The Hatterask Incident — John D. Randall

The Hatterask Incident is the timeless story of the individual verses his government. Outer Banks fisherman Alton Mackey finds himself pitted against local government, the US Park Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, the US Coast Guard and the US Fish and Wildlife agencies after his trawler the Hatterask becomes shoaled while crossing the treacherous waters of Oregon Inlet. As the days pass Mackey is pressured to remove his boat or face its destruction by dynamite. Mackey cracks under the pressure and takes a hostage which then turns the local community upside-down as tempers flair, sides are drawn and the standoff escalates. Stirring the conflicts is the approach of category 5 hurricane Crystal as it races up the East Coast. The page-turning story is told from the perspective of 9 different characters, each person simply doing his or her job. The problems of land use and the little guy verses his government is timeless. The story could be set today, or in the 1980s or the 1950s.