The Lethal Shore

The Lethal Shore (working title) is the possible first book in the Eden Pond Series.

Overview

On February 23, 1942, a man gathering shellfish finds the blood-soaked coat of Harry Pond on an isolated Oregon beach. But there’s no sign of Harry himself, who had no reason or means to visit that beach—the location of a secret army defense project. With war nerves wound tight in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, some locals think he fell prey to, if not fell in with, collaborators helping lay the groundwork for Japanese incursions of the American mainland. The U.S. Army captain who takes over the investigation from local authorities seems more interested in protecting his defense projects than finding out what happened to Harry.

But Eden Pond, Harry’s twin sister, is determined to find him. Childhood polio left Harry with a chip on his shoulder and a desperate need to prove himself, with little concern for who he pissed off along the way. There’s also Harry’s best friend, Jonah Shibuya, the grandson of Japanese immigrants who himself disappeared a couple of weeks before Harry, perhaps because of intensifying pressure on the government to address the “problem” of west coast Japanese. Rumors fly that Jonah had a hand in Harry’s disappearance—and deeds far worse.

With the investigation going nowhere and hostility mounting toward Eden over her own fraught history with Jonah, she sets out to learn what really happened to Harry Pond, risking the wrath of Army officials, a newly-formed civilian militia with grand visions of repelling invasion, and an anxious community still coming to grips with life in a nation newly at war.

Chronology
The events of the novel take place in February and March 1942, with the denouement in May. The Lethal Shore is followed by Murder at the Shipyard.

Characters

Points of Interest