“Between Tides” takes us from Civil War to World War II, from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras, and delves into the mysteries of the human heart.

Khoury, who has lived on North Carolina’s Outer Banks for over 40 years, tells us in an afterword that the novel is loosely based on a true story she discovered while researching the history of the Roanoke Island, that of “the man with two families”. who left his wife in Massachusetts and married a much younger woman in Cape Hatteras.

The real part of the story is intriguing on its own, made even more so by the coastal settings rich in shipwrecks and salvage services, waterfowl hunting and the forces of nature, not to mention the history of the 19th and 20th centuries. . Khoury obviously did extensive and thorough research to add to his own intimate knowledge and love of the coastal setting.

Then she used her writer’s imagination to flesh out the mysteries surrounding the known facts of history. Why did the man, whom she calls Gil Lodge, slowly leave his wife, Blythe, going back and forth from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras for a few years, until he eventually disappeared completely “between the tides”? Why did he abandon Blythe and eventually marry someone who was only 12 when he started his new life on the Outer Banks?