One Man's Treasure || ONC 2026

The town of Dogwood in Cross County, North Carolina is a picturesque seaside community with a sordid past swimming in piracy. Smoking Beard, aka Edward Hollingsworth, was the terror of the colonial coast in the 1600's, and one of Dogwood's founding members, before his descent into illegal privateering and eventual decline into madness.

Four hundred years later, Bertha Rodriguez, romance novelist, resides in Dogwood along with her best friend Camilla Goldstein, Dogwood's chief of police. Every year the town capitalizes on its founders' past with a week long festival in June. The Founders' Festival brings much needed tourism and a break from the monotony of living in a small town.

This year will be different, a huge storm hits the coast two weeks before the festival begins and someone uses it as an opportunity for murder. With their town cut off from the rest of civilization, it falls to Bertha and Camilla to solve the murder before the weather clears and the villain is able to make an escape.

Written for the Open Novella Contest 2026

The prompt which inspired this story was number 22:

Your book never found much success, but on a train ride you spot a stranger reading it with the biggest smile you've ever seen.

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