by Kem Nunn
First published 1988
Ike Tucker arrives in California with one mission: find his sister Ellen. She vanished without explanation, leaving only traces that lead to the local surf scene. The search draws Ike toward three hardened surfers who seem connected to Ellen's disappearance. These men represent everything alien to Ike's world, yet he finds himself pulled into their orbit. The same dangerous magnetism that may have claimed his sister now works on him. Ike must navigate the treacherous currents of surf culture, where violence simmers beneath the surface and loyalty shifts like the tides. As he gets closer to the truth about Ellen, the line between hunter and hunted begins to blur. The very people who might hold answers to his sister's fate become the ones he cannot resist.
Genres: adventure, mystery, crime, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, hunter-and-hunted
Setting: California
Period: 20th-century
304 pages · Paperback · Laurel
Content warnings: violence