The Keeper's Son
by Homer Hickam

In 1941, Killakeet Island of the wind-swept Outer Banks of North Carolina is home to a tiny, peaceful population of fishermen, clam stompers, oyster rakers, and a few lonely sailors of the Coast Guard. Dominating the glorious, raw beauty of the little island is the majestic Killakeet Lighthouse, which for generations has been the responsibility of one family, the Thurlows.

However, Josh Thurlow, the Keeper's son, has forsworn his heritage to become the commander of the Maudie Jane, a small Coast Guard patrol boat operating off Killakeet. Josh is still tortured by guilt, seventeen years after losing his baby brother at sea. Then his life is complicated by the arrival of the beautiful Dosie Crossan, who has journeyed to lonely Killakeet to escape the outside world and perhaps find a purpose in life. While Josh's heart is stirred by the often-vexing Dosie, he continues his search for his brother, even after a wolfpack of German U-boats arrives to soak the island's beaches with blood and oil.

One of the U-boats is captained by Otto Krebs, a famed and ruthless undersea warrior. Krebs, a man also scarred by lost love, comes to Killakeet, however, with more than torpedoes and plans for war: He may also have the answer to the mystery that haunts Josh Thurlow.

The Keeper's Son is a first novel by the author of the memoir Rocket Boys, which was filmed as October Sky.

Our Lives, Our Fortunes
by J. E. Fender

Fender continues the exciting Geoffrey Frost saga with an all new Revolutionary War-era adventure. Frost, the dashing mariner-turned-privateer returns to New Hampshire with a treasure trove of food and arms he has captured from the British. Learning that Washington and his troops are languishing in Pennsylvania, suffering from both low morale and a lack of supplies, he resolves to organize an expedition to transport his booty to the physically and spiritually impoverished Continental Army. Since the British control the coastal waters, the ever-resourceful Frost leads his men on a dangerous overland mission, proving that he is as adept on land as on the sea. Assisting Washington in the daring crossing of the Delaware River, Frost and company eagerly join in the battle for Trenton. Although considerably less salty than the previous two entries in this series, fans of seafaring fiction will still enjoy this action-packed tale.

Star of the Sea
by Joseph O'Connor

Joseph O'Connor's impressive historical novel, Star of the Sea, examines the unsettled personal tragedies among a group of interrelated characters and their difficulties in disregarding the past. Lord Merridith and his family board the titular ship in 1847, bound for New York, leaving behind an Ireland devastated by famine and strife. The family's beautiful nanny, Mary Duane, is with them, having fled a life of poverty, prostitution, and extreme tragedy. Another passenger, American journalist Grantley Dixon, is lured to America by business and his thinly veiled affair with Lady Merridith. Mary Duane discovers that Pius Mulvey, her former fiancé and the brother of her deceased husband, is among the overcrowded group of disease-ridden steerage passengers. A renowned thief and murderer, Mulvey abandoned Duane, only to return and sabotage her life in Ireland. Despised by his countrymen, Mulvey has been ordered by a group of steerage thugs to assassinate the demonized Merridith or face his own death.

The Gryphon's Skull
by H. N. Turteltaub

Sea-faring merchants Menedemos and Sostratos, the bickering cousins of Over the Wine-Dark Sea, Turteltaub's previous historical novel set in ancient Greece, are back again with an adventure taking them across the Aegean from the free city of Rhodes to glittering Athens. On their way to the city with a cargo of precious goods, they pick up the skull of an unusual bird. The scholarly Sostratos believes it is that of a gryphon, and thus proof of the existence of the mythical beast. The more down-to-earth Menedemos has little interest in the skull's scientific value, but hopes the philosophical schools in Athens will compete to purchase it. On the relatively short journey, they are plagued by pirates and the clashing forces of Egyptian Ptolemaios and Greek Antigonas, as well as the latter's troublesome nephew Polemaios. Despite these obstacles, Menedemos and Sostratos find plenty of time for haggling, with other merchants as well as with each other. Ladies' man Menedemos often courts trouble by ogling other men's wives, although he restrains himself for Baukis, the attractive young second wife of his father. Sostratos, although anxious to see the Athenian philosophers, has time for a delightful dalliance with the beautiful brothel mistress, Metrikhe. The author has spelled names as the Greeks did--Kyklades, Thoukydides, Skythians--and this adds to the fun. In the end, readers will count themselves satisfied with the journey.