Will Harper Florida Thrillers: Vol. 1-6 (Will Harper Mysteries)
by David Crosby
SIX ENTICING FLORIDA MYSTERIES
IN ONE GREAT ANTHOLOGY
Mystery readers with a soft spot for sea adventures will love investigative reporter turned burgeoning sleuth, Will Harper. A semi-retired reporter, Will spends most of his time on his live-in yacht exploring Florida’s lush, tropical waterways, navigating his treacherously overlapping love interests--and solving hard-boiled murder mysteries. Will grapples with various mobsters, corrupt local officials, politicians, industry good ole’ boys, ruthless sex traffickers, and a smooth, French serial killer hellbent on murdering his wives. All the while writing titilating exposés on illegal immigration, elder abuse, retirement home scams, Florida’s prison problems, the opiod epidemic, and Eminent Domain. Equal parts gripping, action-packed thriller and empathetic rumination on Florida’s social issues, Will Harper’s adventures will appeal to big-hearted hard-boiled readers.
MILLION DOLLAR STAIRCASE
Will thinks fast when he discovers his girl friend’s being framed. He sees instantly why they can’t go to the cops—the mayor, the city manager, and for all Will knows, every official in town could be in on it. It’s the latest offensive in a case of municipal bullying that’s busted many a bank account and broken many a heart—something that sounds dull but is anything but boring when it enters your life as the legal justification for waltzing in and power-grabbing your property-- business, buildings, and all.
GUILTY MONEY
Will Harper thinks his latest story’s about Florida’s prison problems. It seems that budget cuts have led to police departments turning to creative schemes to raise money. Grove County’s version involves arresting citizens for minor charges and then driving up their bail when a search of the citizen’s home too conveniently turns up drugs. But the usual guilty money scheme has been improved upon by a corrupt deputy, Deke Snyder, who’s skimming money from the jail. Once Will finds that out, Deputy Deke sics all his buddies on him–which include every cop in town.
FLORIDA BURNING
A toxic algae bloom in Lake Okeechobee that’s as thick as guacamole. A deadly pollutant from a cane field. And an environmentalist dead in a cane field fire. Coincidence? Florida PI Will Harper knows damn well it’s not.
THE FLORIDA SHUFFLE
Will Harper is living the dream aboard his yacht with his new live-in girlfriend Callie, a social worker at a rehab center. But it’s not all Florida coast sunsets and steak dinners on the boardwalk.Callie learns her employer has a history of setting clients up in shady sober homes in exchange for financial kickbacks—and one of those homes has lost three of its patients to “accidental” overdoses in the past four months. Turns out it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
This mystery anthology is custom-made for Florida mystery connoisseurs, and the cherry on top is Will’s liveaboard trawler, harking straight back to the grand tradition of marina-living PIs like John D. McDonald’s Travis McGee and Randy Wayne White’s Doc Ford. Fans of classics like those and more recent Florida tales by Wayne Stinnett and Dawn McKenna will be thrilled to discover this tempting tropical series—but so will anyone looking for the kind of private investigator who really cares.
DEADLY TRAFFICDavid Crosby’s fifth thriller kicks off when Will discovers that modern-day slavery has been operating in his own backyard. Will’s informant’s a Guatemalan immigrant who’s just escaped the elegant compound where she was enslaved as a maid. She’s on the run from hired goons who work for the sugar tycoon who held her captive, at the same time searching for her missing siblings.
THE HAPPY WIDOWWhile trying to unmask scammers who target vulnerable elderly Floridians, Will risks angering homicidal con artists who will stop at nothing to extort their hapless victims.