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The Ferryman’s Ledger

Name: The Ferryman’s Ledger
Price: 8.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.7 (3 reviews)
Author: J. R. Caldwell

by J. R. Caldwell · published via Smithbook

The island ferry keeps a paper log of every passenger. One page is missing.

★★★★★ 4.7 · 3 reviews 17 readers English

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★★★★★

"The ledger idea is clever and he plays it fair. Every clue is there."

pri•••@readers.staging.smithbook.test · verified reader

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What it covers

Maineislandferrymissing person

About this book

Every crossing to Hatch Island is written by hand in the ferryman’s ledger: name, time, vehicle, weather. When a summer resident vanishes after Labor Day, the page for that afternoon has been razored out. Nora Tibbetts takes the ferry over to ask questions an island of two hundred people does not want to answer. The second Cape Ellis mystery.

Look inside · First chapter

Earl Haskell had kept the ledger for the Hatch Island ferry since 1988, one line per passenger, in blue ballpoint. He showed it to Nora on the bench in the wheelhouse, open to the middle, where a single page had been cut out so cleanly she could barely see the edge. “September third,” Earl said. “The afternoon run. That’s the day the Whitcomb woman went over and didn’t come back.” He had not noticed the page was missing until the sheriff called. He kept the ledger in the wheelhouse. Anybody coul

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Product details

Title: The Ferryman’s Ledger
Author: J. R. Caldwell
Format: Digital · browser reader
Language: English
Category: Mystery & Investigation
Delivery: In seconds · to your e-mail
Access: Lifetime · any device
Publisher: Independent · via Smithbook

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Reviews

4.7

★★★★★

3 reviews

5★2

4★1

3★0

2★0

1★0

★★★★★ · pri•••@readers.staging.smithbook.test9/24/2026

Nora keeps getting better

The ledger idea is clever and he plays it fair. Every clue is there.

★★★★★ · jan•••@readers.staging.smithbook.test9/10/2026

Even better than the first

The island setting is so claustrophobic. Great ending.

★★★★☆ · sam•••@readers.staging.smithbook.test8/24/2026

Gripping

I read it on the ferry to Peaks Island, which felt appropriate.

About the author

J. R. Caldwell

For twenty years I investigated insurance claims up and down the coast of Maine: boat fires, warehouse floods, one very suspicious lobster pound. Most people told me the truth. The ones who did not taught me how a story falls apart when you pull the right thread. My Cape Ellis books follow Nora Tibbetts, a harbormaster who keeps finding things the tide was supposed to take. I write early in the morning before the ferries start, in a kitchen that looks out on Casco Bay. I have a wife, two grown kids and a dory I keep meaning to paint.

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