Dance at the Marina

About the Book

When Mitchell Meadows discovers a skull that has been dug up from the dunes at the beach fronting his marina on the Gulf of Mexico, the possibilities are many, none of them good. Kate, his wife, left him a year ago and hasn't been heard from since. A female employee left the same day. Are the two women together? Are there any facts behind the rumor that they were linked romantically? Is the skull from an Indian or a pioneer who died here long ago and was buried in the dune, or could it be . . .

DANCE AT THE MARINA is the story of a New York couple who move to Florida and buy a marina to pursue their love of sailing. A bizarre death ends their dream of an ideal future. The book follows the lives of Neil Barnes, Sr. Detective in Newport, Florida and Alison Cooper, Detective Inspector, City of London, as a sequel to DANCE FOR THE ALLIGATOR. Both books are written in the first person point of view of each character, giving the reader the experience of listening to each person speak face to face; thus enabling the reader to look through a window into the psychology behind their words and their actions. Love, desire, jealousy, hostility, and fear are plainly seen through the glass and sometimes reflected in a mirror.

The story unfolds in a small town on Florida's west coast, populated largely by snow birds, seasonal residents who stay only for the winter. Kate and Mitchell Meadows proprietors of the GREEN KEY RESORT AND MARINA, settled there fleeing not only the winter weather but the cost of living in Westchester County, New York. An old love of sailing on the Hudson River, birthing The Snug at Garrison across the river from West Point, and a new love of coastal Florida where the boat rocks in the Gulf at their dock, makes it a good choice. Then one day Connie came to work there and everything changed.

Neil Barnes, Senior Detective in the Sheriff's office, Town of Newport is vacationing in London with the love of his life Alison Cooper, Detective Inspector, Metropolitan Police, City of London, when the Sheriff phones and demands that he return to the United States. When he does, Alison, alone again, sleeping with her Welsh corgi, thinks about the bleak reality of falling in love with a Yank separated from her by the pond.

Meanwhile Detective Matthew Halloway, Neil's side-kick, begins an investigation about the Meadows' family dog's discovery of a human skull on the marina property. He looks forward to the return of Barnes to Chasco County, knowing that Sheriff Waylan Graff won't stop pacing the floor until Neil arrives.

The answer to the mystery of the skull is up to Neil and Matt. They will need to pierce the overlay of good manners that hides enough hate to produce fatal consequences.