About The Series
The Wind Chaser Suspense Series
The Wind Chaser Suspense Series follows Carter McDowell, a seasoned charter captain haunted by personal loss, and Kat Edwards Deano, a feisty investigative journalist whose search for truth repeatedly pulls her into danger.
Set against the vivid backdrop of the Bahama islands, the series blends suspense, romance, political intrigue, historical mystery, and authentic blue-water sailing. From government offices to isolated cays and hidden reefs and storm-darkened waters, each novel carries readers into a world where beauty and danger sail side by side.
Written with firsthand knowledge of cruising the Bahamas and Caribbean, Janet Howle brings authenticity to every anchorage, passage, and threat at sea.
About Janet Howle
Janet Howle is a writer with a voyager’s spirit. Her love of storytelling began when she was ten years old, writing a childhood tale about a girl who runs away to join the circus. Though that first story never quite found its ending, the desire to write stayed with her.
Janet graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in physical therapy and specialized in pediatrics. Later, she completed graduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and joined the faculty there. Throughout her clinical and academic career, she wrote extensively in nonfiction, including case studies and professional articles. However, not until she retired, did she return to writing fiction.
Her fiction is shaped by a life full of movement, family, and adventure. Janet and her husband, Ed, raised six children, lived in Paris, competed in vintage car endurance rallies, and spent years sailing the Bahamas and Caribbean. Their time aboard their Camper & Nicholson 40, including homeschooling their youngest sons while cruising. These experiences became the foundation for the world of Uncharted and Uncovered.
The Wind Chaser Suspense Series draws from Janet’s firsthand sailing experience, her love of the Bahamas, and her fascination with the way personal courage is tested when danger rises beneath the surface of paradise. She claims the people, places and adventures might appear as either truth or fiction on the pages she writes.
Author's Story
Inspired by Real Sailing Adventures
The world of Wind Chaser was born from years of cruising the Bahamas and Caribbean. Janet Howle understands the rhythm of life aboard a sailboat: challenging weather, precise navigation , the beauty and unpredictability of open water, and the vulnerability of self-reliance.
That lived experience gives her novels a level of authenticity that sailing readers will recognize and suspense readers will feel. Every passage, anchorage, storm, and hidden danger carries the texture of a place the author knows deeply.
Uncharted
Navigating paradise has never been so treacherous.
Carter McDowell has lost nearly everything. Haunted by guilt and grief, he is barely keeping his charter sailboat, Wind Chaser, afloat when a desperate cry cuts through the darkness of the Bahamian sea.
Kat Deano, a fearless investigative reporter, is in the Bahamas searching for answers about the mysterious disappearance of her twin brother. Thrown from a boat and left to die, she is rescued by Carter, but safety is only an illusion. As Carter and Kat’s lives become increasingly entangled, they are pulled into a deadly conspiracy stretching from the office of the Bahamian Prime Minister to the remote island of Andros.
UNCHARTED connects the violent years of the Colombian cocaine trade in the islands to a modern-day plot that threatens both the U.S and the Bahamas. Uncharted is a gripping cross-genre suspense novel filled with danger, romance, betrayal, and the unforgiving power of the sea.
Uncovered
Secrets rise to the surface as the past and present collide.
Kat Edwards, outgoing Minister of Tourism, has worked hard to protect the image of the Bahamas as a safe and beautiful island paradise. But when a headline reveals evidence of a possible neo-Nazi cell connected to an undisclosed Bahamian location, Kat cannot ignore the threat.
Shadowed by danger, Kat rejoins Carter, sailing around the breathtaking Exuma Islands to follow numerous, but often misleading leads.Rejoining Captain Carter McDowell aboard Wind Chaser, Kat sets sail through the breathtaking Exuma Islands in search of answers. What begins as an investigation into modern extremism soon uncovers disturbing connections to the Bahamas’ World War II past, the Duke of Windsor, hidden loyalties, and secrets some people planned to keep buried.
With treacherous seas, misleading clues, and danger closing in, what Kat and Carter chose to do matters, but they must decide whom they can trust before pursuing the truth costs them everything.
Uncovered is a harrowing voyage through the southern Bahamas, uncovering the truth in a gripping saga of suspense, romance, and intrigue.
Customer Reviews
Praise for Janet Howle’s Suspense Fiction
“Readers are drawn into a world of stormy seas, treacherous reefs, complex characters, and secrets waiting beneath the surface.”
“Janet Howle blends sailing authenticity, suspense, romance, and island intrigue into a series that feels both cinematic and deeply personal.”
” Fast-paced action set in the exotic Bahamas with memorable characters and intrigue. A must read for sailors and lovers of suspense alike.”
“Howle’s knowledge of both the Bahamian setting and sailing imparts authenticity which elevates the story and makes it utterly engaging.”
“Janet Howle blends sailing authenticity, suspense, romance, and island intrigue into a series that feels both cinematic and deeply personal.”
“As a fellow sailor, the details really capture the cruising life and cultural flavor of the Bahamas.”