Ocracoke is the setting for ‘No Secrets in This House’

By Peter Vankevich

Sheryl Cornett’s novel, “No Secrets in This House” (Beach Glass Books 2026), uses a dual timeline structure, moving between the present on Ocracoke Island and the turbulent years in England as the world heads into World War II.

Cornett focuses on three principal women characters: Clare, born May 1942, who never knew who her father was; her daughter Maddie who finds herself pregnant and doesn’t dare let her boyfriend Will know as he ships off to Iraq; and Trish who flees to Ocracoke to escape an abusive boyfriend and is befriended by local Ranger Mordechai Johnson.

Ocracoke has a tradition of naming its houses. One such house, Home Waters, holds a fascinating story.

The intrigue unfolds around a collection of old letters and a journal found behind an old dresser. These writings focus on Clare’s grandmother, Avila, who was affectionately known as Ma Vie. At the time, she was a graduate student in England and became pregnant.

Clare hopes that this discovery will help her learn the identity of her father, someone her mother would never discuss.

Clare becomes obsessed with the letters and the many intimate revelations provided by her mother’s lover, Beau, an Oxford graduate student working on an anthology titled “Some New Poets.” With the letter is Clare’s journal addressed to Kitty, a fellow American that she met in a British History, Life and Culture seminar.

Cornett’s finest writing may be found in these letters and journals, where she evokes the somber atmosphere of prewar England while providing a deeply personal glimpse into the lives and emotions of two people bound by love.

An excerpt from Beau to Clare:

August 1939
Somewhere off the Coast of Britain

That whole day-into-night, time out of time: eating fish and chips in the dusky gloaming after the burnt gold and orange orb finally dropped off the horizon. Do you remember how we sat on the mucky rock beach, not moving to leave, not even as the wind came up and chilled us? Facing west. I felt then —and tried to tell you, badly done I’m sure —that the moment the tableau was placed before us, our betrothal was sealed by the heavens. Cemented, confirmed by the sky-sea-cliffs and seal pups. Blessed by the clouds shot through with that burnt gold, layered with mauve and lavender gray.

The letters are another thread, Cornett said, as a story within the story.

“That’s an intentional structural piece of it as well. I spent a lot of time in London researching London neighborhoods that were bombed, wartime conditions, and reading old newspaper dispatches and archival documents found in the Imperial War Museum,” she said in an interview on WOVV’s “What’s Happening on Ocracoke.”

A longtime professor of English and creative writing at NC State University and now living in Louisiana, Cornett’s writing spans a variety of creative writing—poems, short stories, and literary journalism.

Cornett’s connection to Ocracoke began on her first visit while a graduate student at Chapel Hill. Her inspiration for the novel derives from her many visits over the years and her observations and conversations with islanders about present life and by gathering recollections of life on the island during World War II.

Readers interested in Outer Banks history will particularly appreciate the Ocracoke wartime setting when U-boats were not far offshore and in search of cargo ships to torpedo.

There is an old adage that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but many a book has been purchased by a well-crafted one, and this is a good example.

Bruce Tarkington’s cover artwork depicts the island lighthouse and cottages bathed in the soft pastel hues of late-afternoon light, perfectly capturing the mood and tone of the story within.

A compliment to the publisher Ray McAllister: What is helpful to the reader is the letters and journaling are nicely separated as they are printed in italics making the shifts in narrative voice easy to follow.

As the contemporary storylines evolve and men enter the women’s lives, secrets dissipate.

As to the mystery of Clare’s father, I will admit to being surprised, actually stunned, to read who he was and it forced me to go back to look for clues planted in the letters and made me appreciate how well-written this novel is.

This novel is available at Books to Be Red and at the Ocracoke Preservation Society’s gift shop.