Port of Refuge — Garrett Dennis

MYSTERY, HISTORY, AND ADVENTURE ON THE OUTER BANKS

Witchery & Mayhem!
Welcome to PORT OF REFUGE - another island mystery steeped in Outer Banks culture, from the author who took you to PORT STARBIRD. Storm 'Ketch' Ketchum, a damaged emigre to Hatteras Island on North Carolina's Outer Banks, generally prefers to stay close to home and mind his own business - but he unexpectedly finds himself entangled with a cult-like coven of modern-day Roanoke Island witches when a relative of his paramour meets an untimely end on church property. Is the High Priestess of the Croatoan Covenant Church really in contact with the departed spirits of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island? Are the members of her church really from both this world and the next? Or is she just a con artist preying on gullible Wiccan acolytes - and is she a killer? A desire to provide closure for the family drives Ketch to once again call on his amateur sleuthing skills to conjure up answers to these and other questions, in the process risking the physical and spiritual well-being of both himself and the one he loves. Join Ketch, his loyal dog Jack, and his Kinnakeet Boatyard friends as they embark on a bewitching new adventure on the picturesque Outer Banks, where intrigue continues to cast its spell on them all.

If you're pining for John D. MacDonald and Travis McGee, Storm 'Ketch' Ketchum might be your guy. Like Hemingway's Old Man, he reveres his island and the sea; but unlike Santiago, he doesn't fish - and despite his solitary nature, he and his boatyard friends find themselves embroiled in coastal intrigue more often than not. If you read the Hardy Boys series as a kid; if you're a fan of the Outer Banks lore of David Stick, Judge Charles Whedbee, or Ben Dixon MacNeill; or if an ecological and literary juxtaposition of Barbara Kingsolver, Randy Wayne White, Jimmy Buffett, and Carl Hiaasen might float your boat, you should enjoy the Storm Ketchum Adventures.