Book Description
Both longtime fans and new readers of Elisabeth Ogilvie will enjoy Whistle for a Wind and How Wide the Heart. The two books of this special two-in-one compendium mark the true beginning of the Bennett’s Island series. Whistle for a Wind is set in 1820 on Brigport (based on the Maine island of Matinicus), where the Bennetts lived before settling on the island that bears their name. Here we meet Jamie Bennett, the patriarch of the Bennetts, and learn about island life during the year that Maine became a state. In typical Ogilvie fashion, the story revolves around a central crisis: Wreckers are luring ships onto the rocks in order to abscond with their cargo. The skipper of the Cynthia is killed in one such raid, and soon Jamie is involved in bringing the killers to justice. How Wide the Heart focuses on Ellen Douglass, daughter of Joanna Bennett and her first husband, Alec. Ellen has returned home to Bennett’s Island after graduating from high school on the mainland. Once there, she is torn between attending a Boston art school and marrying her childhood sweetheart and becoming a lobsterman’s wife. The story becomes more complicated when a summer visitor rents Owen Bennett’s fish house and attracts Ellen’s attention. Filled with suspense, romance, and Ogilvie’s trademark sense of place, these long unavailable books will be treasured by readers who desire to read more about the Bennett family.


About the Author
Like no other writer, Elisabeth Ogilvie brings to life the people and atmosphere of the island fishing communities along the Maine coast. She spent her childhood summers on rugged and beautiful Criehaven, which became the basis for her Bennett’s Island novels; her home is now in Cushing, Maine.