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The Carroway chronicles #1
The Curious Trial of Josiah Wren: An Honest Deception from Carroway Island
On the marsh island of Carroway, people notice things—and once they do, nothing stays small for long.
Josiah Wren is a quiet craftsman who spends his days shaping wooden belaying pins in a shed behind his home. Useful work. Careful work. The kind of work that is not supposed to attract attention.
But when a hidden sack of his handcrafted pins is discovered in a cupboard, the island begins doing what it does it starts talking.
What begins as curiosity quickly turns into interpretation, then certainty. Rumors move through church pews, ferry docks, kitchens, and front porches, growing more convincing with each retelling—until no one can quite remember where the story started, or what it was originally supposed to mean.
As Carroway Island quietly reorganizes itself around a shared misunderstanding, Josiah remains silent. The story does not.
Darkly humorous, atmospheric, and sharply observant, The Curious Trial of Josiah Wren is a literary satire about rumor, interpretation, and the strange momentum of collective belief.
Perfect for readers who
dark humor with a dry, understated tonesmall-town and island communities with secretsliterary fiction with a satirical edgemysteries where everyone is certain—and everyone is wrongIf you like character-driven stories that start quietly and end in escalating social chaos, Carroway Island is waiting.
Josiah Wren is a quiet craftsman who spends his days shaping wooden belaying pins in a shed behind his home. Useful work. Careful work. The kind of work that is not supposed to attract attention.
But when a hidden sack of his handcrafted pins is discovered in a cupboard, the island begins doing what it does it starts talking.
What begins as curiosity quickly turns into interpretation, then certainty. Rumors move through church pews, ferry docks, kitchens, and front porches, growing more convincing with each retelling—until no one can quite remember where the story started, or what it was originally supposed to mean.
As Carroway Island quietly reorganizes itself around a shared misunderstanding, Josiah remains silent. The story does not.
Darkly humorous, atmospheric, and sharply observant, The Curious Trial of Josiah Wren is a literary satire about rumor, interpretation, and the strange momentum of collective belief.
Perfect for readers who
dark humor with a dry, understated tonesmall-town and island communities with secretsliterary fiction with a satirical edgemysteries where everyone is certain—and everyone is wrongIf you like character-driven stories that start quietly and end in escalating social chaos, Carroway Island is waiting.
344 pages, Hardcover
Published June 16, 2026
About the author
Robert Gill Jr.
9 books88 followersCARROWAY ISLAND — A LITERARY WORLD
Carroway Island is a fictional Chesapeake Bay community where history, folklore, and everyday life blend into a single continuous story. It is a place shaped by tide and tradition, where watermen, families, and long-held island customs define both the landscape and the people who call it home.
Across novels, chronicles, almanacs, cookbooks, and island guides, the Carroway Island series explores a world of interconnected stories—some humorous, some reflective, and some shaped by the moral complexities of small communities. Each book reveals a different aspect of the island and the lives of those who inhabit it.
From maritime traditions and local legends to island histories and coastal life, these stories are rooted in place. Carroway Island is not just a setting, but a shared world of memory, identity, and narrative continuity.
Readers are invited to explore the island in any order.
Robert Gill Jr. is an author and publisher whose work focuses on coastal communities, maritime traditions, and the lived experience of place.
He writes both fiction and nonfiction, often exploring how ordinary lives carry unexpected depth and meaning. His work spans historical and literary fiction, food science, and practical knowledge, unified by an interest in how people shape—and are shaped by—the worlds they inhabit.
He lives in New Jersey with his wife and continues to write stories grounded in history, atmosphere, and community life.
Carroway Island is a fictional Chesapeake Bay community where history, folklore, and everyday life blend into a single continuous story. It is a place shaped by tide and tradition, where watermen, families, and long-held island customs define both the landscape and the people who call it home.
Across novels, chronicles, almanacs, cookbooks, and island guides, the Carroway Island series explores a world of interconnected stories—some humorous, some reflective, and some shaped by the moral complexities of small communities. Each book reveals a different aspect of the island and the lives of those who inhabit it.
From maritime traditions and local legends to island histories and coastal life, these stories are rooted in place. Carroway Island is not just a setting, but a shared world of memory, identity, and narrative continuity.
Readers are invited to explore the island in any order.
Robert Gill Jr. is an author and publisher whose work focuses on coastal communities, maritime traditions, and the lived experience of place.
He writes both fiction and nonfiction, often exploring how ordinary lives carry unexpected depth and meaning. His work spans historical and literary fiction, food science, and practical knowledge, unified by an interest in how people shape—and are shaped by—the worlds they inhabit.
He lives in New Jersey with his wife and continues to write stories grounded in history, atmosphere, and community life.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 2, 2026
During the 19th Century on Chesapeake Bay’s Carroway Island, Josiah Wren was known “for producing objects that held as they were meant to hold and released when properly asked.” In his workshop behind his dwelling, he shaped belaying pins out of seasoned wood. He was a master craftsman whose beautifully carved pins, marked with his initials, J.W., were prized aboard working vessels…that is until they were not.
As a confirmed landlubber, before taking an armchair visit, I needed to immerse myself in the seafaring life. Consulting the Carroway Island Visitor’s Guide and decked out in island gear, I was ready to proceed.
Caraway Island boasts a close knit community that harvests oysters, crabs and fish. It is generational and traditional, with residents sharing their knowledge of the rhythm of the tides and ways to address geographic changes wrought by coastal storms and erosion. The Carroway Island Motto is: No Cars. No Hurry. Just the Tide.” Now that the stage has been set, this reader will time travel back to the 19th Century with documentation confirming an Honorary Residency on Carroway Island. As a fly on the wall, I will try to examine the cause for the hoopla surrounding the trial of Josiah Wren.
To Beulah Wren, her husband’s trade was stable, modest and useful. Neighbors often entered each other’s households without knocking. That’s how Mrs. Crowley noticed the muslin sack, a sack that contained three small belaying pins. These pins in Beulah’s kitchen cabinet were in a location “that suggested either forgetfulness or intention…A hidden object suggested with secrecy or purpose…” Beulah needed clarity, but all she could hear was “the faint regular tread of Josiah at the lathe, working pine into usefulness with no idea at all that usefulness had already begun to revise itself under his roof.”
The island seemed to be adjusting to a peculiarity, a demand for smaller belaying pins; beyond the sole use to secure ropes on vessels. Josiah, “a man who works by hand and by season does not question demand. He had always believed usefulness would explain itself. He simply fulfilled.” Orders had exceeded expectations. The smaller pins were smoother and more refined. A thing well made would find its purpose. Reverend Caldwell noticed the increased attention span of his women congregants at Sunday’s Sermon. “There was a sense of…release…of unnecessary tension.” Josiah’s lathe continued to fill orders. “Definition of the small pins…introduced distinction…distinction required resolution…this was not always desirable.”
Caraway Island was controlled by the ebb and flow of the tides. The pier did not change but “the shoreline had acquired a new character. Not unpleasant. But altered…not to its previous condition. But to a condition that could be accepted…”. That is until a terrible storm. Small pins had been prioritized and perhaps some had mistakenly been used aboard vessels. These smaller pins did not sit properly and lines slipped. Along with the storms came structural changes to island dwellings. “Boards that had once aligned now suggested independence. (A) porch, while still attached, no longer appeared committed.” The tide breaching the sea wall pushed into dwellings “without hesitation.” Small belaying pins started to appear afloat in the rising waters. Emergency changed the narrative denoting the purpose and use of small belaying pins and their inadvertent use in vessels.
Author Robert Gill, Jr, a fantastic weaver of words, presents both the ebb and incoming flow of the tides at Carroway Island along with the issue of responsibility for the belaying pins. Can a jury trial lead to criminalization resulting from a simple belaying pin? Is the pin a defendant thereby responsible for its own behavior? The satirical writing style of Gill is unique, the humor is unbeatable.
A highly recommended read.
Thank you to Robert Gill, Jr @ Teaching Press for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.
As a confirmed landlubber, before taking an armchair visit, I needed to immerse myself in the seafaring life. Consulting the Carroway Island Visitor’s Guide and decked out in island gear, I was ready to proceed.
Caraway Island boasts a close knit community that harvests oysters, crabs and fish. It is generational and traditional, with residents sharing their knowledge of the rhythm of the tides and ways to address geographic changes wrought by coastal storms and erosion. The Carroway Island Motto is: No Cars. No Hurry. Just the Tide.” Now that the stage has been set, this reader will time travel back to the 19th Century with documentation confirming an Honorary Residency on Carroway Island. As a fly on the wall, I will try to examine the cause for the hoopla surrounding the trial of Josiah Wren.
To Beulah Wren, her husband’s trade was stable, modest and useful. Neighbors often entered each other’s households without knocking. That’s how Mrs. Crowley noticed the muslin sack, a sack that contained three small belaying pins. These pins in Beulah’s kitchen cabinet were in a location “that suggested either forgetfulness or intention…A hidden object suggested with secrecy or purpose…” Beulah needed clarity, but all she could hear was “the faint regular tread of Josiah at the lathe, working pine into usefulness with no idea at all that usefulness had already begun to revise itself under his roof.”
The island seemed to be adjusting to a peculiarity, a demand for smaller belaying pins; beyond the sole use to secure ropes on vessels. Josiah, “a man who works by hand and by season does not question demand. He had always believed usefulness would explain itself. He simply fulfilled.” Orders had exceeded expectations. The smaller pins were smoother and more refined. A thing well made would find its purpose. Reverend Caldwell noticed the increased attention span of his women congregants at Sunday’s Sermon. “There was a sense of…release…of unnecessary tension.” Josiah’s lathe continued to fill orders. “Definition of the small pins…introduced distinction…distinction required resolution…this was not always desirable.”
Caraway Island was controlled by the ebb and flow of the tides. The pier did not change but “the shoreline had acquired a new character. Not unpleasant. But altered…not to its previous condition. But to a condition that could be accepted…”. That is until a terrible storm. Small pins had been prioritized and perhaps some had mistakenly been used aboard vessels. These smaller pins did not sit properly and lines slipped. Along with the storms came structural changes to island dwellings. “Boards that had once aligned now suggested independence. (A) porch, while still attached, no longer appeared committed.” The tide breaching the sea wall pushed into dwellings “without hesitation.” Small belaying pins started to appear afloat in the rising waters. Emergency changed the narrative denoting the purpose and use of small belaying pins and their inadvertent use in vessels.
Author Robert Gill, Jr, a fantastic weaver of words, presents both the ebb and incoming flow of the tides at Carroway Island along with the issue of responsibility for the belaying pins. Can a jury trial lead to criminalization resulting from a simple belaying pin? Is the pin a defendant thereby responsible for its own behavior? The satirical writing style of Gill is unique, the humor is unbeatable.
A highly recommended read.
Thank you to Robert Gill, Jr @ Teaching Press for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.
July 1, 2026
The Curious Trial of Josiah Wren is one of those rare books that feels completely original from the first page. It’s funny in that dry, sharp way where the humor sneaks up on you, but it’s also unsettling because you can see exactly how a small misunderstanding turns into something much bigger once a whole town gets involved. Carroway Island is the kind of place where everyone notices everything, and that makes Josiah’s increasingly ridiculous situation impossible to look away from. The book has a slow-burn weirdness to it that works beautifully, building from quiet suspicion into full-blown social absurdity without ever losing its straight face. If you like literary fiction with dark humor, eccentric small-town behavior, and a story that keeps getting stranger the more seriously everyone takes it, this is a very easy book to recommend.
July 2, 2026
This book is a hoot in the darkest, driest, most side-eye-filled way possible. The Curious Trial of Josiah Wren takes one quiet man, one suspicious little island, and one discovery that should have stayed in a cupboard, then lets the whole thing explode into a glorious mess of gossip, judgment, overreaction, and absolute nonsense. Carroway Island is packed with people who have opinions, assumptions, and way too much interest in everybody else’s business, which makes every chapter more outrageous than the last. The best part is that the book never winks at the reader or tries too hard to be funny; it just lets the island keep escalating things with complete sincerity, which somehow makes it even funnier. If you love oddball literary fiction with teeth, this one absolutely earns a spot on your shelf.
August 15, 2026
First, I want to give a big thank you to the author for the amazing swag I received in exchange for an honest review. I just wish the book was as awesome as the swag!
I didn’t really connect with this book. I enjoyed the small-town atmosphere and appreciated the honest portrayal of how quickly people can turn against someone who doesn’t align with their beliefs. However, I never really connected with the characters, and the story ultimately left me feeling underwhelmed. I wanted to like it more than I did.
I didn’t really connect with this book. I enjoyed the small-town atmosphere and appreciated the honest portrayal of how quickly people can turn against someone who doesn’t align with their beliefs. However, I never really connected with the characters, and the story ultimately left me feeling underwhelmed. I wanted to like it more than I did.
June 22, 2026
A story filled with dark humor and social satire set on the fictional island of Carroway. It shows what human behavior is like when there are half-truths and people invent stories to suit their own interests, often using false information. It’s interesting to see how people act when they believe they’re right and have the right to act as judges, even when they don’t really understand what’s going on themselves. Makes you think. Recommended.
July 5, 2026
I was pleasantly surprised reading this. The Curious Trial of Josiah Wren has a great combination of mystery and deception to keep you turning the pages. The setting on Carroway Island feels alive, and the characters, especially Josiah, are well written and believable. It is obvious the writer is very passionate about this story. I think anyone interested in historical fiction would especially like reading it.
June 25, 2026
The Curious Trial of Josiah Wren is a clever, charming, and thought-provoking read. The small-town setting is rich with atmosphere, and the story does a wonderful job showing how rumors and assumptions can take on a life of their own. With memorable characters, subtle humor, and an engaging plot, this is an enjoyable novel that stays with you long after the final page. Highly recommended!
July 7, 2026
Here we have a tale that focuses on the small details of the people in this small locale, on the small aspects that make social ties or a boat fall apart. Get in deep in this tangled life where details mean a sentence of guilt or innocence.
July 6, 2026
Well written and enjoyable. The small town atmosphere permeates the book. A very clever and charming book that deserves to be popular. It is clever in the way it shows the reader how rumours can become manifest. It has a plot that is enjoyable and fulfilling. Very highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews