Closed Sea weaves together a colorful history of whalers and pirates, Revolutionary patriots and loyalists, fishermen and loggers, iron masters and life saving crews, sportsmen and holiday makers. Filled with historical anecdote and keen observations of sea and shore, it is a compelling portrait of the Barnegat Bay region and its history. With a naturalist's eye and a sailor's experience, environmental historian Kent Mountford opens our eyes to the Shore's past, its shifting inlets, disappearing islands, dangerous tides and shoals. Moving inland, he documents the Pinelands environment and the industries it has supported over the centuries. Closed Sea tells the remarkable history of a fascinating place, a place of great beauty, danger and opportunity, a place that has cast its spell on generations of people. This book is published with support, in part, from the Ocean County Historical Society, the Barnegat Bay Estuary Program, and the Tuckerton Seaport.

A narrative son of Barnegat Bay shares an insidder's chronicle of a culture that has all but disappeared. It is a story that celebrates the bay, the Jersey Shore, and the Pine Barrens with a genuine and deeply felt sensitivity.

The Jersey shore is for sun, surfing and boating. However, when a kidnapping occurs at the posh Mantoloking Yacht Pavilion, the fun and games take a back seat for teen sleuths Josie Hart and Becky Silang who were raised on true crime mysteries. A baby kidnapping baffles the local police and the FBI. How did it happen? How did the kidnapper get-a-way? When the ransom demand calls for the suitcase of money to be dropped in Barnegat Bay at the end of a secluded pier, the FBI cunningly stakes out the location ready to strike when the kidnapper takes the money. But kidnapper never shows up. The baby is returned and the money disappears. Did the kidnapper get the money or was the million dollars lost in the currents of the bay? With more twists and turns than a roller coaster, Josie and Becky take one lead at a time to unravel the extremely clever plans executed by this crafty kidnapper.

Her family's cottage on the New Jersey shore was a place of freedom and innocence for Julie Bauer—until her seventeen-year-old sister, Isabel, was murdered. It's been more than forty years since that August night, but Julie's memories of her sister's death still shape her world. Now someone from her past is raising questions about what really happened that night. About Julie's own complicity. About a devastating secret her mother kept from them all. About the person who went to prison for Izzy's murder—and the person who didn't. Faced with questions and armed with few answers, Julie must gather the courage to revisit her past and untangle the complex emotions that led to one unspeakable act of violence on the bay at midnight.