A SEA OF SPECTRES
On the choppy coastline of Prince Edward Island an ocean-phobic detective evades the deadly lure of a phantom ship by delving into her family's history and harnessing her matrilineal powers of premonition.
Raina is an accomplished detective working against smugglers and traffickers on PEI, and she’s eager for an imminent promotion. But there’s a catch: she has to go work on a Coast Guard ship for a week. And Raina, though Island born and raised, loathes the sea. When she gets too close to it, the phantom ship starts calling to her, and the lure of its deadly cold flames threatens to overwhelm her.
When she starts pulling the threads of a missing-person case, she discovers how Doiron women’s uncanny abilities have impacted her ancestral line: Madeleine’s powers tried to keep her family safe during the Expulsion of the Acadians in 1758; Celeste’s tempted her to take back what was rightfully hers in 1864. Generation after generation of women have had to reckon with what their abilities can and can’t do to protect their families. And now it’s Raina’s turn. Is she strong enough to carry her family’s legacy? Or will that legacy carry her—out into the burning sea of spectres?
Debut novelist Nancy Taber deftly braids three timelines together, each as engaging and fully drawn as the other. With whip-smart contemporary dialogue and moving, evocative historical writing, she brings to life three different generations of Acadian women in a riveting, crackling, chilling mystery.
Available now wherever books are sold.
Praise for
A SEA OF SPECTRES
"In A SEA OF SPECTRES, a mystical talent that's passed down through the women of the Doiron family is also one that might kill. Nancy Taber deftly weaves together multiple timelines, the history of the Acadian Expulsion, and Maritime life for a gripping story that's ultimately a tale of family, trust, and identity."
Janie Chang, bestselling author of The Library of Legends, The Phoenix Crown
"Prepare to be captivated by Taber's tale, which expertly weaves folklore with feminism and heroics with heart. A SEA OF SPECTRES will keep readers on the edge of their seats with a sweeping epic of masterful storytelling that expertly combines research, Acadian history, and stunning use of craft. Above all, it's the characters that will stay lodged within the reader, echoing power through all the generations captured in this beautiful debut, in which women triumph beyond all boundaries."
Kelly S. Thompson, national bestselling author of Girls Need Not Apply and Still I Cannot Save You
Nancy Taber is a university professor and fiction author who loves stories about strong complex women. She writes in the genres of non-fiction, historical fiction, mystery, and speculative fiction. The lives of her protagonists often intersect with military and police forces, and museums tend to pop up in her work. She has an affinity for putting her characters in perilous situations on ships at sea or in space. Nancy is a former military officer who served as a Sea King helicopter Tactical Coordinator. Part of her job once included leaping out of a helicopter into the ocean. Now, most of her job includes sitting at a computer, drinking massive amounts of coffee, and dropping her characters into wild and sometimes weird circumstances. Nancy has published research on the intersection of gender, war, and militarism in academic books and journals. Her short stories have appeared in journals such as The South Shore Review and Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture and Social Justice, among others. Nancy is a facilitator with Writers Collective of Canada, was named a Top Woman in Defence 2022 by Esprit de Corps magazine, and is a member of the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame.
​​
To learn about Nancy's academic work, please visit her faculty page at Brock University.