Topsail Island. Paul Boardman

A novel based on the history of Topsail Island, NC, beginning with the final days of piracy in the era dominated by the infamous Blackbeard. The story winds its way through a suspicious search for Blackbeard&#39;s treasure in The Dirty Thirties, the subsequent use of the island as a US Military Rocket Testing Facility after World War 2, through the tourism boom in the 1990&#39;s, the real estate crash of 2008 and culminating in the island&#39;s subsequent recovery.<br><br>Wendell Forbes, a young real estate developer, dreamed only of success when he purchased development property on Topsail Island. When the bottom fell out of the market, facing bankruptcy, he devised an audacious plan to save his subdivision. Unfortunately his adversary was desperately awaiting Forbes&#39; failure. His plan was to acquire both the land and Blackbeard&#39;s elusive treasure.