Set along Georgia's Golden Isles and the Carolina coast — where history runs deep and the tide keeps its own time.
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A Nora Banks Novel
A fisherman turns up dead on Battery Island. Boats are running dark through the channel. And the harbormaster already knows more than she can say.
Nora Banks returns in Book 2 of the Cape Fear Thriller Series.
The tide always turns. The only question is who it leaves behind.
"You remind me of Pat Conroy's writing. The descriptions of St. Simons surroundings and the characters in your book draw you into 1873 living on the island."— Jill Sluder · Amazon Verified Reviewer
Two worlds. Two stories. Each begins with a free short story — yours when you join the list.
A free short story · Saint Simons Island, Georgia
A Christmas Eve story at BluffLight. A stranger arrives carrying little more than a name and an old sorrow. Jesse and Jonas open the door.
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A free short story · Cape Fear River, Southport NC
Meet Nora Banks before everything changed — before the marina, before the job, before she learned what silence can cost.
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Two worlds: BluffLight historical fiction and the Cape Fear Thriller Series.
BluffLight Series · Book 1
A woman in hiding. A lighthouse. A second chance on Georgia's Golden Isles.
Saint Simons Island, 1873. Jesse Whitmore arrives with her two children and a past she refuses to name, looking for nothing more than a place to stop running. But as a new lighthouse rises from the eastern bluff, she's drawn into its construction, and into the path of the man building it. Then the past she fled begins to close in.
Winner, 2025 International Firebird Book Award for Southern Fiction
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Cape Fear Thriller Series · Book 1
A sunken boat. A family secret. And a harbormaster who won't let it stay buried.
Nora Banks is the harbormaster of Southport Marina on the Cape Fear coast of North Carolina. When her cousin Mary surfaces with evidence that the sinking of the Miss Carolina, the accident that killed three people and broke Nora's father, was no accident at all, Nora is pulled into an investigation that reaches deep into the power structure of Brunswick County.
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Cape Fear Thriller Series · Book 2
A fisherman turns up dead on Battery Island. Boats are running dark through the channel. And the harbormaster already knows more than she can say.
Coming Soon
Blake Gunnels, Author, writes fiction set along the Southern coast, using invented characters to carry readers into real places he knows deeply - the marshes of Saint Simons Island, the waterways of coastal North Carolina, and the harbors and barrier islands where history never stays buried for long.
By trade, he is a landscape architect. His working life is spent helping restore worn places — communities, resorts, and coastal properties — and helping them find their way back. That same instinct runs through his fiction: the belief that second chances matter, that places carry memory, and that most people are trying, in their own way, to find solid ground.
When he is not writing or designing, he is somewhere on the water with Tammy, looking for the next unmarked trail and the perfect margarita.
He is the author of By the Light of the Bluff and the Nora Banks Cape Fear Thriller Series.
Contact Blake: blake@blufflight.com
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"By the Light of the Bluff is a powerful, sweeping narrative that will capture the reader's attention from the very first lines... The lighthouse, with its powerful beam cutting through the darkness, was the perfect analogy for the way the caring and loving community of Saint Simons managed to cut through Jesse's darkness and flood her doubts, suspicions, and life with love and light. I highly recommend this read."
— Grant Leishman, Readers' Favorite"A beautiful, well-written story of growth, strength, and resilience. Couldn't put the book down — a true inspiration to those who struggle with regaining inner strength."— joann m ciaffaglione · Amazon Verified
"Made you feel as if you were on St Simons and part of the island life. This book will have you thinking about the characters long after you put it down."— Amorton · Amazon Verified
"I couldn't wait to know the ending but was enjoying the book so much I didn't want it to end. I'm looking forward to the sequel."— Linda B · Amazon Verified
The coast remembers more than it shows. These are stories about what surfaces — and what doesn't.
Find Blake In Person
Confirmed public appearances where readers can meet Blake, browse the books, and pick up signed copies.
Confirmed
Lake Eola Park · Orlando, FL · Author booth — signed copies available
Confirmed
Oviedo, FL · Author booth — signed copies available
Recent Events
Past
Crafts in the Village · St. Simons Island, GA
Past
Shelf Life Books · Altamonte Springs, FL · 1:00-3:00 PM
Past
Crafts in the Village · St. Simons Island, GA
Only confirmed public, in-person appearances are listed here. More events will be added as they are accepted and confirmed.
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