LARRY TERHAAR
I grew up in Westport, CT, where I married Beth, my high school sweetheart. After a few different work experiences in my twenties, I began a new career as a home builder in my thirties. This business grew into real estate development, and by 2004, I was building condominiums.
Beth and I have two boys and raised them in Fairfield County, CT. We’ve been blessed with two wonderful grandsons who are growing up much too fast!
In the 2000s, I became fascinated with ocean sailing. We have owned three sailboats since then and have sailed the western Atlantic and Caribbean seas multiple times from Maine to Grenada and every place in between, living aboard with our Australian Shepherd.
Since retiring, we’re now “snowbirds,” spending our summers in CT and winters on the beach on Hutchinson Island, FL. In 2018, I joined the Board of Directors of the condominium association, serving for 6 years.
In 2021, when the Champlain Towers in Surfside, FL, collapsed, killing 98 people, I felt compelled to write about it and began researching the tragedy. Using my construction knowledge and experience with the condominium board, I initially thought I’d be writing a non-fiction account. But soon, my imagination took over, resulting in my first novel, Oceanside.
There was quite a learning curve, but after working with some professional editors, I came to love writing, re-igniting a passion from my youth. I wake up each morning with a scene or passage that I just have to get down on paper. Since OCEANSIDE was published, I have written four Private Detective novels: Once a Detective…, Against the Blue Wall, Breath Play, and Tracking Ariana. They feature Dan Burnett, a retired NYPD detective living on a sailboat in Long Island Sound. You can expect more titles in that series, but currently, I’m working on a Bahamas sailing story, again using my experience to tell a fictional story.