Several years ago, a storm at sea forced author and sailor Darcy Scott to take refuge in the harbor at Matinicus — Maine’s most remote island and a place infamous both for its ongoing lobster wars and gun-toting, wild west-meets-beeper-generation lifestyle.

The result is the release of “Matinicus — An Island Mystery” (Maine Authors Publishing, 2012). A dual plotline offers  peek into what life was once like on the island, as well as a highly-charged murder mystery crafted from more recent events. Scott will be reading from and signing copies of the novel at a book launch planned for 7 p.m., May 17, at RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, N.H., as stated in a news release.

Scott’s tale, the first book in her Island Mystery Series, pits a renegade fishing community against an unhappy child-bride of the 1820s, a defiant 21st-century teen, and Dr. Gil Hodges, a hard-drinking botanist who escapes to Matinicus to avoid a crazed ex-lover and verify a rumored 22 species of wild orchids. But if he’s hoping for some peace and quiet, he’s come to the wrong place. Generations of infighting among lobstering clans have left them hostile to outsiders. When a beautiful, bed-hopping stranger sails into the harbor, old resentments return and people die. Murders are linked to a diary whose secrets could tear the island apart.

Scott is an experienced sailor with more than 30,000 ocean miles under her belt. Her favorite cruising ground remains the coast of Maine. Much of the year she lives with her husband aboard their sailboat in Kittery. This is her second novel.

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