Scent of Lilacs

About the Book

A story of the lasting power of love, told amidst the grandeur of the Atlantic coast from Block Island, Rhode Island, Ocean City and Assateague Island, Maryland  and south to the Florida Keys. Hank Gaskins, running to escape the consequences of a barroom fight, attempts to hide in the sword fishing industry of Block Island. There, one summer, he meets a woman who will change his life forever. And then she is gone.

Scent of Lilacs is an enduring love story of a relationship between a seafaring man and the woman that captures his heart; it is a tale of a relationship that spans life and death and of the special woman that makes it so.  

Gaskins goes on to become one of the country’s most successful lawyers and businessmen, finding riches, power and prestige almost beyond imagining. In his later years, he returns to Block Island seeking a final reunion with the woman of his dreams and bringing the answer to the mystery of what had happened fifty years before.

From the pulpits and dories of the Block Island sword fishing fleet of the 1950s, to the conference rooms of the major law firms and the halls of power in Washington, to the creation of ‘Buffington,’ Gaskins’ famous estate, and a return to the sea, the author spins a tale of the sea and of the land, of love and of tragedy, of a lifetime searching for answers, and the events engendered when the answers are known. A surprising ending to a larger and a longer than life love story.  

About the Author

In 2003 the author published his first novel, From Lands Over to critical acclaim.  Set primarily in Ocean City, Maryland, it became a local bestseller in the coastal resort markets of the mid-Atlantic. With Scent of Lilacs Cathell broadens his literary horizons, beginning and ending his story on Block Island, Rhode Island and flashing back and forth between that island and islands to the south, especially the region around Ocean City. 

The author is a judge on a state supreme court and the author of well over a thousand opinions. In addition to his first novel he has been published in legal publications. He is married, has two sons and a daughter and two grandchildren.

Scent of Lilacs is dedicated to his wife, Charlotte and her father, William G. Kerbin, Jr.