The Damariscotta Lake view that inspired the opening scene of David Charters’ 2023 novel, “The Resident Agent.” (Photo courtesy David Charters)
For New Brunswick-based author David Charters and many others, the placid waters of Damariscotta Lake inspire serenity and reflection. But for Charters, the lake was also a darker source of insight: it was while looking out across the waves that Charters was struck with inspiration to write his 2023 crime and espionage thriller novel, “The Resident Agent.”
“I just love the area,” Charters said in a phone interview on Wednesday, May 1. “I felt that I wanted to keep (the book) as authentic to the area as I could, so that meant signposting lots of local landmarks,”
The result is a thriller-style tale with a plot that weaves its way across much of Lincoln County and the Midcoast region.
Charters, who grew up in Montreal and spent summers vacationing on the Maine coast, said that the setting he chose for his novel is one that is also close to his own heart. Charters and his family have vacationed in Nobleboro for more than two decades, returning repeatedly to the same cottage on the lakeshore down East Neck Road.
The crime-thriller genre, Charters said, appeals to him in part because of his background as a professor of military history, which Charters taught at the University of New Brunswick for more than 35 years before his retirement in 2015. Charter’s academic specialty in intelligence services and intelligence operations, he said, translates into his writing; in “The Resident Agent,” one of the main characters is an FBI agent, who works closely with a fictional Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office deputy named Bud to uncover a plot that goes deeper than either of them expected.
The book, which Charters began writing concurrently with his 2015 retirement, took about eight years to complete from inception to publication, Charters said. Local readers, he said, will recognize many of the settings in which the plot unfolds.
These include famous local eateries from Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro to Shaw’s Wharf in New Harbor and Wiscasset’s Red’s Eats. Charters said he had even included a nod to one of the less flashy facts of life for Lincoln County residents: even his fictional characters aren’t immune to the summertime Route One traffic that locals know is all too real.
“The Resident Agent” is Charters’ second novel, which he published in 2023. His first book – “Beneath the Rose: A tale of terror and love” – was published in 2014.
Charters said that while “The Resident Agent” will likely not be his last book, it may be his only book set in Maine. The book is in some ways, Charters said, a homage to a place he loves dearly and will continue to visit for years to come.
“The Resident Agent” is available at Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop locations across Maine, including in Damariscotta and in Boothbay Harbor, and on Amazon.
