Ralph Bowden

Bax Harbor Marine Ralph Bowden

In this novel, set in 1955, multi-talented high school senior, Dennis, takes an after school and summer job at a small marina. He builds wooden boats and fixes outboard motors for Walter, the strangely detached and personally vacant boss. Two other boys work the float, providing launch taxi service, and selling gas and ice to boats. Walter fires one of them. Winnie, the brassy daughter of a prominent surgeon, applies for the job, and is hired by the marina's financial backer. She insists that they must figure out what is wrong with Walter. Dennis is at first reluctant, but she drags him along with her investigation. They find Walter is part of a much bigger and more dangerous mystery, and find themselves sucked into investigating some kind of smuggling operation. Is it drugs? Fencing of stolen goods? International money laundering? Or even more sinister intrigue? In the process of testing the various hypotheses, they find themselves drifting into each other, a non-typical high school romance.