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Overview
In 1941, Killakeet Island of the wind-swept Outer Banks of North Carolina is home to a tiny, peaceful population of fisherman, 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 wolf pack 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 have the answer to the mystery that haunts Josh Thurlow.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
A gutsy Coast Guard officer battles German submarines and 17 years of unfettered guilt on the North Carolina coast in 1941 and 1942 in this high adventure yarn. Hickam, the author of the memoir Rocket Boys (which was turned into the film October Sky), knows a great deal about submarine warfare in WWII, as evidenced by his 1989 nonfiction naval history, Torpedo Junction. This is the first novel of a planned series about rough and tumble Coast Guard Lt. Josh Thurlow and his unusual patrol boat crew during WWII. Josh, 31, is a career officer assigned to Killakeet Island, along North Carolina's treacherous Outer Banks. Both he and his father-the keeper of the Killakeet Lighthouse-are haunted by the loss at sea and presumed death of Josh's two-year-old baby brother 17 years earlier. Shaken from his brooding by the appearance of German U-boats, Josh must try to protect the merchant ships torpedoed every night offshore. His patrol boat is small and ill-equipped, and his crew is a wacky group of casual islanders who aren't sure they really want to fight anybody. A talented U-boat commander named Krebs becomes Josh's honored enemy, but another U-boat skipper is a far more ruthless and dangerous adversary. Josh must fight both, as well as his suspicions that his little brother may not be dead after all; the reappearance of a childhood sweetheart leavens the mix. Hickam provides a vivid and convincing portrayal of life under the sea in a U-boat, as well as on the surface in a fragile patrol boat. Well-crafted characters, gripping naval warfare and colorful island life come together in this dynamic and exciting tale. Agents, Frank Weimann and Mickey Freiberg. (Oct.) Forecast: The success of the Rocket Boys trilogy should help launch this new series, as should an extensive author tour-Hickam is a practiced speaker. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.Library Journal
The "Rocket Boy" is back with the story of Josh Thurlow, a Coast Guard commander during World War II chasing a U-boat captain who might just know something about his lost brother. With an eight-city author tour. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.Kirkus Reviews
Nazi U-boats threaten the sweetly daffy residents of an island in the Outer Banks. Setting his irresistibly romantic WWII adventure on the fictional Carolina barrier island of Killakeet, long before the coming of the hulking cottages or the invention of time sharing, memoirist Hickam (Sky of Stone, 2001, etc.) successfully knits the true story of Germany's turkey shoot off the East Coast with the low-key lives of the fishermen, wild horses, lighthouse keepers, and other village types who had the beautiful place largely to themselves. Sturdy, smart Josh Thurlow, son of the present keeper of the Killakeet lighthouse has come back to the island after years away to take charge of the tiny Coast Guard station. Haunted by his responsibility for the disappearance at sea of his two-year-old brother Jacob, Josh has declined the inheritance of the family business, but he has thrown himself deeply into his new job, whipping the local lads who crew his rescue boat into a force capable of dealing with the certain menace of German submarines. Oddly, he seems to be the only officer in the Coast Guard able to see the vulnerability of the countless merchantmen who steam past the Graveyard of the Atlantic. And the Germans are indeed watching, particularly Kapitan Leutnant von Krebs, ace skipper of U-560. Krebs, who gained and lost the love of his life and acquired responsibility for a smart young orphan in one eventful visit to his childhood orphanage home, begins picking off the ships as quickly as he can launch his torpedoes. Josh gets no help from the higher-ups, but he can count on small-bore gunfire support from his recovering sophisticate girlfriend Josie who teams up with a Hollywood stunt rider asa mounted patrol. (It actually makes sense.) The situation worsens with the arrival of Supernazi sub skipper Vogel who has it in for Krebs. And that orphan on U-560, is it just coincidence that he's the exact age of the missing toddler Jacob? Or that he washes ashore after a crash dive? First of a series certain to seduce armchair sailors. Author tour. Agent: Frank Weimann/Literary Group InternationalFrom the Publisher
"Hickam builds a story of overcoming obstacles...[an] eloquent evocation of a lost time and place."—The New York Times"Fantastic characters and a suspenseful, race-along plot."—The Washington Post
"The Keeper's Son is both beautifully written and nerve-wrackingly suspenseful... A home run." —Nelson DeMille
"A novel of adventure and romance set on this imaginary isle of wild horses, offbeat townsfolk and the colorful crew of a Coast Guard patrol boat...[a] page-turning story of loss, courage, and providence."—The Wall Street Journal
"Well-crafted characters, gripping naval warfare and colorful island life come together in this dynamic and exciting tale."-Publishers Weekly
"Hickam brings it all off flawlessly...making the reader believe extraordinary events are indeed possible."—Roanoke Times
"[An] irresistibly romantic WWII adventure...certain to seduce armchair sailors."
—Kirkus Reviews
"In this excellent story of World War II on the Outer Banks, Hickam deftly crafts a romantic, even melodramatic story...the pacing, the building of character with carefully chosen detail, and the masterful construction of a setting...evokes with great skill a time and a place that is passing out of living memory."—Booklist
"With this book, Hickam expands his range...into the realm of fiction in a compelling novel of war, romance, haunting guilt, victory. Thrilling." —Robert Morgan, bestselling author of Gap Creek and Brave Enemies
"Hickam's recollections of small-town America...are so cinematic that even those of us who didn't grow there imagine we did."—The Philadephia Inquirer