The history of the Northern Channel Islands off California is one of storms, shipwrecks, and invasive species wreaking havoc with the islands’ closed ecosystem. When The Killing’s Done (Penguin, $16), the thirteenth novel from master storyteller T.C. Boyle, makes a dramatic, suspenseful tale of this Darwinian situation and its 21st-century consequences. Portraying the ecological problems in all their complexity, Boyle vividly depicts the parallel struggle for dominance—and even survival—in human society’s efforts to manage the islands. As the Park Service and rogue animal-rights groups go head to head over decisions about the fates of birds, foxes, wild pigs, and rats, Boyle puts these life-and-death issues in the hands of an unforgettable cast of characters, the most committed of whom face personal dilemmas that test their ideals.