Novels set on islands are usually delightful, until the inevitable return to the mainland. Elisabeth Ogilvie's Maine "Tides Series" is a great example, taking place on fictional islands inhabited by lobsterman and their families. And I loved this novel, especially with its timeframe (immediately post WW II) and the Penobscot Bay setting of Ram Island, the actual name of 21 Maine islands, but here, fictional.

An unnamed Navy Commander travels to the island to investigate a bungalow he inherited from his best friend, who was killed during the war. He finds a collection of lobstering families and a few summer people, and, being somewhat adrift himself, decides to stay. On the mailboat over, he makes friends with Jingle, a popular young woman who take him under her wing, and soon he is comfortable in every kitchen on the island.

At the beginning of the novel, McLane provides a helpful roster of island families, and the reader becomes completely absorbed in their stories. There's also a terrifying Lobster War between Ram Island and Thorn Island, an intra-island relationship between a summer man and an island woman, and the sad tale of the first African American man to reside on Ram. The times when circumstances bring the narrator off island are of much less interest, and the narrator himself is a mysterious figure, as is his friend who left the bungalow to him, which leaves a gap in the story. However, I was greatly caught up in the personalities and in learning what it takes to survive in such beautiful yet confined quarters. Highly recommended. ( )