A light, quirky, cozy mystery/adventure set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Red City Review Book Awards - FINALIST
Best Kindle Book Award - SEMIFINALIST
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award - QUARTERFINALST
"When a wealthy developer suspected of murder comes offering money for the land, Ketch is the last to hold out. Ketch's knowledge of the island is professorial, something that will appeal to readers who adore a strong sense of place. The accented dialogue creates the right southern atmosphere... A good effort." - Publishers Weekly
Garrett Dennis' Port Starbird has everything that a fun, summer weather novel should have - adventure, romance, beautiful beaches, guitar playing, underwater excursions, and, of course, murder mystery intrigue Storm Ketchum is a retiree who is discovering that life after your career may be even better than the crazy days of your twenties. After settling in Avon, North Carolina and purchasing the house of his realistic, fiscally responsible retirement beach dreams, Ketch is ready to live out the rest of his days quietly. However, his life takes a stressful turn when his home and habits are threatened by Bob Ingram, the dirtiest real estate mogul in Avon. In an effort to avoid Ingram's threats of eminent domain and save his home, Ketch becomes the secret detective that his parents had always hoped he would be. With his faithful canine sidekick by his side and the good-looking Kari in his bed, Ketch begins a journey that will bring secrets to the surface and make him into a different man with a different view of the world. - Red City Review
Tell me a book is a boat-filled adventure, a mystery, or a romantic tale, and I'll start reading. Find me a good story that combines all three, plus a dog, and I'll be recommending the book to others. Port Starbird by Garrett Dennis is the first of what the author promises will be the Storm Ketchum Adventures; Storm Ketchum (aka Ketch) is the main character of this novel, set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and though we're only allowed a few insights into his past, we know that at present Ketch is a water-loving, boat-piloting, scuba diving, authority-fighting guy who loves his dog, Jack. Whether from his boat, "TBD," or the "Minnow," owned by his friend The Captain, Ketch hatches plans to save his waterside home from being seized by a shady (and possibly felonious) developer. Perhaps he'll float his home away from the scene, or he'll see the developer tossed into prison for one or more of the crimes Storm suspects he's committed. Either way, Ketch hopes his new love, Kari, will be by his side, and he knows that Jack has his back (and the balance of his breakfast). - BOATING TIMES Long Island
"In this quirky low-key murder mystery, Storm Ketchum, a damaged emigre to the coastal town of Avon on North Carolina's Outer Banks, likes to mind his own business and isn't any kind of detective - until he's forced to become one by extraordinary circumstances. On the verge of losing his modest waterfront home to an unscrupulous developer, Ketch stumbles onto the scene of a crime that might expose the perpetrator of an unsolved murder and enable him to save not only his own home, but also the similarly threatened bohemian boatyard community he's inexorably drawn into. And in case Plan A fails, he's hard at work on a Plan B that's both laudable and pitiable - if he can't stop them from seizing his property and ruining what's left of his historic town, he's hell-bent on turning the event into a political statement. Together with his loyal dog, a salty charter boat captain, the sketchy denizens of the boatyard, and an alluring scuba diving instructor who may or may not have a hidden agenda, Ketch struggles to make sense of his new reality, while trying to save some of the things that really matter along the way."