Category Archives: Quinn, Douglas

Douglas Quinn. Swan’s Landing. Elizabeth City, N.C. : White Heron Press, 2012.

In this the third novel in the Webb Sawyer mystery series, Webb’s son Preston has moved from the Outer Banks to New Zealand, but Preston’s ex-girlfriend, Sunshine Bledsoe, still keeps in touch with Webb.  Sunshine is aptly named–she’s a pretty, cheerful young woman whose sunny nature belies her difficult family life.  When Sunshine’s parents divorced, her dad moved to Richmond, but her mother, a recovering drug addict, remained in the area.  Isabeau and Sunshine’s relationship is a reverse of the traditional mother-daughter one: it is Sunshine who checks in on Isabeau, a waitress with a tenuous hold on financial and emotional stability.

As this novel opens, Sunshine is convinced that her mother is in trouble.  Isabeau’s employer, restaurant owner Amy Overton, has a note from Isabeau saying that  she’s taking a few weeks off for a vacation, but Sunshine doesn’t think her mom had the money for a trip.  Initially, Webb is not inclined to take Isabeau’s disappearance very seriously. Webb is more interested in working on his off-again, on-again relationship with pub owner Nan Ftorek, which is now back on.  Still, Sunshine is someone he is fond of and when he learns that another of Ms. Overton’s employees is also missing, his investigation kicks into high gear.  Webb follows a twisted trail that involves a shady minister, a local developer with a past, and a sadistic cop.  The body count gets high before Webb and the local sheriff bring the bad guys and their enablers to justice.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2012, Coast, Dare, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Quinn, Douglas

Douglas Quinn. The Webb Sawyer Mysteries.

Webb Sawyer threw away his career as a military investigator when he shot a Serbian war lord in his jail cell.  Now Webb is separated from the United States Army and living in the remote Outer Banks community of Blue Heron Marsh. The ex-soldier is looking forward to a quiet life of fishing and boating that will allow him to put his personal demons behind him.  But the community around him has its demons too, and when his neighbors encounter trouble they turn to Webb knowing that they’ll need his investigative skills and fearlessness. The cases they ask his help with show him again the darker elements of human nature–racism, sexual obsession, greed, the thirst for revenge. People are not always what they appear to be, and the linkage between the present and the past is not always a pleasant one.  Interwoven with the search for sexual predators, serial killers, and the like are the ins-and-outs of Webb’s daily life–his attempts to develop a better relationship with his son, his on-again, off-again romance with a local pub owner, and his enjoyment of the water and natural beauty in this little part of the North Carolina coast.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2010-2019, Coast, Mystery, Novels in Series, Quinn, Douglas, Series, Suspense/Thriller

Douglas Quinn. Pelican Point. New York: iUniverse, 2010.

Webb Sawyer, former career Army man, has been living at Blue Heron Marsh on the Outer Banks for a bit over a year.  In that time he’s gotten some perspective on the incident that ended his career, made friends with some interesting locals, and solved a string of murders dating back decades.  In this latest novel, Webb is joined by his son, Preston.  Preston has left a comfortable life in California with his mother and her new husband to make his own life, not the life someone else wants him to live.

Webb has helped Preston enroll at Elizabeth City State University, and Preston comes back to Blue Heron Marsh most weekends. Slowly, Webb and Preston are developing a father-son relationship.  That relationship is both accelerated and threatened by the events in this novel.  While working on a paper late one night, Preston discovers are the body of a professor who has been murdered in his office.  Preston knew the man only by reputation (not good), but he is nonetheless a prime suspect in the case.  As Preston and Webb look into the murder, they discover a ring of sexual predators, and both men are in danger.  It’s clear that the apple has not fallen far from the tree, and readers should expect to see Preston in later Webb Sawyer mysteries.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Coast, Dare, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Quinn, Douglas, Suspense/Thriller

Douglas Quinn. Blue Heron Marsh. New York: iUniverse, Inc., 2007

Former military-investigator Webb Sawyer was recently released from a U.S. Army psychiatric hospital and he returned to the Outer Banks, hoping for a little peace and quiet. After moving into his father’s stilted fishing shack on Blue Heron Marsh, he expects his life to be filled mostly with fishing, with the occasional stop at the local pub. When a local woman is charged with murdering her father, however, her friend needs Webb’s expertise and connections to help prove her innocence. As Webb’s investigation continues, he discovers a series of similar recent murders scattered across North Carolina and a possible connection to a forty year old cover-up. This is the first book in a planned mystery/suspense series written by N.C. resident Douglas Quinn.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Coast, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Quinn, Douglas, Suspense/Thriller