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Wreckers' Key

by Christine Kling

Wreckers' Key Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In her Seychelle Sullivan novels, Christine Kling has brilliantly rendered the world of South Florida, as seen from the teeming waters around it. From harbors of Key West to the wilds of Biscayne Bay to the night lights of Miami, Kling’s tough-minded heroine has carved out a life that is uniquely her own. Now, this fiercely independent woman is at a turning point . . . and in a dangerous duel with an unseen enemy.

In the 1800s, Key West was built by wrecking skippers who in feats of derring-do raced to shipping disasters to save valuable cargos from the ocean depths. Today, as too many boats chase too few wrecks, salvage has turned into a cutthroat corporate enterprise. Seychelle Sullivan, who pilots a tug her father built by hand, is unable and unwilling to compete. She is overwhelmed by issues of love, trust, motherhood, career, and family. But when a friend is killed, Seychelle begins to suspect a chilling scenario: that modern-day wreckers are causing yachts to crash onto the reefs–and killing off whoever gets in the way.

Nestor Frias was piloting a billionaire’s luxury power yacht on its maiden voyage when it ran aground. A few days later, Frias was dead. His eight-months-pregnant widow is distraught, and a host of questions surround both Frias’s death and the ship’s accident. When another man dies while asking questions, Seychelle navigates the dangerous shoals and channels of the case and her life, unaware that a greater danger is looming: a murderous human storm designed perfectly for her.

With its vivid, colorful characters and rich sense of sea and land, Wreckers’ Key is a brilliant addition to Christine Kling's fascinating, entertaining, and thrilling Florida mystery series.

Review:

"At the start of Kling's salty if at times meandering fourth Florida suspense thriller (after Bitter End), tugboat captain Seychelle Sullivan, who inherited her dad's business three years earlier, is still resisting advanced GPS technology. Her more successful competitors, like upstart Neville Pinder, have no compunction about using it, while such unsavory developments as an increase in insurance fraud (an unhappy client is suing her) have her questioning her future. When her friend Nestor Frias runs a millionaire's yacht aground in Key West, Nestor insists the GPS navigation system was somehow compromised. While Seychelle is towing the yacht to Fort Lauderdale, Nestor's killed in a windsurfing accident that his pregnant widow insists was murder. An unexpected reunion with an old childhood friend, Ben Baker, once a nerd, now a hottie, provides some romantic tension. A shocking resolution to this solid tale of nautical adventure will catch most readers by surprise." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

Praise for Christine Kling

Bitter End

“Christine Kling’s novels just keep getting better and better. . . . She takes her readers on fast-paced tours of areas into which few writers have ventured.”

–Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, author of Luck of the Draw

“John D. McDonald would get a kick out of Christine Kling’s suspense novels.”

–Chicago Tribune

Cross Current

“A taut, fast-paced thriller . . . Kling’s prose is strong and authoritative.”

–The Miami Herald

“Exciting . . . Kling is an author who bears watching. She clearly knows how to add texture and color to her narrative. . . . Cross Current is a keeper.”

–The Tampa Tribune

Surface Tension

“An exceptionally rare first novel . . . moving and full of suspense.”

–James W. Hall, author of Off the Chart

“Seychelle Sullivan fights off a very real array of land-based predators with a grit and determination that John D. himself would have cheered.”

–Les Standiford, author of Bone Key

About the Author

Christine Kling is the author of Surface Tension, Cross Current, and Bitter End. She spent more than twenty years on and around boats and has cruised the waters of the North and South Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Caribbean. She received her M.F.A. in creative writing from Florida International University in Miami. She lives in South Florida aboard her thirty-three-foot sailboat.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780345479051
Publisher:
Random House
Subject:
General
Author:
Kling, Christine
Subject:
Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths
Subject:
Boats and boating
Subject:
Tugboats
Publication Date:
February 2007
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
271
Dimensions:
9.24x6.43x.92 in. 1.13 lbs.
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