November Crossing

Chief mate Mari Lalonde runs the MV Kestrel Bay by count, weight, and order. On a contracted final essential crossing from Tobermory to South Baymouth, in a rising November gale, her count fails in two directions at once: one extra pickup on the vehicle deck, and one checked passenger unaccounted for at muster.

OPP officer Nathan Reid is escorting witness Felix Ardell back to Manitoulin Island, where Felix can identify the storage sites behind a summer pipeline of stolen snowmobiles and outboard motors. When the island power fails and Felix vanishes between dock and motel, Mari's ship records become the map Nathan needs: manifest, draft, ballast, camera blind spots, and dock logs that point to marina operator Harvey Quinn and a truck that is not what its paperwork claims.

Mari can protect her clean record, or she can hold a ramp in first light and make the numbers tell the truth. Nathan can protect Felix without trying to own every room he walks into. Steamy romantic suspense with a human villain, fair-play clues, and an earned happily ever after.