Set in the early 1980s, a time when air travel was uncomplicated, when people still smoked in offices, restaurants and bars, October Fury is the final novel in the St. Ursula trilogy, featuring Frank James, poet and private detective. St. Ursula is a British Caribbean island very near to the American and British Virgin Islands. Herbie Lewis, a local bar musician asks Frank to investigate the death of his brother, Jeff. While it was ruled to be an accidental drowning, Herbie is convinced that Jeff was murdered. As a hurricane approaches St. Ursula and the Virgin Islands, Frank and his friend Chance are drawn into a confrontation with unscrupulous marketers, owners of a pyramid scheme that purports to be founded upon religious principles.

The narrative, alternately tense and humorous, follows Frank and Chance as the storm builds and hits St. Ursula, the fury of the storm mirroring the fury of events as they discover the truth of Jeff's death and the crimes and corruption surrounding it.