Murder with Kayaks in the Florida Keys is a murder mystery, a hot romance, a thriller, a dog story, and a taste of the Keys . During Fantasy Fest, body parts and worse turn up on little Grassy Key in one of Flagler’s abandoned quarries, and a neighbors are missing.
Taciturn Detective Jimmy Buckman has no idea how, when, where, or why the horrific crimes occurred. But there are many suspects--a dog walker who believes that victims with early onset Alzheimer’s should be put out of their encroaching misery, a simmering teenager addicted to violent video games, vengeful residents who resent a lady who examines and raids their trash and their secrets, and eco-terrorists. Only Sport, a brilliant but opinionated Labrador retriever, understands what has happened and tries his best to prevent more violence.
When a contentious visitor from Maine gets a bit tipsy and speaks her mind at the Fantasy Fest’s Tattoo contest, she inadvertently launches a tragic series of events. Pursued through the streets of Key West, popping in and out of shops and churches, she is unaware of danger. But a solitary and troubled kayaker gets caught in the ensuing mayhem, as she paddles up and down the Keys through squalls and memory lapses, from Pennecamp to Indian Key, from Long Key to Knights Key, and from Summerland to Stock Island. After bodies surface, she hides in an abandoned shack on a deserted mangrove island, unsure whether she should return home.
Kayaking, biking, and hiking through the Keys, quirky characters explore an abandoned hotels and ferry landings, moonscape craters on No Name Key, the bonefish flats of lower Matecumbe, and narrow passes into hidden inlets like Lake Foreplay. They discover more archeological secrets than the Pharaohs’, invent novel insect repellants and poisons, thwart government-sponsored extermination campaigns, and sharpen their machetes and pickaxes…given the circumstances.

kayak, Labrador retriever, senior, Florida Keys, Key West, detective, murder, sex, mystery, sleuth,


Convinced that the killer will strike again, Buckman’s sweetheart, the amorous and amoral Mary Alice Fleming, decides to solve the case all by herself, with a vengeance. The final denouement is stunning and graphic. Readers should not feel cheated if they don’t guess the identity of the killer or killers, since all the clues are provided in the narrative.