Category Archives: Dare

Dare

by | December 20, 2010 · 9:40 am

Lisa Klein. Cate of the Lost Colony. New York: Bloomsbury, 2010.

The death of Catherine Archer’s father in 1583 prompts Queen Elizabeth to invite her to Whitehall to be one of her maids of honor. While in London, Catherine (nicknamed Cat by the Queen) meets Sir Walter Ralegh and becomes enchanted by him. The two secretly begin writing poems of love to each other, and Catherine dreams of joining him in the New World.

However, Catherine and Ralegh’s clandestine relationship comes to a quick end when the queen finds the letters and abruptly sends Catherine to the Tower of London as punishment for her betrayal. Later, thinking that she has found an even stiffer penalty, Queen Elizabeth orders her prisoner to the Virginia settlement. Although the queen believes this to be a hard sentence, Catherine is excited to see America – even if she is without Ralegh.

After enduring months at sea, Cate (as she likes to be called now) and the rest of the Roanoke Island settlers arrive in the New World. Unfortunately, relations between the English and the Native Americans are tense. Conditions are not what were expected, and the expedition leaders return to London for aid, promising to return quickly. Cate works with Manteo, the Croatan translator, in trying to mediate between the two groups. Manteo and Cate feel a mutual understanding, and a trusting relationship develops between them.  Although the English fight in the beginning, they soon realize that while they wait for rescue they must live peacefully among the Croatans to survive.

Three years after Cate and her fellow settlers arrived on Roanoke Island, an English ship carrying their rescuers arrive. However, they are happy living among the Croatans and refuse to return to England. Although their rescuers, including Sir Walter Ralegh, do not understand why they are determined to stay, they depart without them. It is agreed that the Englishmen will not speak of their interaction with the settlers, simply saying that they were not found and their fate is a mystery.

This story is recounted through the perspectives of Catherine Archer, Sir Walter Ralegh, and Manteo. Lisa Klein provides an interesting ending to the tale of the Lost Colony.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Children & Young Adults, Coast, Dare, Historical, Klein, Lisa

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by | December 3, 2010 · 4:52 pm

Alice J. Wisler. Hatteras Girl. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2010.

Jackie Donovan is about to turn thirty and she still has not realized her two life-long goals: to be married to her soul mate and to own and operate a bed and breakfast at the old Bailey House. When she interviews Davis Erickson, a local Outer Banks real estate agent, for a magazine article, Jackie finds a charming, handsome bachelor who also happens to be the owner of the Bailey House. She shares her interest of the property with him, and they begin seeing each other. When Davis decides that Jackie has the right passion for the Bailey House, he offers her a rent-to-buy option. The catch is that she and Minnie, her best friend, must agree to run it exactly as his grandparents, the Baileys, had. The two women had been fond of the Baileys and are happy to continue their traditions, such as serving their special lemon cookies.

Just when Jackie begins to think that her situation is too good to be true, she realizes that it is. She catches Davis cheating on her, and her close friend, Buck, gives Jackie evidence that Davis is a dead-beat landlord. She enlists the help of her devoted family members, friends, and co-workers to expose Davis’s crimes. He quickly cowers at the threat of a damaged reputation and agrees to properly fix up the house. At last, just a few months after turning thirty, Jackie finds herself falling in love with Buck and the proprietor of the newly reopened Bailey House.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Coast, Dare, Romance/Relationship, Wisler, Alice J.

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by | November 7, 2010 · 10:17 am

Diane Chamberlain. Summer’s Child. Don Mills, Ontario: MIRA, 2010.

Daria Cato thought of Rory Taylor as her best friend.  Their family had summer houses on the same cul-de-sac in Kill Devil Hills.  Daria and Rory would run on the beach together and play all kinds of games. Rory, three years older than Daria, told himself that he was “letting”  Daria win, but she was a spirited and feisty child who could hold her own against her fun-loving playmate. But when Rory became a teenager, their relationship changed.  Daria developed a crush on Rory just as Rory gravitated to friends his own age.

Daria briefly had Rory’s attention–and everyone else’s–the morning of her eleventh birthday when she found a newborn baby on the beach.  This shocking event had the community abuzz for weeks.  When the baby’s mother could not be found, Daria’s parents adopted the child.  As the girl, Shelly, grew, it was evident that the circumstances of her birth affected her development.  Daria, always protective of Shelly, moved with Shelly back to the Outer Banks since that is where Shelly is most at ease.  At twenty, Shelly works for the local Catholic Church, and Daria is a carpenter and EMT.  It’s a comfortable, if not joyful, life that Shelly upsets when she contacts Rory, now the producer of a hit television series, True Life Stories. Shelley wants Rory to uncover the truth about her birth.

Rory’s arrival back in Kill Devil Hills unsettles Daria, her sister Chloe, and other locals.  Daria worries that Shelly will not be able to absorb the truth, if Rory finds it, but Daria should be worried about herself.  Daria is struggling with guilt over a failed rescue and with sadness at the end of a long-term romance.  Daria needs someone to confide in, but those closest to her have secrets to hide–both in the past and the present. Those secrets eventually come out but the passage of time allows most of the characters to forgive the mistakes of youth–their own and others.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Chamberlain, Diane, Coast, Dare

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by | October 25, 2010 · 12:22 pm

Douglas Quinn. Pelican Point. New York: iUniverse, 2010.

Webb Sawyer, former career Army man, has been living at Blue Heron Marsh on the Outer Banks for a bit over a year.  In that time he’s gotten some perspective on the incident that ended his career, made friends with some interesting locals, and solved a string of murders dating back decades.  In this latest novel, Webb is joined by his son, Preston.  Preston has left a comfortable life in California with his mother and her new husband to make his own life, not the life someone else wants him to live.

Webb has helped Preston enroll at Elizabeth City State University, and Preston comes back to Blue Heron Marsh most weekends. Slowly, Webb and Preston are developing a father-son relationship.  That relationship is both accelerated and threatened by the events in this novel.  While working on a paper late one night, Preston discovers are the body of a professor who has been murdered in his office.  Preston knew the man only by reputation (not good), but he is nonetheless a prime suspect in the case.  As Preston and Webb look into the murder, they discover a ring of sexual predators, and both men are in danger.  It’s clear that the apple has not fallen far from the tree, and readers should expect to see Preston in later Webb Sawyer mysteries.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Coast, Dare, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Quinn, Douglas, Suspense/Thriller

by | September 30, 2010 · 8:39 am

Joyce and Jim Lavene. A Timely Vision. New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 2010.

Sibling rivalry can be the cause for bitter grudges, and in the case of the Butler sisters, decades of differences have created a long rift. Although they love each other, Miss Mildred acts strangely when her fellow nonagenarian sister Lizzie is found dead. Dae O’Donnell, mayor of Duck, North Carolina, and owner of Missing Pieces, a shop that specializes in the unique, is involved in the mystery of Miss Elizabeth’s death because she made the unfortunate discovery. Dae is blessed (or cursed) with psychic abilities; she was on a mission to help Miss Millie find her mother’s watch when she found her dead sister. Now the police chief is convinced that Miss Millie had something to do with Miss Elizabeth’s death. Miss Millie’s odd reaction to the murder and her claims that she sees her sister’s ghost is not helping her situation. Dae fights to protect Millie, but she is taken into custody. When Dae learns that both sisters’ properties have been put up for auction, she begins to suspect the new realtor in town and others who could benefit from the Butler sisters “going away” and their homes going up for sale.

A Timely Vision is the first novel in the “Missing Pieces Mystery” series.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Coast, Dare, Lavene, Jim and Joyce, Mystery, Novels in Series

by | September 27, 2010 · 8:31 am

Joe C. Ellis. Murder at Hatteras. Martins Ferry, OH: Upper Ohio Valley Books, 2010.

Gabe and Marla Easton needed a break.  They left their hometown in Ohio and headed to the Outer Banks where Marla found a job in a bookstore and Gabe patched together a couple of part-time jobs.  Gabe is finding that the change of scenery is good for his writing; Marla is hoping that it will be a boost for their fertility–she very much wants to have a child. Their new situation looks good–Marla makes friends easily and Gabe’s brother and an acquaintance from Ohio are nearby. The beachfront building that they live in seems idyllic until Marla senses a peeping Tom on the same night that a young woman is killed nearby.  Suddenly the other inhabitants of their building seem sinister, as do several other men in the town.  When both Gabe and Marla are assaulted, Marla doesn’t know who she can trust.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Coast, Dare, Ellis, Joe C., Mystery

by | February 22, 2010 · 8:53 am

Keith Warren Lloyd. Cape Hatteras: A Novel. New York: iUniverse, 2008.

It’s common to think that the battle for the seas during World War II took place in distant locales like the South Pacific and the North Atlantic, but our own Outer Banks was the site of a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between American merchant and military vessels and German U-boats.  In this novel, the young commander of a U-boat makes it ashore after his boat sinks off Cape Hatteras.

Wolf Krugar is no gun-ho Nazi, but he serves loyally to uphold his class traditions and to protect his wife and daughter.  After his U-boat is destroyed by an American attack, Krugar clings to the debris of a tanker that he had earlier torpedoed.  He drifts on to Hatteras Island.  Harnessing his remaining strength, he walks to a remote cottage, home of Anne MacPherson, a local woman who has returned to the island to heal from the death of her young husband, who died in the Pacific Theater.  It is the classic setup for a tale of unexpected romance, but this novel is more sophisticated than that.  The reader is treated to a story of two damaged individuals who stay true to themselves while recognizing the humanity in the other.  The scenes with Kurt and Anne are interspersed with ones that show the local sheriff and military authorities closing in on Kurt.  These scenes ground the drama between Kurt and Anne in the larger conflict that includes the need to keep supplies flowing to Europe and the possibility of spies and double agents on each side of the conflict.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Coast, Dare, Lloyd, Keith Warren

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by | February 20, 2010 · 2:30 pm

Tom Lewis. Sons of Their Fathers. Swansboro, NC: Tease Publishing, 2008.

In this the final volume in the Pea Island Trilogy, it is the late 1970s. Dieter Bach, a concert violinist, has been shot during a mugging.  Dieter’s hands have been so injured that he will not be able to resume his career. His manager, Sy, directs Dieter down a new path–that of conductor.  To prepare for that, Sy sends Dieter to his summer house on Roanoke Island where Dieter can study and practice.  Dieter soon meets the beautiful Susan Everette who is working as a waitress at a restaurant that Dieter frequents.  His attraction to her is instantaneous.

This is is story of Suzi and Dieter’s love. The couple move from the Outer Banks to Virginia as Dieter learns his new craft.  Dieter is undeterred by Suzi’s mixed race heritage, but when he meets Suzi’s parents he discovers an obstacle to their happiness that forces him to return to Germany, the land of his birth.  Characters from earlier novels in the trilogy–especially Horst von Hellenbach–figure in the plot, and remind the reader that the past is not really so far behind us.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Coast, Dare, Lewis, Tom, Novels in Series

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by | February 15, 2010 · 8:46 am

Tom Lewis. Sunday’s Child. Rocky Mount, NC: VP Publishing, 2006.

When Sunday’s mother dies in childbirth, she is handed over to a father who was unaware of her existence. Slick Everette is a gambling man, but a good cook, and he has been the cook for the surf men on Pea Island.  Sunday grows up among these men, nurtured by them, and learning to fish, hunt, swim, sail, cook, heal with herbs and roots, and see the beauty and dangers of the natural world.

The man-made world is something else.  In her teen years, as Sunday interacts with the white community on Roanoke Island and the mixed lot of men who do conservation work on Hatteras Island as part of the New Deal public works programs.  Sunday’s strength of character impresses everyone, but she is nonetheless victimized.  Her life takes an unexpected turn when German sailors on a special mission come ashore.

This is the first book in the Pea Island Trilogy.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2006, Coast, Dare, Lewis, Tom, Novels in Series

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by | February 10, 2010 · 9:39 am

Tom Lewis. The Pea Island Trilogy.

This trilogy presents elements of the North Carolina’s coastal past in a new ways.  Sunday Everette, who grew up among the African-American community on Peas Island, displays the strength, heroism, and sea-knowledge of her community.  However, her world changes when the coast off Cape Hatteras becomes a battleground as American and English ships try to protect the ships bringing supplies to the armies fighting World War II in Europe.  German U-boats threaten the Allied ships, but one U-boat has a different mission: to transfer Nazi gold and a few special Germans to a new life in America.  Sunday becomes involved with one German, and their lives play out in a world of war, greed, and betrayal.

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Filed under 2000-2009, Coast, Dare, Historical, Lewis, Tom, Novels in Series, Series, Suspense/Thriller