→→→ Port Starbird: A Storm Ketchum Adventure What do you get when you combine sun and sand, maritime history, barrier island ecology, scuba diving, a quirky love story, eminent domain abuse, and a violent crime? A literary low-key murder mystery that appeals on multiple levels.
Storm Ketchum, a damaged emigre to the coastal town of Avon on North Carolina's Outer Banks, is in love with his town, his island, and the sea, and vehemently opposed to the coastal development juggernaut that's sweeping across the modern-day Banks. He's an ardent admirer of Hemingway and of the Hatterasman, a rugged, self-sufficient abstraction from old-time Hatteras Island lore. He hates his name, is not a private eye, and isn't in fact any kind of detective at all - until he's forced to become one by extraordinary circumstances.
On the verge of losing his modest waterfront home to an unscrupulous developer, Ketch stumbles onto the scene of a nonviolent crime that might coincidentally expose the perpetrator of an unsolved murder and enable him to save not only his own home, but also the similarly threatened bohemian boatyard community he's inexorably drawn into. And in case Plan A fails, he's hard at work on a Plan B that's both laudable and pitiable - if he can't stop them from seizing his property and ruining what's left of his historic town, he's hell-bent on turning the event into a political statement, by converting his bungalow into a new and embarrassingly prominent landmark.
His allies include a loyal dog, a salty charter boat captain, the sketchy denizens of the boatyard, and an alluring dive instructor who may or may not have a hidden agenda. With the help of this motley crew, Ketch struggles to make sense of his new reality, while trying to save some of the things that really matter along the way. 【店舗情報引用】
