Ghost Sea: A Novel (Dugger/Nello Series)

"It's Joseph Conrad meets Elmore Leonard."-Vancouver Sun. A spellbinding tale of the sea: love, murder, and mysticism: At the turn of the century, a Kwakiutl warrior from British Columbia's wild northern islands raids an artifact collector's yacht to reclaim stolen sacred masks. He takes the collector's wife, Kate, as hostage on his 200-mile canoe voyage home. The collector hires Dugger, a coastal trader living on the edges of the law, to give chase in his ketch with the collector as passenger, but Dugger's financial salvation comes at a terrible price, for he is Kate's secret lover. Day and night Dugger sails the uncharted islands, through raging currents and ship-swallowing whirlpools, and the account of his pursuit is interwoven with Kate's harrowing and erotically charged journey. Based on a true story, this novel reaches its thrilling climax at the last secret, hallucinatory potlatch of the ancient Kwakiutl culture, where the history of a doomed people is melded with the fury of three hearts. A great read; not only a gripping story but also one of the most dramatic and detailed sailing adventures of all time. - Walter Cronkite. What a novel! I loved it from the first pages....a novel of substance and a page-turner. - Elaine Lembo. An hypnotic tale written by a master mariner and story teller....Sure to be a treasured classic. - Pacific Yachting Magazine. An action-packed sea adventure that's also an anthropological thriller. - John Rousmaniere. Ferenc Mat© has re-invented the genre we haven't seen since London and Conrad; polished writing, humanism and sheer adventurism. - Wooden Boat Magazine