Laura S. Wharton’s debut novel The Pirate’s Bastard, is set in colonial America in the first half of the 18th Century. This was an exciting place, especially for a young, ambitious man like Edward Mar...
Great Lakes sailor James Barry was inspired to write his first historical fiction novel by a true story he discovered while sailing among the islands of Lake Huron’s North Channel. The short ve...
You already know Ed and Ellen Zacko. Ed writes award-winning articles for Good Old Boat. Ellen is the smiling co-sailor occasionally pictured in those articles. Also occasionally pictured in those art...
If you suffer from seasonal affective disorder, you might want to plug in your UV lamp before cracking open Jon Keller’s riveting first novel, Of Sea and Cloud. In the depths of coastal Maine’s winte...
Set in the alluring South Pacific, this coming-of-age novel describes three young friends on their personal and shared journies, reckoning with their past while looking toward a potential shared futur...
This book is amazing on several levels. Not only is it filled with sailing adventures, but the adventures are in the context of a rich biblical and historical backdrop. The author-captain and his mate...
Todd Duff’s novel is a thrilling adventure revolving around human trafficking, boat theft, international intrigue, and drug cartels. Though fictional, the book is based on several real stories of huma...
Rob Avery is back, with the second smart, nicely crafted crime story in the series narrated by our protagonist, Sim Greene. Following a life-altering roller coaster ride of murder and deception and a ...
I’m eager to tell you that the last book I read before picking up Still Water Bending was Lit: A Memoir by best-selling author Mary Karr. This is notable because the depth and poetic quality of Clarke...
I’m fond of books that take me back to another time, as if I’ve slipped through a portal, to experience our human history in person. A Darker Sea is one of those books. Award-winning historian James L...
It is Race Week in the Salish Sea, north-northwest of Seattle, Washington. This is important to many of the characters in Antonio Hopson’s novel Nefarious, but not because they want to win any of the ...
Not in all the years that hundreds of sailing books have landed on my desk for review have I thought that a novel was destined for the leap from boating literature to mainstream reading and popularity...
Vern Hobbs’ third novel is his best one yet, and the other two are very good. An artist and contributor to several sailing magazines, including Good Old Boat, Vern began his journey as an author in 20...
Ever wonder why all Good Old Boat book reviews are positive? It’s not because all the books we review are good. It’s not because our reviewers are kind to a fault. It’s because when a Good Old Boat bo...
Is it every sailor’s dream to rescue a mermaid, a topless lady in distress? What could be better? How about a somewhat modern slant on the mermaid theme…say, a mermaid who can get around on two good l...
Historical novelist James Haley has entered the crowded field of nautical fiction occupied by the likes of Patrick O’Brian (Aubrey-Maturin series), C. S. Forester (Horatio Hornblower), Richard Woodman...
Lana and her best friend, Kitty, both fleeing dysfunctional families, are young wanderers exploring the Far East. They discover the yacht The Blue and join its crew of similar free spirits, young peop...
The year is 1798: a British frigate under Her Majesty’s flag sets sail from England bound for the Mediterranean. A young cabin boy with a gift for horses and mathematics is onboard, about to emb...
Nick Catalano’s book, Tales of a Hamptons Sailor, starts off with six short stories recounting what being a sailor in the Hamptons in the 1980s was all about. From the crazy locals and early morning d...
Destiny is no ordinary sailing book. Indeed, it is part sci-fi/part adventure, with sailing strewn into the mix, while catastrophic events unfold in a race against time. Carl Howe Hansen foreshadows h...
One of my favorite cautionary sea stories comes from Marlin Bree’s Wake of the Green Storm. Author of five nonfiction books about sailing, Dead on the Wind is his first novel, a thriller set in ...
If you need a conversation starter aboard your boat or perhaps a thoughtful tidbit to share in the cockpit while waiting for the green flash, Stephen Brennan has put together a little book of sailing ...
One of my favorite genres is historical fiction. Over the years I’ve read James A. Michener, Herman Wouk, C.S. Forrester, and many others, so when given the opportunity to review a work on the h...
“August 12th, 1983, was a day that Stewart Vogel had looked forward to with apprehensive anxiety.” So begins Paroled, by Charles Manion, the story of Vogel’s release after finishing ...
Vern Hobbs has done it again. In June 2010 we reported that Good Old Boat author Vern Hobbs had published his first book. While it was not exactly a sailing book, it was worth mentioning just the same...
With the publication of his first book, Laurence Eubank has created an epic historical novel and launched a very promising writing career. Run Down the Wind intertwines the real people and historical ...
Novelist and historian William Hammond has been delighting readers of historical fiction since 2007, when the first volume of the Cutler Family Chronicles was published. A Matter of Honor was a big su...
Told in the first person, The Angel Island Conspiracy is an action/thriller/mystery that reads like a true-life story. Author Robert Banks Hull sets his story on Angel Island, a real tourist destinati...
With two novels now wrapped inside one big cover, Rob Smith makes a gigantic statement in the fascinating game of “What If?” The scenario in his two Shrader Marks books, Night Voices and Keelhouse, no...
In the mid-1970s the world changed forever as we, the general public, were made aware of just how fragile our way of life is during the first oil shortage. Those of us who are old enough can remember ...
