Windfall (Paperback)

'Windfall' is the story of how three people's lives become inextricably interwoven around a beautiful sailing yacht, Wavedancer which, after being liberated from the Nazis at the end of World War II, is shipped across the Atlantic only to be rescued from destruction on the rocky approaches to Newport, Rhode Island by her ultimate owner, Gus Jorgensen, a sail training instructor. Told to a jazz soundtrack and the background roar of the Atlantic ocean, the excitement builds from the very first page to a nail biting and quite unexpected conclusion.Jake Davenport, one of Wavedancer's trainee crew, and 'Charley' Charles, a Canadian high school saxophonist, meet by chance at the 1964 Newport Jazz Festival. Although immediately attracted to each other, a series of dramatic circumstances seems determined to drive them apart. After a tragic accident in Newport, Jake ends up on the US west coast with a drug and alcohol habit which nearly destroys him, while Charley suffers her own fair share of problems in Halifax, Nova Scotia before heading down to play the New York club scene with her all-girl jazz band.Despite their paths crossing in some unusual and unexpected ways, it seems that their troubled love story is finally doomed when Jake, after enlisting in the US Navy, is posted to Vietnam at the same time as Charley takes up a teaching post in London, England and joins the peace movement.When a badly injured Jake is eventually repatriated to a convalescent home in the United States, he is re-united with Gus and Wavedancer.In the meantime, Charley has married an American jazz drummer, Frank Mitchell, just a few months before giving birth to a daughter. When Jake learns about the marriage, he realizes that the time has come to let her go. But when, by chance, he learns the truth about what's going on in Charley's life, he realizes how much she means to him and determines to track her down and do what he can to help. Little does he know that this is going to prove the most difficult and dangerous challenge of both their young lives. Will this ill-fated couple ever be able to rekindle their romance or is destiny determined to keep them apart?You don't need any knowledge of the sea or sailing boats to appreciate and enjoy the breathtaking beauty of a mid ocean sunrise of the sheer terror of a full blown Atlantic storm. This book is neither part of a multi-book series, nor a crime novel. It is a stand-alone, dramatic and, at times, scary love story, with twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat to the very last page.And when you've finished 'Windfall', take a look at 'A Well Kept Secret', by the same author, another thrilling page turner.