Lobster Island

Off the coast of Maine, the Managwan Islands are so far out to sea that law and order in the 21st century is as sporadic as it was in Dodge City in the 19th.

Bug Hennessy and Crusty McGuire are the patriarchs of two rival island families that clash over rich lobster fishing grounds in a decades long feud. Crusty and Bug started out as friends in junior high, but the trajectories of their life paths followed radically different tracks. After a life time of hostility between their families, they rarely speak to one another. Until the morning Bug shot Crusty.

Lobster boat Captain Justine Hennessy, granddaughter to both Bug and Crusty, believes she holds the key to resolve the conflict between her two families, but the hatred and hostility runs deep and there are many secrets on both sides

The feud percolates below the surface for years, maybe a little poaching, a trawl line cut loose, until something happens to make the hatred boil over. Like when Bingo Hennessy accidentally murders Michael McGuire. Or when Scotty McGuire beats Benny Hennessy with a pool cue in a bar fight, leaving Benny with permanent brain damage. Then there’s the time when young Colin McGuire was falsely accused of raping Hannah Hennessy.

The most venomous animosity flows from the forbidden love affair between Scotty McGuire and Patsy Hennessy. Justine Hennessy was born when her mother was 15 and her father 16. After Scotty goes to prison and Patsy has a nervous breakdown, Justine grows up to be a fiercely independent woman. In a rare concession to her McGuire roots, Crusty allows her to become the skipper of her own boat, under her own license. But for the most part, most McGuires want nothing to do with her. Her mother’s family, the Hennessys, are more accepting, but there was always that “half-McGuire” factor that can’t be trusted.

Justine is a great lobster fisherman. She dreams of establishing a fishery co-operative to improve the lives of all Managwan lobstermen. But neither island family is interested in the seismic changes such a co-operative would bring to the islands. Old time Yankees are not inclined to change their ways, but the Hennessys and McGuires would rather kill each other, literally, than try something new. Justine believes a fishery co-operative might also hold the answer to resolving the feud between her two families once and for all.