In Brief: Nantucket Sextant

By Mary Keating. Self-published, 2024. 136 pages. $16.95/paperback; $9.99/eBook.

This novel takes place on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts, and is set both in contemporary times and the 1700s. The introduction includes a scene from 1702 when prominent Quaker storeowner Mary Coffin Starbuck (based on the real-life English Quaker who moved with her family to Nantucket as a teenager around 1660) is in meeting for worship and preparing for a visiting minister. The author also introduces readers to the French American writer Michel-Guillaum Saint Jean de Crevecoeur, who marveled at the nonviolence and women’s power in Nantucket when he visited in the eighteenth century.

The scene changes to the twenty-first century when the townspeople are preparing for the annual Christmas Stroll holiday celebration. The author introduces dramatic tension quickly as the narrative vantage point shifts from one character to another. One protagonist, Molly, crashes her car due to ice on the road as she drives herself to the hospital for treatment in a medical emergency. Readers first meet Friend Andrea as she attends the Quaker burial of her mother. Andrea considers leaving the Quaker faith of her childhood, but memories of worshiping with her mother bring her back. Molly’s friend Weezie and her romantic interest, Charles, round out the cast of characters.

The book explores limitations to gender equality and LGBTQ acceptance in the town’s Quaker meeting while weaving an engaging story of multidimensional characters.