On this point, Bob Adamov’s mother was perfectly clear: He was not to go to Put-in-Bay.

Adamov is a native of Norton, a small town an hour south of Lake Erie. On family trips to Detroit to visit friends, the Adamov clan routinely made overnight pit-stops in Port Clinton, Ohio, one gateway to the Lake Erie islands of Middle Bass and South Bass. 

“I always wanted to go to Put-in-Bay,” Adamov reminisces. The small town on South Bass Island is still known as a party spot but, he says, back in the ’60s, it was just plain wild. “They were sleeping in the park, and they don’t allow that anymore,” he says. Adamov’s mom declared the place strictly off limits. 

Thus, a dream was born.

As soon as Adamov turned 18, he and a friend hightailed it up to the island. His first glimpse came as the ferry rounded Gibraltar Island. “I saw a touch of paradise in front of me,” he says. “The boats were tied to the mooring walls in the harbor, and I saw this oasis, with DeRivera Park, and on the other side of the street, the businesses lining Delaware Street. It was so picturesque.” And at the tender age of 18, this avid reader and lover of language noted one more thing: “I thought it was the perfect setting for a novel.”

Sure, he drank a little, checked out the sites, talked to a few girls. But for Adamov, that first trip — and all future trips over the years — fueled a love for the island mystique that surpassed partying.

“There’s just something about an island — it’s a different world,” he says. “I’ve built wonderful friendships with the people on the island.” 

Those friendships, the names and details of his island life, bounced around his brain as he worked a series of corporate jobs   and charted a respectable course through the decades. The milestone age of 50 came and went without a hitch. But 51 was different. “It hit me like a ton of bricks,” he says. Suddenly, his old dreams rushed to the surface. 

“I always wanted to write,” Adamov explains. “This idea of doing a story was aging like a fine wine in the back of my mind.” That year, he uncorked the bottle. What came out, 14 months later, was 2002’s Rainbow’s End, a mystery caper in the footsteps of his idol, author Clive Cussler. In it, his hero, ace Washington D.C. journalist-cum-detective Emerson Moore, travels to Put-in-Bay for a case involving lost Civil War treasure. 

“I heard so many comments about Put-in-Bay,” he says, “I decided in book two to move Emerson Moore permanently to Put-in-Bay.” Six books later, Adamov and Moore are island celebrities, and it’s hard to walk down Delaware Street without bumping into a local who’s been name-checked in an Adamov book. Roundhouse Bar singer Mike “Mad Dog” Adams even produced a CD that’s packaged with Adamov’s 2008 novel, The Other Side of Hell. Adamov’s latest book, Tan Lines, came out in 2010.

“This has been a real adventure for me,” he says. “I’m a dream chaser, and I’m searching for my rainbow’s end. I’m sharing those dreams with readers, encouraging them to chase theirs.”