Port Sullivan is an action-filled fictional story of ayoung Creole lady and her son and their odyssey on a packet boat that takes place in the era of steamboats and slavery prior to the emergingAmerican Civil War. A masterful storyteller, Shearer deftly weaves the elements of frontier survival, cultural diversity, racial inequality, murder, tragedy, voodoo, ghosts, legacy, and the lure of life on asteamboat for a young boy.