Who has a want-to-read list ready for summer vacation? We do! Here’s a book recommendation that you will want to add to your beach read list. Madd Inlet by author Tim Swink is set in nearby Sunset Beach and Bird Island, North Carolina. Here’s what you need to know—including when and where you can get a copy of the book for yourself. It’s the perfect novel to tuck into your beach bag during your next Ocean Isle Beach vacation. Enjoy!

Is Madd Inlet a real place in Sunset Beach, NC?

Bird Island and Madd Inlet are integrally linked. Bird Island is approximately 1,300 acres adjacent to the coastal resort town of Sunset Beach, North Carolina.Bird Island (home of the famous Kindred Spirit Mailbox) was previously separated from Sunset Beach by a tidal creek (Madd Inlet) that could be easily crossed only at low tide. Accretion of ocean sand, due to hurricane activity in the 1990s as well as environmental activity to fill in dune grass, has gradually filled in the tidal creek so that two separate islands became one.

What is Madd Inlet about?

In 1969, during the crux of the Vietnam war, Jack Tagger is on the run. As the war in Southeast Asia rages on, he has made the moral decision to resist the draft. In his effort to avoid the authorities and the war, he seeks refuge on a desolate coastal barrier island where unbeknownst to him, while avoiding one war, he finds himself unwittingly caught in the middle of another deadly land-war between two very powerful men at Sunset Beach, North Carolina.

When a native American shaman summons the spirit of an innocent victim of that conflict, Jack is again forced to make a potentially lethal choice between good and evil and he learns that, like Madd Inlet, what runs smooth and meandering on top does not always belie what runs just beneath the surface.

Read more about the novel here.

When is the book available for purchase?

Tim Swink’s new book Madd Inlet is set to be published in the Spring of 2022 both in paperback and eBook form with a release date of March 7, 2022. Preorders are available now.

Where can I get a copy?

Here’s where you can find the novel both online and in stores.

• Amazon:Madd Inlet is available starting March 7, 2022 in paperback or on the Kindle app. Pre-orders are available now.

• Barnes & Noble: Available in NOOK books as an eBook.

• TouchPoint Press: Wholesale orders are available through the publisher’s site.

• Local NC Bookstores: Shop and buy locally at independent bookstores including Islands Art & Books in Ocean Isle Beach and at Pelican Book Store in Sunset Beach.

About the author

Tim Swink is the grandson of a North Carolina tobacco farmer. After working in the legal profession as an Attorney’s Investigator for over twenty years, he has come back home to his first love, writing.

Prior to his legal career, he was the Managing Editor at a small newspaper near Pinehurst, North Carolina. He has worked for USA Today, the Greensboro News and Record, Tarheel Magazine and is currently a contributing writer for O. Henry Magazine.

Tim was voted “Best Local Author“ in the Greensboro News and Record’s 2014 Reader’s Choice Award, runner-up in 2015, and “Best Local Author“ again, in 2016. He brings a lifetime of experience into his novels: Curing Time and Madd Inlet. Tim Swink and his wife currently live in Greensboro, North Carolina.

You can read more about him and the latest information about his work attimswink.com.

Save the Date for This Summer’s Book Release Party

Meet the author and get your copy of Madd Inlet signed at the book release party this summer. Mark your calendar for Wednesday, June 29, 2022 from 6pm until sunset “at Sunset” located at Sunset Lane (off 40th St.). Enjoy a cash bar, craft beer by Makai Brewing, wine by Silver Coast Winery, and live music provided by the acoustic duo “ Doss Eddies “ from Wilmington, NC. Books on site by Pelican Books of Sunset Beach or bring your own copy and have the author sign.