Apache Toe

About the Book

John Hobson hasn’t danced for years. On sabbatical, he’s been even more solitary than usual, tramping through the desert researching Silurian uplift, daydreaming of baseball, biplanes, and the salt marshes of home.

At the Apache Toe town picnic, at twilight, when the fireworks and fireflies have just begun, his landlady, Susan Jones, unexpectedly asks him.

They jitterbug, then dance cheek-to-cheek. Back at the table they talk about old songs, sunsets, and the desert’s magic light. They decide to have another drink. Susan kisses his cheek, goes for ice, and disappears.

The next morning Hobson learns Susan didn’t simply leave the picnic. She’s vanished. Utterly. And he’s the leading suspect. Somehow, with Maggie’s ‘help’ (Susan’s willful, would-be-rock-star, teenage daughter) he’s got to find her, to follow a haphazard trail back to a crime that may have happened six years ago, toward a secret in an old marble quarry where ancient Indians came to pray.

About the Author

David Burkey lives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware with his wife Anita and daughter Nicole. His first novel, Rain Lover, was published by Ballantine Books in 1985