We all have dreams about finding the perfect alternate life. We close our eyes and imagine that we’re no longer inside the confines of our regular, humdrum existence, but rather basking in the sun on a deserted island. Free. Maybe we can even hear the wind in the sails of our pleasure boat? Smell the suntan oil on our skin?

Jacob Stahl, an ordinary guy weighted down by a loveless marriage and obligations to his luckless brother Manny, has dreams like these. Their father, a car salesman with criminal aspirations, has just been found murdered. Manny leans on him to sell the estate, so they can both get out. Start afresh. But something makes Jacob hesitate. He wants to invest the money to stay put, and make his tiny map store in Brooklyn something extraordinary.

The last thing Jacob remembers is going to his father’s wake. When he wakes up inside the cargo hold of a strange ship, he has no idea how he ended up drugged and chained to the wall. Someone has paid the crew to make him disappear.

Saved by a female crew member, Jacob washes ashore on a small Caribbean island. It looks just like his fantasy. Waving palms. Azure-blue water. And nobody in sight. In a cruel twist of fate, he now has the life he wanted for so long. His former existence has been erased. And to make matters worse, he learns that a murder charge hangs over his head if he returns. The Coast Guard is looking for him. And so are the people who still want him dead...

First published by Politiken Forlag, Denmark, 2008.
311 pages.

Denmark, Politiken Forlag

Moerk has written an outstanding thriller
Politikens newspaper