“Sam Sawyer may become my favorite crime fighter. I can’t wait for the next book in this new Florida Keys mystery series …” —Maryjane Elizabeth Jones, Heat Until Boiling They called Arthur Broom “The Glades Man,” not because he lived way out there in the river of grass, but because he was spending all his money trying to save it. And as one of the richest men in Florida there was much he could do to beat back the onslaughts of agriculture and development that were threatening the greatest wetland in North America. But that sort of thing made some powerful enemies. When he ended up dead in the water, Detective Stella Reynard had good reason to suspect it was more than a simple drowning. She recruited fishing guide and part-time sleuth Sam Sawyer to help her with the case, along with Sam’s wife Katie, a full-time forensic botanist. The challenge they faced was not a lack of suspects but too many, such was the list of people whose wealth and power Art Broom had threatened. Carl and Jane Bock are retired Professors of Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Carl received his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of California at Berkeley, while Jane holds three degrees in Botany, a B.A. from Duke, an M.A. from the University of Indiana, and a Ph.D. from Berkeley. Carl is an ornithologist and conservation biologist. Jane is a plant ecologist and an internationally recognized expert in the use of plant evidence in criminal investigations. Now largely retired from academic life, the Bocks have turned their creative efforts toward fiction writing, and are co-authors of two ongoing series, the Arizona Borderlands Mysteries and the Florida Keys Mysteries.

"Sam Sawyer may become my favorite crime fighter. I can't wait for the next book in this new Florida Keys mystery series ..." -Maryjane Elizabeth Jones, Heat Until Boiling They called Arthur Broom "The Glades Man," not because he lived way out there in the river of grass, but because he was spending all his money trying to save it. And as one of the richest men in Florida there was much he could do to beat back the onslaughts of agriculture and development that were threatening the greatest wetland in North America. But that sort of thing made some powerful enemies. When he ended up dead in the water, Detective Stella Reynard had good reason to suspect it was more than a simple drowning. She recruited fishing guide and part-time sleuth Sam Sawyer to help her with the case, along with Sam's wife Katie, a full-time forensic botanist. The challenge they faced was not a lack of suspects but too many, such was the list of people whose wealth and power Art Broom had threatened.

In this tour de force of suspense, one familys dark past comes back to haunt its remotest member--and may ultimately cost him his life.

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A New York Times bestseller—a brilliantly funny exploration of the Sunshine State from the man who knows it best: Pulitzer Prize winner Dave Barry. We never know what will happen next in Florida. We know only that, any minute now, something will. Every few months, Dave Barry gets a call from some media person wanting to know, “What the hell is wrong with Florida?” Somehow, the state's acquired an image as a subtropical festival of stupid, and as a loyal Floridian, Dave begs to differ. Join him as he goes in hunt of the legendary Skunk Ape; hobnobs with the mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs; and visits Cassadaga, the psychic capital of the world, to have his dog's aura read (apparently, she's "very spiritual"). Hitch a ride for the non-stop thrills of alligator-wrestling ("the gators display the same fighting spirit as a Barcalounger"), the hair-raising spectacle of a clothing-optional bar in Key West, and the manly manliness of the Machine Gun Experience in Miami. It's the most hilarious book yet from “the funniest damn writer in the whole country” (Carl Hiaasen, and he should know). By the end, you'll have to admit that whatever else you might think about Florida—you can never say it's boring.