Phoebe Allen is a 40-something-year-old widow making a quiet life for herself on Owl Island, a quaint island tucked off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. She supports herself weaving fishing nets for the locals and is the recipient of the amorous attention of a local artist, Ivan. Daughter Laurienne is in her early 20s and works in Seattle.

Life for Phoebe hasn't always been so simple. As a teenager and young woman, she was headstrong and full of emotion. At a tender age, she fell in love with an older man named Whitney Traynor. A few years later, a torrid affair ensued, setting the stage for a lifetime of heartache and secrets, including questions about the identity of Laurienne's father.

After 20 years of trying to forget Whitney, now a famous independent filmmaker, he unexpectedly buys a house on the close-knit island. His reappearance conjures up old feelings and opens the lock on old secrets that Phoebe has been trying to repress for years.

Overall, OWL ISLAND is a captivating and mysterious read even though the storytelling is a bit predictable at times. Coburn does a fine job exploring the tangled web of emotions against the backdrop of the island's rugged and windswept landscape.