Jane Bunker

But when the town drunk washes up on shore - with the back of his head smashed in - Jane realizes that Green Haven is not the quaint sanctuary she'd thought it was. The townspeople don't think the tragedy is anything more than a drunk's long walk off a short pier, but once Jane discovers the sordid details of the dead man's past, it occurs to her that this just might be one local problem she knows a lot about, from her former life in Miami.

And down there they call it murder.

Unable to resist the lure of one last investigation, Jane makes it her business to find some answers. Though normally a woman of few words, Jane manages to talk herself into every corner of Green Haven, and in a small town like this, it isn't long before the wrong person finds out that she's been asking the right questions. In Green Haven, all answers lead to the ocean - and when Jane finds herself at sea, in the ferocious grip of an almost perfect storm, she has the chilling realization that her life may well be in the hands of the very murderer whom she's been seeking.

Filled with an off-the-wall cast of eccentric characters headed by the unstoppable (and relentlessly thrifty) Jane Bunker herself, Slipknot is a riveting fiction debut made truly outstanding by Greenlaw's inimitable voice, unerring ear for all things maritime, and talent for combining humor with edge-of-your-seat suspense.