, highly emotional story of a family and earth in crisis - a rollercoaster ride of feelings - love, loss, regret, guilt, shame, agonizing choices. The author's extensive, in-person research is evident in every lesson on nature, flawlessly woven into a mysterious, character driven story that's impossible to put down. The unmeasurable power of love with no limit and the fight for survival have never been portrayed more realistically than in WILD DARK SHORE. Author Charlotte McConaghy is a truly gifted writer, and I can't wait to learn what corner of the globe she takes on next. Highly recommended to fans of mysteries, suspense, and literary fiction. I also highly recommend the audio version of this title. Narrators Cooper Mortlock, Katherine Littrell, Saskia Maarleveld and Steve West combine to deliver an outstanding performance of WILD DARK SHORE. Their rendering of this story gave me chill bumps.
Synopsis:
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.
Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, can they trust each other enough to protect one another—and the precious seeds in their care? And can they finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together?
A novel of heart-stopping twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us is ending.
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.
Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, can they trust each other enough to protect one another—and the precious seeds in their care? And can they finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together?
A novel of heart-stopping twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us is ending.
