Darryl Wimberley, Pepperfish Keys

Pepperfish Keys

Darryl Wimberley

St. Martin's, Jul 2007, $24.95

ISBN: 9780312361396

Florida Senator Baxter Stanton, running for reelection in the northwestern coast, knows the importance of being a good old boy to the whites, who make up most of the voters in towns like Pepperfish Keys. However, his election chances take an odd spin when his daughter Beth Ann Stanton is found brutally murdered in the family mansion.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special agent Barrett "Bear" Raines investigates the homicide and his first reaction is there is an unproven link between Stanton and criminal Eddy DeLeon, who was also the victim's boyfriend. Raines being "a black cop in a white town" gets little cooperation from anyone associated with the case except local TV reporter Sharon Fowler, who sees the cop and the senator as her ticket to Tallahassee and beyond. She offers to help him nail DeLeon; he accepts though his gut tells him to look elsewhere for the motive.

This is a terrific police procedural that returns to readers a fabulous protagonist who has been away for several years (see A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE, DEADMAN'S BAY and STRAWMAN'S HAMMOCK). The story line is fast-paced and filled with plausible twists that will stun the audience as the prime characters play a sort of cat and mouse game with each of the lead trio wanting to control their tango. Darryl Wimberley provides a superb Florida whodunit in which Bear's fans will want his next engagement soon.

Harriet Klausner