Danced by the Light of the Moon

by Nelson Cover

Danced By The Light of the Moon is the story of a charter sailboat vacation in the Virgin Islands gone terribly wrong. Ramsey Flynn, retired from the State Department, organizes bareboat charter vacations several times a year among friends and acquaintances. For his efforts, and the accompanying quality and cost savings enjoyed by his fellow travelers, he and a companion travel at no cost. For this cruise in the Virgin Islands he has organized two boats of an odd but paid in full mix of experienced and inexperienced sailors. They quickly discover that all is not right with the shady charter company Flynn has hooked them up with at a considerable discount, with their boats and with the weather which turns deadly. Join them as they try everything in their experience to save themselves.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2013

About the author

Nelson Cover graduated from Johns Hopkins with a BA in English and San Francisco State University with a Masters in English with a concentration in Creative Writing.

He formerly worked as the Associate, and then Director of Annual Giving at The Johns Hopkins Institutions, Director of Development and Executive Director of the Cancer Research Foundation at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, Director of Development at the Washington National Cathedral, and Director of Development at The American Enterprise Institute. He then founded The Sheridan Group, where he served as president for thirty years, a full-service, fundraising consulting firm. He retired in 2013 and is now a full-time author.

Outside of his successful career, Nelson is an avid cyclist, car enthusiast, and dog lover. He has written four novels: Danced by the Light of the Moon, From the Midst of Wickedness, A Matter of Circumstance, and a collection of short stories, Truth, Lies and Deceit. All Mortal Greatness is the third in his Sessions University series. He currently resides in Florida with his wife.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

A group of mismatched people take a boat trip. Things go wrong, and we find out what these people are really made of.

A decent character study.

[Deirdre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several years ago I was invited to go on a 10-day California Channel Islands cruise on an 80-foot 1932 Jensen classic motor yacht. There was a trawler and a small sail boat that accompanied us. There were nine of us on our boat, three on the trawler and two on the sailboat. Anyway, I was very pleased when I learned that I had won this book in the Goodreads' Giveaway, and excited to receive a copy kindly autographed by the author.

Nelson Cover knows sailing. I know next to nothing about sailing, much like some of the people on board these two chartered sailboats in this story. They are doing something in a smaller scale to what I wanted to do sometime in my life - get on one of those sailboats that take beginners around Australian waters or to Indonesia. Bigger boats, obviously; at least double-masted, and a longer trip. But this is a similar venture around the Virgin Islands, and only five days long. I enjoyed getting to know the characters, a few would not have made my friend's list, but some I would have liked to stay in touch with after the excursion, had I been a member of the crew. There is plenty of tension with the problems of the boat that Gail is captain of, and squalls in the distance harbor terrible threats that will call for heroic action.

I would like to meet up again with the Frenchman Jean Claude and his trimaran Calypso. He seems to be a man who possesses a treasure chest of adventure.

Perhaps, because it is a first novel, this book is sparse, but a fun read nonetheless. I'd like to see more from Nelson Cover.

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book and received a signed copy with a personalized note. Thank you Nelson Cover.
Even though I have never sailed I did enjoy this read about what could possibly happen on a chartered sail cruise. I did go on a trip to Saint John's and this brought back wonderful memories of my trip to that area. I'm suggesting this to my brother to read because years ago he and a few friends did charter a boat around those islands. I enjoyed the characters in the book and the different backgrounds that brought them together on this cruise.

[Dee Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a kid who grew up enamored by Treasure Island, I’ve always been fascinated by sailing. This novel highlights the importance of trusting your crew and the dangers of not know who you’re renting from or if your friends are really your friends. I could not put this book down and my only wish was that it was longer as I would’ve loved to read more about the crews interactions especially the crew of the Kestrel.

Thank you Goodreads and Nelson Cover for the ARC. I also greatly appreciated the personalized note and signature. I look forward to reading your future works!

[MaryAnne Bolle · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lot of work reading this just to get to a lame ending.

[Liza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very knowledgeable sailor wrote an action sailing novel with mostly good people on board!!!!

A small taste of shipboard disaster, this shows what crews are made of in a short sea tale with great island descriptions and features of the Caribbean!!!!!

Even if you are an inexperienced sailor, this book has some very valuable lessons about sailing, the anatomy of a sailboat, and how people react to good and bad situations.........

[Gregory Forrer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly, an accomplished sailor wrote this book, and also evidently, an excellent story-teller! What we learn from this yarn is that occasionally even skilled seafarers take on a rogue event, and that Nelson Cover has done a great job harnessing the task of relaying the whitecaps in compelling print.

Get this book as your "Cover Starter" and then venture into the Sessions University trilogy by the same author!

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading From the Midst of Wickedness and enjoying it, I found Danced by the Light of the Moon also by Nelcon Cover. I enjoyed reading it too. In doing so, I was fascinated by - and learned a bit about - sailing (being a power boater myself). Character development was well done and enjoyed meeting an earlier version of the "Berger" personality.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has explained in detail all about sailing and the names of things on a sailboat. It introduces in detail all the characters that are going sailing on this trip. It was a very short book so i guess thats why I feel the story didn't go very far nor did it have a lot of action. A good book for people into sailing. thank you

[Dave G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little read.

[Marcia Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

hours of my life I'll never get back