... In Sy's Gift Patricia Owens takes us to a small town in coastal South Carolina, where residents are battening down the hatches in preparation for a hurricane, where everyone knows everyone else and gossip is as certain as sunrise. Cameron Patterson is shocked by the sudden appearance of her dead husband's illegitimate son. Owens, who is particularly adept at creating a sense of place, gives us an unforgettable cast of characters and an intriguing plot in a setting so real one can smell the salt air and feel the inescapable heat.. Anna Jean Mayhew author of The Dry Grass of August, 2011 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction -