Synopsis

Doc Ford has been involved in many strange cases. This may be one of the strangest.

A legendary charter captain and guide named Tootsie Barlow has come to him, muttering about a curse. The members of his extended family have suffered a bizarre series of attacks, and Barlow is convinced it has something to do with a multiple murder in 1925, in which his family had a shameful part.

Ford doesn’t believe in curses, but as he and his friend Tomlinson begin to investigate, following the trail of the attacks from Key Largo to Tallahassee, they, too, suffer a series of near-fatal mishaps. Is it really a curse? Or just a crime spree? The answer lies in solving a near-hundred-year-old murder . . . and probing the mind of a madman.

Chapter 1 Excerpt

On the phone, Tomlinson said to Ford, “When the deputy’s wife and kids disappeared, moonshiners might’ve dumped their bodies in the lake— it was during Prohibition. It wouldn’t be the first time karma has waited decades to boot justice in the ass.”

“Tootsie Barlow told you that story?” Ford, a marine biologist, was referring to a famous fishing guide who ranked with Jimmy Albright, Jack Brothers, Ted Williams, and a few others as fly- casting pioneers in the Florida Keys.

“His family was involved somehow— the Barlows go way, way back in the area. I don’t know how yet, but I will. He’s in bad shape, so I need to take it slow, but you’re the one who told me about the lake— Chino Hole. That’s the connection. The access road cuts through Tootsie’s property.”