PEPPERFISH KEYS

A hardboiled potboiler set in the Florida Keys.

Afro-American Agent Barrett Raines of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) seems to have made a big mistake trusting a confidential informant on Sen. Baxter Stanton’s illegal activities without providing enough proof to take to a grand jury. The case is dismissed, but Raines and the Senator come in contact again when the Senator’s greedy, rebellious, party-girl daughter Beth Ann is butchered in her bed. By Eddy DeLeon, her Latino lover? By one of the Senator’s enemies? By the Senator himself? Sharon Fowler, a bodacious Keys News Live reporter looking for a story to waft her to a national network, goes undercover for Raines. But her decision to keep a couple of smarmy alliances to herself leads to her getting duct-taped to a buzz saw. She loses a few fingers, and a few more unfortunates lose their lives. Before the final double twist, the multi-talented Raines will have to deal with racial snubs, his wife’s depression, an attack by boars and a lot of gunplay.

If Black Mask magazine were still around, that’s exactly where you’d expect to find Wimberley (Strawman’s Hammock, 2001, etc.), who pumps up his overloaded plot with some supremely grisly set pieces.