A Nautical Conspiracy A Will And Betsy Black Adventure

“Creative characters guide the reader through what in many ways is a sailing adventure...er...caper around Jamaica... A hidden gem.” —Richard J. Wall, Editor. “David Beckwith’s knowledge of and affection for Caribbean culture and its wind-blown intricacies are showcased in this fast-moving story set in Jamaica’s hot, salty underbelly. Having had some experience in Jamaica, I can say this story is as colorful as the country itself and is filled with unique nicknames, Jamaican dialect, and the sense of abandon that exists in the lawless parts of its society. I can still smell the jerked chicken and meat patties from here.” —Reef Perkins, bestselling author of Deep Air and Sex, Salvage, and Secrets Will and Betsy Black’s latest adventure takes them back to Jamaica. When Jamaican Shower Posse second-in-command, Harry Dog, is given what appears to be a simple, routine assignment, he delegates it to Bigga, the posse’s third-in-command, who selects Oney, Which Flava, and Twinie, three of his young up-and-comers, to carry out the task. After this “no-brainer” goes awry, however, Harry Dog is forced to send three reliables, Hi-top, Monkeyman, and Mighty Mouse, to get things back on track, but bad luck continues to strike, making it appear that if Harry Dog didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck at all as the hole they are digging just keeps getting deeper and deeper.

In the aftermath of a direct hurricane strike on Vero Beach, Florida, WILL AND BETSY BLACK discover the body of one of Will's colleagues, DAVE TRESSLER, in his office. The authorities consider it a storm-related casualty but Will and Betsy are not convinced. As the people in the City of Vero Beach begin to sort through the debris, live without electrical power, take cold showers, eat canned food and drink warm drinks, tempers are tested and human foibles are revealed with ironic humor. Against this backdrop of inconvenience and frustration, Will and Betsy, along with their friends GUY and PENNY WALSH decide to become amateur sleuths to uncover the truth about Dave Tressler's death. Unable to work as a result of hurricane damage to their offices, they use the time to pursue the investigation. They discover Dave Tressler was a highly unethical stock broker and encounter numerous potential perpetrators who could have killed him. With GUY and PENNY's help, their sleuthing reveals hostility towards Dave even from his widow, CONNIE TRESSLER, his father-in-law, MIKE POLLARD and his brother. Alarming evidence also links Dave with illegal security sales for a group of Colombians. When the Colombians become aware of the interest in their affairs, the Blacks and the Walshes experience a series of dangerous encounters As evidence continues to mount that Dave's death is a homicide, so does the number of potential suspects and the level of intrigue.

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"From the opening moments in their latest action adventure, when a Coast Guard drug interdiction goes horribly awry, David and Nancy Beckwith have done it again. It's showtime in the Keys after drugs worth $500 million sink to the bottom of the straits and Will and Betsy Black swing into action. By cannily weaving cunning suspense with a setting the authors know deeply well, A Narcotics Conspiracy brings the Florida Keys to breathtaking life, unveiling the true character of a place and a people renowned for mixing great wealth with wild play." —Mark Howell, author of Like a Rolling Stone. In this third adventure Will and Betsy Black, those crime-solving financial whizzes, find themselves curious when Geoffrey Oliver Watson III is found dead on his boat near Key West. Then a 50-foot go-fast cigarette boat nearly rams a Coast Guard cutter, raising more questions. The answer is drug smuggling. Can the husband-and-wife sleuths thwart the local drug lords?

In a tale of ancient evil, Bram Stoker creates a world of lurking horrors and bizarre denizens: a demented mesmerist, hellbent on mentally crushing the girl he loves; a gigantic kite raised to rid the land of an unnatural infestation of birds, and which receives strange commands along its string; and all the while, the great white worm slithers below, seeking its next victim...

The majority of the subjects and events in this novel are real, e.g. the attack on my mother in our apartment on University Avenue, my ability to read spectographically the thermal and formal properties of souls, my lower-middle-class San Diego neighbors who came back profoundly changed (or dead) from the Vietnam War, the widely celebrated but largely choreographed "counterculture revolution," and my recurring nightmares about the Old Green Man of Time, which as I understand them now were not dreams but encounters with an actual demon.