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Josh Thurlow, a lighthouse keeper's son, lives on Killakeet Island
located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. His family has a rich
and colorful history as the only family that has "kept the light"
at the Killakeet Lightstation.

Thurlow has lived a seafaring life, and now is captain of a Coast
Guard cutter, the Maudie Jane, that sails the treacherous
waters off the coast of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Josh and
his ragtag crew aboard the Maudie Jane are drawn, somewhat
reluctantly, into one of the fiercest and most underreported
stories of WWII --- the attack of Nazi U-boats on the shipping
lanes of the Atlantic directly off the U.S. Coast.

Josh encounters a worthy adversary in a German U-boat captain, and
the story unfolds from both points of view as the U-boat attacks
threaten not only the lives of merchant seamen, but also cruise
ships and the lives of the Killakeet Islanders.

The story combines a dashing seafaring adventure filled with
exciting battle scenes, romance and the local color of a large and
entertaining cast of crusty characters inhabiting the small
island.

Dosie Crossan, the daughter of one of the absentee owners who
vacation on Killakeet Island, returns to the island just as the war
breaks out and her childhood crush on Josh blossoms into romance as
they fight the invasion side by side. The heroism of the home guard
is portrayed in the fledgling Coast Guard crew whose only matching
uniform garments are their knit caps. Likewise readers will see the
tenacity of the German sailors who are embroiled in this
battle.

The story of Josh and the war is told along with another in a
separate, but equally moving emotional thread --- the mystery of
the disappearance at sea of Josh's younger brother, Jacob,
seventeen years earlier. Josh was responsible for this accident and
he has spent years mourning the loss of his only sibling.

The stories are signature Hickam whose storytelling skill was honed
in ROCKET BOYS, his autobiographical piece about growing up in the
coal country of West Virginia, which later was made into the
award-winning film, October Sky.

It should be noted that Hickam's first published book was TORPEDO
JUNCTION, a nonfiction Naval history of the U-boat attack in 1942.
THE KEEPER'S SON is the first in a series featuring Lieutenant Josh
Thurlow and the U.S. Coast Guard. Readers will appreciate THE
KEEPER'S SON for its vivid description of a World War II battle
saga that many have overlooked as much as for its well-written
prose.