Savannah: More Than a Setting

Savannah was never going to be just a backdrop for Slip 47. Some places can serve as scenery. You can move the characters through them, mention a few streets or landmarks, and the story continues without the setting changing much of anything. Savannah is different.

The city has a personality of its own. It is beautiful without ever feeling entirely comfortable. History is everywhere, but so are the things history leaves behind. Old buildings stand beside modern courtrooms. Quiet neighborhoods sit only minutes from one of the busiest ports in the country. Massive cargo ships pass within sight of streets that have been there for generations.

And then there is the water. The Savannah River, the marshes, the tidal creeks, the islands and the Atlantic beyond them create a second geography around the city—one that feels connected to Savannah but operates by its own rules. That combination made it a natural home for Dean Mercet.

A City of Contradictions

One of the things I have always found interesting about Savannah is the contrast. There is the Savannah people come to see: the squares, live oaks, restaurants, historic homes and riverfront. Then there is the Savannah where people actually live and work: courthouses, law offices, police stations, neighborhood streets, marinas, industrial areas, and long stretches of highway disappearing toward the coast.

Those different versions of the city exist beside each other every day. That is exactly the kind of landscape I wanted for Slip 47.

Dean Mercet is a Savannah lawyer, and much of his world begins in familiar places: offices, courthouse hallways, case files and conversations between people who understand that the official version of an event is not always the entire story. But Slip 47 gradually moves beyond that familiar legal world. The water becomes more important. The coastline becomes more important. And places that initially seem ordinary begin to carry very different meanings.

The Georgia Coast

Anyone who has spent time along coastal Georgia knows that the landscape can change quickly. A bright afternoon can become dark within minutes. A calm river can feel completely different when the tide turns. Marinas that seem busy during the day become remarkably quiet after dark. That atmosphere worked naturally with the story I wanted to tell.

There is something about a marina that is both public and private. Boats arrive and leave. People come and go. A dock can be busy one moment and empty the next. And every boat slip has a number. Most of those numbers mean nothing. But what if one did? That question became part of the DNA of Slip 47.

Beyond Georgia: The Florida Coast

The coastal geography of Slip 47 doesn't end at the Georgia state line. It stretches south along Florida's Atlantic coast, past Jacksonville and St. Augustine, through the communities and waterways that eventually lead to New Smyrna Beach. This stretch of coastline has a character of its own. Barrier islands, tidal inlets, working marinas, fishing boats, and quiet waterfront neighborhoods exist alongside busy shipping channels and popular beach towns. From the St. Johns River to the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic beyond, the water connects places that may seem far apart on a highway map. For a story involving boats, secrets, and people moving between different worlds, that geography offered possibilities that went well beyond Savannah. Standing on the beaches of Daytona Beach Shores and walking the pier at Halifax Harbor Marina, I began to see exactly how this part of Florida could fit into the story. It allowed the setting to expand while preserving the same coastal atmosphere that first drew me to it.

Fiction Rooted in a Real Place

The people, cases and events in Slip 47 are fictional. But I wanted the world around them to feel authentic. When Dean drives through Savannah, walks into a courtroom, crosses the river or heads toward the coast, I want readers—whether they know Georgia or have never been here—to feel that the places around him are real.

Because in a good thriller, setting should do more than tell you where the characters are. It should influence what they can see, what they can hide, where they can go, and sometimes what they can get away with. That is why Savannah became more than the setting for Slip 47. It became part of the story.

Slip 47 — A Dean Mercet Thriller arrives October 22, 2026.