Luke's Dream

Book excerpt: Luke Coffin is a hardworking, easy going, Maine lobsterman who asks little more from life than to earn his living on the ocean aboard his boat, Luke's Dream, and on Friday nights, to drink a few beers with his comical buddy, "Munsey" Munson. Luke's life changes when, in the early 1980s, he meets and falls deeply for Emily Goodwin, a student at prestigious Bowdoin College, whose laughter fills his heart and whose tragic death shatters his world. Luke, overwhelmed by his loss and hell-bent on justice, plots to commit the perfect crime . . . to avenge Emily's murder. Brian Daniels writes with compelling intensity of the bittersweet complexities of human emotion that accompany life, love and loss. With its eclectic and fascinating cast of classic Maine characters, Luke's Dream is, at once, a story of tender romance and a riveting suspense thriller. Brian Daniels is an avid outdoorsman, a lover of nature, a newspaper columnist, musician and songwriter. His humorous column, Thoughts of an Average Joe by Joe Wright, is featured in newspapers throughout northern New England. Many of his songs, including four title tracks, have been recorded by eight different artists. Since 1984, he has practiced optometry in Brunswick, Maine, where he lives with his wife, Laurene. Inspired by the diverse and fascinating parade of personalities that pass through his office and the musicians with whom he has worked over the years, he has drawn on their characters and their stories to write his first novel, Luke's Dream.