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Tiller Galloway #1
Hatteras Blue
In a graveyard of the Atlantic, a treacherous sercret has been buried...until now.
A U-boat went down in 1945, and now, more than 40 years later, the bodies of the three crewmen have surfaced near Hatteras Island. But their chilling reappearance has unleashed a tide of powerful forces--Nazis with a ruthless plan to corner the South American drug market, and a shadowy figure with his own dangerous agenda.
We ex-Navy SEAL salvage diver Tiller Galloway probes beneath the surface, he finds himself face-to-face with a killer in a gut-wrenching firefight that cilmaxes hundreds of feet below sea level.
Spilling with underwater adventure that will leave you gasping for air, bestselling author David Poyer writes gripping undersea thrillers in the spellbinding tradition of Clive Cussler and John D. MacDonald.
A U-boat went down in 1945, and now, more than 40 years later, the bodies of the three crewmen have surfaced near Hatteras Island. But their chilling reappearance has unleashed a tide of powerful forces--Nazis with a ruthless plan to corner the South American drug market, and a shadowy figure with his own dangerous agenda.
We ex-Navy SEAL salvage diver Tiller Galloway probes beneath the surface, he finds himself face-to-face with a killer in a gut-wrenching firefight that cilmaxes hundreds of feet below sea level.
Spilling with underwater adventure that will leave you gasping for air, bestselling author David Poyer writes gripping undersea thrillers in the spellbinding tradition of Clive Cussler and John D. MacDonald.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
David Poyer
94 books241 followersAka D.C. Poyer.
DAVID C. POYER was born in DuBois, PA in 1949. He grew up in Brockway, Emlenton, and Bradford, in western Pennsylvania, and graduated from Bradford Area High School in 1967. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1971, and later received a master's degree from George Washington University.
Poyer's active and reserve naval service included sea duty in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Arctic, Caribbean, and Pacific, and shore duty at the Pentagon, Surface Warfare Development Group, Joint Forces Command, and in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. He retired in July 2001.
Poyer began writing in 1976, and is the author of nearly fifty books, including THE MED, THE GULF, THE CIRCLE, THE PASSAGE, TOMAHAWK, CHINA SEA, BLACK STORM, THE COMMAND, THE THREAT, KOREA STRAIT, THE WEAPON, THE CRISIS, THE CRUISER, TIPPING POINT, HUNTER KILLER, DEEP WAR, OVERTHROW, VIOLENT PEACE, ARCTIC SEA, and THE ACADEMY, best-selling Navy novels; THE DEAD OF WINTER, WINTER IN THE HEART, AS THE WOLF LOVES WINTER, THUNDER ON THE MOUNTAIN, and THE HILL, set in Western Pennsylvania; and HATTERAS BLUE, BAHAMAS BLUE, LOUISIANA BLUE, and DOWN TO A SUNLESS SEA, underwater diving adventure.
Other noteworthy books are THE ONLY THING TO FEAR, a historical thriller, THE RETURN OF PHILO T. McGIFFIN, a comic novel of Annapolis, and the three volumes of The Civil War at Sea, FIRE ON THE WATERS, A COUNTRY OF OUR OWN, and THAT ANVIL OF OUR SOULS. He's also written two sailing thrillers, GHOSTING and THE WHITENESS OF THE WHALE. His work has been published in Britain, translated into Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Hugarian, and Serbo-Croatian; recorded for audiobooks, iPod downloads, and Kindle, and selected by the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club and other book clubs. Rights to several properties have been sold or optioned for films, and two novellas appeared in the Night Bazaar series of fantasy anthologies. Most recently, he's published two craft books, WRITING IN THE AGE OF AI and WRITING YOUR MEMOIR IN THE AGE OF AI.
Poyer has taught or lectured at Annapolis, Flagler College, University of Pittsburgh, Old Dominion University, the Armed Forces Staff College, the University of North Florida, Christopher Newport University, and other institutions. He has been a guest on PBS's "Writer to Writer" series and on Voice of America, and has appeared at the Southern Festival of Books and many other literary events. He taught in the MA/MFA in Creative Writing program at Wilkes University for sixteen years. He is currently core faculty at the Ossabaw Writers Retreat, a fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a board member of the Northern Appalachia Review.
He lives on Virginia's Eastern Shore with novelist Lenore Hart.
DAVID C. POYER was born in DuBois, PA in 1949. He grew up in Brockway, Emlenton, and Bradford, in western Pennsylvania, and graduated from Bradford Area High School in 1967. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1971, and later received a master's degree from George Washington University.
Poyer's active and reserve naval service included sea duty in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Arctic, Caribbean, and Pacific, and shore duty at the Pentagon, Surface Warfare Development Group, Joint Forces Command, and in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. He retired in July 2001.
Poyer began writing in 1976, and is the author of nearly fifty books, including THE MED, THE GULF, THE CIRCLE, THE PASSAGE, TOMAHAWK, CHINA SEA, BLACK STORM, THE COMMAND, THE THREAT, KOREA STRAIT, THE WEAPON, THE CRISIS, THE CRUISER, TIPPING POINT, HUNTER KILLER, DEEP WAR, OVERTHROW, VIOLENT PEACE, ARCTIC SEA, and THE ACADEMY, best-selling Navy novels; THE DEAD OF WINTER, WINTER IN THE HEART, AS THE WOLF LOVES WINTER, THUNDER ON THE MOUNTAIN, and THE HILL, set in Western Pennsylvania; and HATTERAS BLUE, BAHAMAS BLUE, LOUISIANA BLUE, and DOWN TO A SUNLESS SEA, underwater diving adventure.
Other noteworthy books are THE ONLY THING TO FEAR, a historical thriller, THE RETURN OF PHILO T. McGIFFIN, a comic novel of Annapolis, and the three volumes of The Civil War at Sea, FIRE ON THE WATERS, A COUNTRY OF OUR OWN, and THAT ANVIL OF OUR SOULS. He's also written two sailing thrillers, GHOSTING and THE WHITENESS OF THE WHALE. His work has been published in Britain, translated into Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Hugarian, and Serbo-Croatian; recorded for audiobooks, iPod downloads, and Kindle, and selected by the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club and other book clubs. Rights to several properties have been sold or optioned for films, and two novellas appeared in the Night Bazaar series of fantasy anthologies. Most recently, he's published two craft books, WRITING IN THE AGE OF AI and WRITING YOUR MEMOIR IN THE AGE OF AI.
Poyer has taught or lectured at Annapolis, Flagler College, University of Pittsburgh, Old Dominion University, the Armed Forces Staff College, the University of North Florida, Christopher Newport University, and other institutions. He has been a guest on PBS's "Writer to Writer" series and on Voice of America, and has appeared at the Southern Festival of Books and many other literary events. He taught in the MA/MFA in Creative Writing program at Wilkes University for sixteen years. He is currently core faculty at the Ossabaw Writers Retreat, a fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a board member of the Northern Appalachia Review.
He lives on Virginia's Eastern Shore with novelist Lenore Hart.
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June 12, 2026
Hatteras Island is one of my favourite parts of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It extends along 50 miles of the North Carolina coast, from Oregon Inlet in the north to Hatteras Inlet in the south, and in many places it is so narrow that there is barely room for North Carolina Route 12 in the center, the ocean to the east, and the sounds to the west. And as Hatteras Island centers on Cape Hatteras and the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” where countless ships have sunk between the colonial era and the present day, it is a quite suitable locale for an underwater suspense novel like David Poyer’s 1989 thriller Hatteras Blue.
Poyer, a native of DuBois, Pennsylvania, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1971, served at sea all over the world during a 30-year naval career, and has written prolifically both during and after his time as a naval officer. He is the author of several different series of novels; Hatteras Blue is one of five that focus on a naval hero-turned soldier of fortune named Tiller Galloway.
Tiller (who certainly has a suitable first name for a sailor) comes from an old Outer Banks family of nautical heroes who served in the U.S. Lifesaving Service and the U.S. Navy; indeed, the book begins with one of Tiller’s ancestors, Lieutenant Commander Lyle Galloway II, leading the destroyer U.S.S. Russell in combat with a German U-boat off the North Carolina coast in 1945. The Galloways are described by another character in the book as “Good family. No, excellent family, known up and down the Carolina Banks for seamanship and courage for at least a hundred years” (p. 101).
But Tiller Galloway, at first, might seem to be the bad apple who has fallen a long way from the family tree. An ill-advised foray into drug-smuggling got him a brief term of incarceration at the state prison in Raleigh; and now that he is out of prison, he is being monitored by Bernice Hirsch, a brand-new Dare County parole officer with a face that is “striking; it made men look back at her, and then, a second time” (p. 19).
Alright, imagine this: every male first-time criminal offender in Dare County, North Carolina, upon his release from prison, is assigned a young female parole officer who is kind, smart, beautiful, and unattached. Well! That ought to cut down on recidivism along the coast.
As the modern portion of the novel begins, Bernice is checking in on Tiller at the same time that Tiller, who runs a diving and salvage business out of his dilapidated old boat, is getting a business visit from an older man named Richard Keyes, who shows signs of wealth and exudes a certain air of menace. Keyes, it turns out, wants to hire Tiller for a sort of treasure hunt – one that involves a sunken German U-boat from the Second World War. The submarine, we eventually learn, is said to be loaded with gold hoarded by the Nazi regime and sent away from Germany as the regime was collapsing.
(This plot element of Hatteras Blue might interest many Outer Banks readers. Anyone with ties to the OBX diving community knows that one of the most popular sunken-ship destinations for divers is the U-85, a Type VII-B German submarine that was sunk off Bodie Island by the destroyer U.S.S. Roper in April of 1942.)
Keyes tells Tiller, “You’re the only one who knows about this so far,” and adds, “Let me warn you now, I wouldn’t like it if you talked about this with anyone else. It would benefit neither of us.” In response, Tiller tells Keyes, “Don’t threaten me, amigo. Has a bad effect. Any ship that went down off Hatteras, at least in the last hundred years, it’s in the records. And if it had anything worth money in it, nothing on the Shelf is too deep for a big firm with the right gear. “There’d have been salvors out there a long time ago” (p. 50). The book abounds in action-story dialogue of this kind.
Eventually, Tiller and Keyes work out a business arrangement, and Bernice comes along on the boat’s first trip out. This makes the voyage more interesting, for the reader, than it would be if the boat ride were a men-only affair. But would a young woman, alone on a boat far out at sea with a group of men, really go sunbathing in a “Brazilian-cut bottom, so skimpy she’d had to shave for it,” along with a “tiny bandeau top” (p. 106)? I sincerely doubt it. That aspect of the book seems to be here only to emphasize the menace caused by Keyes’s lustful attentions toward Bernice. We see much too much fidelity here to the male-oriented conventions of the traditional sea-adventure novel.
From this point, action ensues – lots and lots of action. Yet the action scenes were not the parts of Hatteras Blue that I most enjoyed. I found myself focusing, rather, on how well Poyer evokes the textures of life on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, as in this passage where Tiller is taking a motorcycle ride home to Hatteras Island, after returning from a search for information on the mainland:
It took almost four hours to get to Hatteras Island, though it was less than fifty miles in a straight line. He had to wait twice for ferries, once from the mainland to Ocracoke, then again to Hatteras itself. At last the familiar beam flicked overhead, wiping out the stars. He gassed at the Red Drum in Buxton and headed north on an all-but-deserted road. Behind him, Hatteras Light dropped away. Empty marsh and dune, Park Service land, yielded darkly before his humming tires.
The lonely roar of surf followed him for miles north along the shore. From the speeding machine he looked out on the Sound. It shimmered silver beneath a newly-risen moon. To his right, between occasional gaps in the dunes, came the answering glimmer of the breaking sea. Past tiny villages, a few score scattered homes, lifted on pilings to let hurricane surf roll beneath. Past the rising bones of the new condominiums….Past the shuttered windows and flaking shingles of the old lifesaving station. (p. 152)
But back to the action. A sea-adventure book should have sharks. Does this sea-adventure book have sharks? Yes! On one of his dives down to the U-boat, Tiller Galloway faces off with a large, evidently hungry, and unquestionably determined hammerhead shark:
He jerked his head back to the hammerhead. It had neither wavered nor slowed at the sudden flood of light. Seen head-on, the shark formed a brightly-lit star. It grew rapidly larger, and he realized it was headed for him this time. He brought his tanks up with his left arm to cover himself, and thrust the torch out as well in an unconscious fending-off motion.
The shark flicked its tail and hit him, harder than a defensive lineman’s block, knocking him down and spinning him face-first into the bottom, hands empty. The torch flickered and went out. He flattened against hard sand, breathless, defenseless, waiting for the end. (p. 206)
Is this the end for Tiller Galloway? Well, as Hatteras Blue is the first of a series of Tiller Galloway novels, I certainly hope not.
Hatteras Blue offers late-in-the-game betrayals, a mini-sub filled with bad guys, and references to all that Nazi gold on board the sub as the “Tarnhelm” – a magic helmet from Norse mythology whose “wearer could change into any form he desired….In the myths, it was the key to recovering the Ring of the Nibelungen. It gave power over gods and men; it alone could rebuild shattered Asgard, after its destruction” (p. 256). You see? I told you that this novel was plot-heavy. But it certainly offers the things that an action novel is supposed to offer.
And is of interest to me for another reason. I’ve been visiting the Outer Banks with family for more than three decades now. Our preferred OBX destination, back in those days, was the town of Rodanthe, on Hatteras Island. It was a thriving little beach town, with attractions like a go-kart track and the longest fishing pier on that stretch of the coast. The Down Under beachside restaurant, with its Australian-themed décor, served up delicious, freshly-caught seafood quicker than you could say “G’day!”
Back in 1993 or so, I happened into Jo Bob’s Trading Post, a convenience store on the ocean side of North Carolina Route 12, and saw in the metal book rack a mass-market paperback copy of Hatteras Blue. It looked like a fun, locally-focused beach read, and I thought to myself, “I really must read this book sometime.”
Thirty years later, much has changed on Hatteras Island, and particularly in Rodanthe. Rising sea levels are causing an increasing number of oceanside houses to collapse into the sea (the footage is available on YouTube). The go-kart race track closed long ago, and blades of grass grow up through the cracks in the concrete. The fishing pier was cut to half its original size by Hurricane Isabel. The Down Under and a growing number of other businesses have closed. Rodanthe is starting to look like a coastal equivalent of that dying Texas town in The Last Picture Show.
And my old favourite seaside convenience store, Jo Bob’s Trading Post, is another of those old Rodanthe businesses that have passed into history. I don’t know who Jo Bob actually is, or where he or she might be – but I wish I could search Jo Bob up and tell them that I enjoyed shopping there, and that I’m grateful to them for introducing me to David Poyer and Hatteras Blue. It really is a fun little novel.
Poyer, a native of DuBois, Pennsylvania, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1971, served at sea all over the world during a 30-year naval career, and has written prolifically both during and after his time as a naval officer. He is the author of several different series of novels; Hatteras Blue is one of five that focus on a naval hero-turned soldier of fortune named Tiller Galloway.
Tiller (who certainly has a suitable first name for a sailor) comes from an old Outer Banks family of nautical heroes who served in the U.S. Lifesaving Service and the U.S. Navy; indeed, the book begins with one of Tiller’s ancestors, Lieutenant Commander Lyle Galloway II, leading the destroyer U.S.S. Russell in combat with a German U-boat off the North Carolina coast in 1945. The Galloways are described by another character in the book as “Good family. No, excellent family, known up and down the Carolina Banks for seamanship and courage for at least a hundred years” (p. 101).
But Tiller Galloway, at first, might seem to be the bad apple who has fallen a long way from the family tree. An ill-advised foray into drug-smuggling got him a brief term of incarceration at the state prison in Raleigh; and now that he is out of prison, he is being monitored by Bernice Hirsch, a brand-new Dare County parole officer with a face that is “striking; it made men look back at her, and then, a second time” (p. 19).
Alright, imagine this: every male first-time criminal offender in Dare County, North Carolina, upon his release from prison, is assigned a young female parole officer who is kind, smart, beautiful, and unattached. Well! That ought to cut down on recidivism along the coast.
As the modern portion of the novel begins, Bernice is checking in on Tiller at the same time that Tiller, who runs a diving and salvage business out of his dilapidated old boat, is getting a business visit from an older man named Richard Keyes, who shows signs of wealth and exudes a certain air of menace. Keyes, it turns out, wants to hire Tiller for a sort of treasure hunt – one that involves a sunken German U-boat from the Second World War. The submarine, we eventually learn, is said to be loaded with gold hoarded by the Nazi regime and sent away from Germany as the regime was collapsing.
(This plot element of Hatteras Blue might interest many Outer Banks readers. Anyone with ties to the OBX diving community knows that one of the most popular sunken-ship destinations for divers is the U-85, a Type VII-B German submarine that was sunk off Bodie Island by the destroyer U.S.S. Roper in April of 1942.)
Keyes tells Tiller, “You’re the only one who knows about this so far,” and adds, “Let me warn you now, I wouldn’t like it if you talked about this with anyone else. It would benefit neither of us.” In response, Tiller tells Keyes, “Don’t threaten me, amigo. Has a bad effect. Any ship that went down off Hatteras, at least in the last hundred years, it’s in the records. And if it had anything worth money in it, nothing on the Shelf is too deep for a big firm with the right gear. “There’d have been salvors out there a long time ago” (p. 50). The book abounds in action-story dialogue of this kind.
Eventually, Tiller and Keyes work out a business arrangement, and Bernice comes along on the boat’s first trip out. This makes the voyage more interesting, for the reader, than it would be if the boat ride were a men-only affair. But would a young woman, alone on a boat far out at sea with a group of men, really go sunbathing in a “Brazilian-cut bottom, so skimpy she’d had to shave for it,” along with a “tiny bandeau top” (p. 106)? I sincerely doubt it. That aspect of the book seems to be here only to emphasize the menace caused by Keyes’s lustful attentions toward Bernice. We see much too much fidelity here to the male-oriented conventions of the traditional sea-adventure novel.
From this point, action ensues – lots and lots of action. Yet the action scenes were not the parts of Hatteras Blue that I most enjoyed. I found myself focusing, rather, on how well Poyer evokes the textures of life on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, as in this passage where Tiller is taking a motorcycle ride home to Hatteras Island, after returning from a search for information on the mainland:
It took almost four hours to get to Hatteras Island, though it was less than fifty miles in a straight line. He had to wait twice for ferries, once from the mainland to Ocracoke, then again to Hatteras itself. At last the familiar beam flicked overhead, wiping out the stars. He gassed at the Red Drum in Buxton and headed north on an all-but-deserted road. Behind him, Hatteras Light dropped away. Empty marsh and dune, Park Service land, yielded darkly before his humming tires.
The lonely roar of surf followed him for miles north along the shore. From the speeding machine he looked out on the Sound. It shimmered silver beneath a newly-risen moon. To his right, between occasional gaps in the dunes, came the answering glimmer of the breaking sea. Past tiny villages, a few score scattered homes, lifted on pilings to let hurricane surf roll beneath. Past the rising bones of the new condominiums….Past the shuttered windows and flaking shingles of the old lifesaving station. (p. 152)
But back to the action. A sea-adventure book should have sharks. Does this sea-adventure book have sharks? Yes! On one of his dives down to the U-boat, Tiller Galloway faces off with a large, evidently hungry, and unquestionably determined hammerhead shark:
He jerked his head back to the hammerhead. It had neither wavered nor slowed at the sudden flood of light. Seen head-on, the shark formed a brightly-lit star. It grew rapidly larger, and he realized it was headed for him this time. He brought his tanks up with his left arm to cover himself, and thrust the torch out as well in an unconscious fending-off motion.
The shark flicked its tail and hit him, harder than a defensive lineman’s block, knocking him down and spinning him face-first into the bottom, hands empty. The torch flickered and went out. He flattened against hard sand, breathless, defenseless, waiting for the end. (p. 206)
Is this the end for Tiller Galloway? Well, as Hatteras Blue is the first of a series of Tiller Galloway novels, I certainly hope not.
Hatteras Blue offers late-in-the-game betrayals, a mini-sub filled with bad guys, and references to all that Nazi gold on board the sub as the “Tarnhelm” – a magic helmet from Norse mythology whose “wearer could change into any form he desired….In the myths, it was the key to recovering the Ring of the Nibelungen. It gave power over gods and men; it alone could rebuild shattered Asgard, after its destruction” (p. 256). You see? I told you that this novel was plot-heavy. But it certainly offers the things that an action novel is supposed to offer.
And is of interest to me for another reason. I’ve been visiting the Outer Banks with family for more than three decades now. Our preferred OBX destination, back in those days, was the town of Rodanthe, on Hatteras Island. It was a thriving little beach town, with attractions like a go-kart track and the longest fishing pier on that stretch of the coast. The Down Under beachside restaurant, with its Australian-themed décor, served up delicious, freshly-caught seafood quicker than you could say “G’day!”
Back in 1993 or so, I happened into Jo Bob’s Trading Post, a convenience store on the ocean side of North Carolina Route 12, and saw in the metal book rack a mass-market paperback copy of Hatteras Blue. It looked like a fun, locally-focused beach read, and I thought to myself, “I really must read this book sometime.”
Thirty years later, much has changed on Hatteras Island, and particularly in Rodanthe. Rising sea levels are causing an increasing number of oceanside houses to collapse into the sea (the footage is available on YouTube). The go-kart race track closed long ago, and blades of grass grow up through the cracks in the concrete. The fishing pier was cut to half its original size by Hurricane Isabel. The Down Under and a growing number of other businesses have closed. Rodanthe is starting to look like a coastal equivalent of that dying Texas town in The Last Picture Show.
And my old favourite seaside convenience store, Jo Bob’s Trading Post, is another of those old Rodanthe businesses that have passed into history. I don’t know who Jo Bob actually is, or where he or she might be – but I wish I could search Jo Bob up and tell them that I enjoyed shopping there, and that I’m grateful to them for introducing me to David Poyer and Hatteras Blue. It really is a fun little novel.
November 21, 2020
My mom was having surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and I was alone in the waiting room reading. But not reading. Someone had left this book. I picked it up (being from North Carolina it caught my attention). I could not put it down. I read it all that day and finished the next. I fell in love with all the Tiller Galloway books and could not get enough of them.
If you like books about the sea and like to read adventures that involving diving, go find these books and read them. You will no want to put them down.
If you like books about the sea and like to read adventures that involving diving, go find these books and read them. You will no want to put them down.
November 14, 2018
Audible:The first 3/4 of this book dragged.Naration by Edison McDanials was mostly monotone and boring.There were so many descriptions of everything and everyone.We just don't need that much information.I didn't find anyone in the book that I liked even a little bit.That said,the last 1/4 was interesting,fast moving and narration picked up.It was hard to rate.I was given this book by the narrator,author or publisher free for an honest review.
October 20, 2018
This book was very unexpected it didn't go how I would have expected it to, the story had twists that took it in very different directions to where I have first thought it to be going.
The main female character was an interesting choice she was both strong and yet quite gullible. She made very questionable decisions they were often not in her best interests and got herself into situations that were quite dangerous and often risked her life.
The lead male character was not someone that I would want to meet having previously been involved in the drug trade he's done his time in prison and is now on parole, but he's far from being rehabilitated. I found it quite difficult to like him, he was often short-sighted and selfish in his choices.
However the story line was interesting and there were some really well executed twists. It is a very high energy book to listen to, despite everything I found myself unable to stop listening.
There's a lot of information about Deep Sea diving in the book and I found this information intriguing and well placed within the book.
The narration is a good match for the sometimes slow pace of the book, the narration is clear, well-paced, and delivered with an under-statement that seemed very appropriate. The character voices are clear and easy to distinguish from each other.
I received a free copy of this book from the author and/or narrator and/or publisher and I voluntarily wrote this honest review.
The main female character was an interesting choice she was both strong and yet quite gullible. She made very questionable decisions they were often not in her best interests and got herself into situations that were quite dangerous and often risked her life.
The lead male character was not someone that I would want to meet having previously been involved in the drug trade he's done his time in prison and is now on parole, but he's far from being rehabilitated. I found it quite difficult to like him, he was often short-sighted and selfish in his choices.
However the story line was interesting and there were some really well executed twists. It is a very high energy book to listen to, despite everything I found myself unable to stop listening.
There's a lot of information about Deep Sea diving in the book and I found this information intriguing and well placed within the book.
The narration is a good match for the sometimes slow pace of the book, the narration is clear, well-paced, and delivered with an under-statement that seemed very appropriate. The character voices are clear and easy to distinguish from each other.
I received a free copy of this book from the author and/or narrator and/or publisher and I voluntarily wrote this honest review.
August 6, 2026
I've been a huge David Poyer fan for years. I've read the entire Dan Lenson series as well as his outstanding Civil War trilogy, so I was excited to start the Tiller Galloway books. I'm happy to say that Hatteras Blue did not disappoint.
From the beginning, I was completely drawn into the story. Poyer has a remarkable ability to make you feel like you're right there alongside the characters. The action is exciting, the pacing is excellent, and the tension keeps building all the way to the end. The last thirty pages were absolutely spellbinding—I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.
Tiller Galloway is a terrific new protagonist. He's intelligent, resourceful, and complex, and I'm already looking forward to seeing how his character develops throughout the series. One of the things I've always admired about David Poyer is that his characters feel like real people, and Tiller is no exception.
David Poyer continues to prove why he's one of my favorite authors. Whether he's writing about modern naval warfare, the Civil War, or historical adventures like this one, his storytelling is consistently engaging, authentic, and impossible to put down.
I would highly recommend Hatteras Blue to both longtime Poyer fans and readers discovering him for the first time. It's a fantastic start to the Tiller Galloway series, and I can't wait to read the rest of the books.
From the beginning, I was completely drawn into the story. Poyer has a remarkable ability to make you feel like you're right there alongside the characters. The action is exciting, the pacing is excellent, and the tension keeps building all the way to the end. The last thirty pages were absolutely spellbinding—I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.
Tiller Galloway is a terrific new protagonist. He's intelligent, resourceful, and complex, and I'm already looking forward to seeing how his character develops throughout the series. One of the things I've always admired about David Poyer is that his characters feel like real people, and Tiller is no exception.
David Poyer continues to prove why he's one of my favorite authors. Whether he's writing about modern naval warfare, the Civil War, or historical adventures like this one, his storytelling is consistently engaging, authentic, and impossible to put down.
I would highly recommend Hatteras Blue to both longtime Poyer fans and readers discovering him for the first time. It's a fantastic start to the Tiller Galloway series, and I can't wait to read the rest of the books.
October 2, 2018
Plot speed is a bit erratic, but the story is good. The publisher's blurb is better than most, so there's no need for a recap of spoilers. I thought that it was a good thing that the suspense build up wasn't as fast as some because that often lures the reader to skim or skip, and that would really be a waste. It really is a good read!
The audio is performed by Edison McDaniels who is adept at underlying when indicated and never oversells.
The audio is performed by Edison McDaniels who is adept at underlying when indicated and never oversells.
April 10, 2022
A fun summer read. Want a beach read with a story you can get sucked into? This is the book. A bit dated in parts, but fun nonetheless.
June 10, 2023
If you value your health, don't push Tiller around.
August 18, 2026
Tiller Galloway - an interesting character that will take me a bit of time to warm up to as his choices leave a lot to be desired!
January 22, 2016
In HATTERAS BLUE, by D.C. Poyer, Tiller Galloway is a former drug smuggler who now works as a salvage diver. A suspicious man named Keyes offers Tiller a deal to salvage an old World War II German submarine filled with valuable treasure, an offer than Tiller can not refuse. I thought it was a decent book. I would have enjoyed it much more if the beginning of the story was fast paced. I almost gave up on the book during the first half. However, once the plot started to develop I couldn't stop turning the pages. Poyer made the dives extremely interesting and the action scenes very intense. The plot twist was also very intriguing, but I won't spoil that in this review. I would recommend HATTERAS BLUE to any readers interested in World War II and looking for a thrilling, action packed adventure.
August 1, 2016
#1 in the Tiller Galloway series.
The Tiller Galloway Novels - Set in and off Cape Hatteras, the novel opens with the sinking of a German U-boat in the waning days of WW II. Then it jumps to the present, where we meet Tiller Galloway, a heavy-drinking, down-and-out salvage diver. Though he's a Vietnam veteran from a distinguished naval family, Galloway is now out on parole for drug smuggling, monitored by attractive woman parole officer Bernie Hirsch. Early on, Galloway is approached by Richard Keyes, a mysterious man who wants to find the sunken U-boat because he thinks it holds a cargo of gold the Nazis were hauling to South America. As the captain of a boat owned by his cousin, Galloway is again lured by the big kill. Hirsch doesn't trust Keyes (or Galloway's ability to stay out of trouble) so she tails along on the salvaging mission.
The Tiller Galloway Novels - Set in and off Cape Hatteras, the novel opens with the sinking of a German U-boat in the waning days of WW II. Then it jumps to the present, where we meet Tiller Galloway, a heavy-drinking, down-and-out salvage diver. Though he's a Vietnam veteran from a distinguished naval family, Galloway is now out on parole for drug smuggling, monitored by attractive woman parole officer Bernie Hirsch. Early on, Galloway is approached by Richard Keyes, a mysterious man who wants to find the sunken U-boat because he thinks it holds a cargo of gold the Nazis were hauling to South America. As the captain of a boat owned by his cousin, Galloway is again lured by the big kill. Hirsch doesn't trust Keyes (or Galloway's ability to stay out of trouble) so she tails along on the salvaging mission.
November 12, 2014
Many years ago I came across the Tiller Galloway books in a public library. I recently found them again and am rereading them. In this first installment Tiller is paid to hunt up and recover gold from a WWII German U-boat that his father sunk many years ago. Mystery and intrigue follow and many secrets are revealed. What makes this book so special is the knowledge that the author brings to the diving sequences.
February 2, 2013
I was rather disappointed in this book after reading the glowing reviews. I found Galloway unsympathetic and unlikeable which just ruined the story for me. I did find many of the adventure scenes exciting and well written but overall the book fell well short of my expectations.
April 1, 2007
just a fun interesting book - if you like Cussler, you will like this book for sure
May 14, 2008
I like a series where the author has a flawed hero, Tiller Galloway. He's not perfect so that makes it more realistic for me. One of the reasons I also like Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone series.
August 2, 2015
Grand Cayman's.
January 16, 2016
OK, Cant say i like the main character.
December 16, 2012
What can I say. I love books involving the ocean and mystery. This is a great read.
April 12, 2013
Outstanding SCUBA novel. I don't know how I've missed it all these years!
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June 11, 2018Gold
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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