"Delilah must deal with difficult clients and dead bodies"
Reviewed by Leanne Davis
Posted June 23, 2012
Mystery
Delilah Dickinson owns a travel agency specializing in
literary tours. This trip is an homage to Ernest Hemingway.
She is taking her group to Key West to visit the many
locations that Papa Hemingway was so fond of. One of her clients is a know it all about Hemingway and is
fond of spouting his knowledge to anyone who will listen.
Walter manages to antagonize nearly everyone with his
belligerent behavior. While in Sloppy Joe's, he nearly gets
into a fist fight with one of the "Papa" look a likes. When Walter is found dead on the beach outside their hotel
and the police focus on one of Delilah's other tour guests,
Delilah gets drawn into another investigation. Given
Walter's contentious behavior, many of the guest had run ins
with him and she has to sort out who might have real motive. Once again, Delilah will beat the police to the identity of
the killer and place her life in danger as she works to
resolve the case. FOR WHOM THE FUNERAL BELL TOLLS was an enjoyable read with
some very intriguing
moments. Ms. Washburn writes some believable characters
with such an eclectic mix that it is hard not to be drawn
into the story.
SUMMARY
Delilah takes a tour group to Key West, Florida, to visit
the house where Ernest Hemingway lived and wrote during the
Thirties, along with all the tropical attractions that Key
West has to offer. Key West is a funky but beautiful
place, of course, but then death intrudes when one of the
tourists appears to commit suicide by killing himself with
a shotgun in what seems to be an attempt to recreate
Hemingway's suicide. Naturally, though, the "suicide"
turns out to be murder, and once more Delilah finds herself
trying to find a killer. Nazi spies? U–boats run
aground on Caribbean islands? Buried treasure?
Modern–day pirates and drug smugglers? Delilah will
have her hands full sorting out this one.
ExcerptChapter 1
Ernest Hemingway once defined courage as "grace under
pressure".
However, Papa never had to ride herd on a bunch of
drunken, horny tourists.
No, that job fell to me, and I'd had just about enough
of it, especially with the way rock music was pounding from
the speakers in Sloppy Joe's Bar so that everybody crowded
in there shoulder to shoulder had to yell to be heard.
Somebody bumped into me from behind, and since the bar
was right in front of me, there was nowhere for me to go.
The crowd pressed him against me so intimately that all
concept of personal space was demolished, and it got even
worse when a familiar voice gulped in my ear, "Oh, cripes!
I'm sorry, Miz D!"
I turned my head to look over my shoulder at Luke
Edwards. Even in the garish light of the famous watering
hole, I could see that his face was flaming red with
embarrassment.
"That's all right, Luke," I told him. "If you can't
dry–hump your mother–in–law in Key West,
who can you . . . Oh, never mind!"
That just made him even more flustered. I knew it
would, and saying it might have been a little mean. But I
was feeling more than a little flustered myself. It seemed
like we were almost at the end of the world, and the normal
rules didn't apply here. My rambunctious clients seemed to
feel the same way.
There were an even dozen of them. We had rendezvoused
that afternoon at a Miami hotel, then made the long drive
down through the Keys on Highway One in a
fifteen–passenger van with Luke at the wheel.
Counting Luke and me, there were fourteen people on this
tour. We could have brought along one more, but that would
have meant having thirteen clients, and even though I don't
consider myself a superstitious person, I wasn't just about
to do that. No way.
Considering the way some of the tours I'd put together
in the past had gone, I didn't think it was a good idea to
tempt fate.
By the time we'd driven more than a hundred miles from
Miami and checked into our hotel, the Bradenton Beach
Resort, it was too late to do any sightseeing, but not too
late for the clients to enjoy some of Key West's notorious
nightlife. They were eager to do exactly that, so after
they'd freshened up, they piled back into the van and we
headed for Key West's Old Town, the most historic – and
most lively – part of this island that had once been known
as Bone Key, because of the skeletons that early Spanish
explorers found on it.
I couldn't help but hope that wasn't an omen.
Not that I wanted to dwell on the possibility of
trouble, but when you put together tours devoted to famous
literary figures and folks keep getting murdered on
them . . . well, there's an old saying about how you're not
paranoid if they're really out to get you.
Not all of my tours featured a corpse, of course. That
would just be silly, and a good sign that I ought to get
out of the business. But it had happened often enough that
Delilah Dickinson Literary Tours (that's me, my daughter
Melissa, and her husband Luke) had a reputation that scared
off some people. I tried to make up for that by putting
together really good and affordable tours, like this Ernest
Hemingway–themed visit to Key West.
Next to the Hemingway House itself, Sloppy Joe's was
probably the most famous place in Key West because
Hemingway had spent a lot of time drinking with the place's
colorful owner Joe Russell. As I had explained to the
clients on the way there, local legend had it that
Hemingway had once received a $1000 royalty check for A
Farewell to Arms from his publisher in New York while he
was living in Key West, and the bank had refused to cash it
because nobody who worked there believed that the scruffy
beachcomber who brought in the check was really a famous
author. But Joe Russell, the proprietor of Sloppy Joe's,
had cashed it and earned himself Hemingway's enduring
friendship.
It was a nice story, and it had the ring of truth to
it. Of course, we weren't in the original Sloppy Joe's,
where Papa had sat around and drank with Joe Russell. That
location was a few blocks away and now housed another
watering hole called Captain Tony's Saloon. But this
version of Sloppy Joe's catered to the tourists by billing
itself as Hemingway's Favorite Bar, and the marketing
worked. People who came to Key West for the whole
Hemingway experience flocked here. It was loud and rowdy
and sexy, too, which didn't hurt.
The pressure of the crowd finally eased enough for Luke
to extricate himself from close proximity to my backside.
He slid into a narrow open space beside me at the bar and
said, "Lord have mercy, Miz D, I never meant to get so, uh,
familiar."
"Don't worry about it, Luke," I told him. "It's so
crowded in here a girl could wind up gettin' pregnant and
never even realize she'd been havin' fun."
"Yeah, I guess so." He stood a little taller and craned
his neck to look around the room at the nightly chaos. "I
can't see all of our clients anymore."
"Doesn't matter. They're all grown. Some of 'em will
probably want to wander around Old Town some." I patted
the pocket of my slacks. "I've got all their numbers in my
phone, and if they're not back at the van by
eleven–thirty, I'll call 'em and tell them to get
there unless they want to walk all the way back to the
beach."
It wasn't that much of a walk, fifteen minutes or so,
but on a hot, muggy night it would take a lot out of you,
and all the nights were hot and muggy in Key West. Life
here at the southernmost tip of the United States was
lubricated equally by booze and sweat.
I was drinking bottled water, and I signaled the
bartender to bring me another one. He was a muscular,
gorgeous young man with long dark hair and a tight black
T–shirt. He actually had a gold ring in one ear,
giving him a piratical look. I recalled that at one time,
a man wearing a ring in his ear like that supposedly meant
he was gay, but I didn't know if that still applied or if
it was even true. Not that it mattered in this case,
because all I wanted from this young man was another bottle
of water.
He grinned at me as he slid it across the bar and made
the five dollar bill I put down disappear. "In town on a
tour?" he asked, raising his voice to be heard over the
blaring music.
"That's right." I didn't bother explaining that I was
in charge of the tour, not one of the paying customers.
His grin took in Luke as he said, "I hope you and your
friend enjoy it."
"Business associate," I said as I pointed a thumb at
Luke.
"Uh–huh," the bartender said. "Well, if you and
your business associate need somebody to show you around
after–hours, I wouldn't mind."
His eyes did a slow crawl over me, then gave Luke the
same treatment.
I swallowed hard. "Thanks, but I don't think that'll be
necessary."
"Suit yourself," he said, still grinning. He moved off
down the bar to take care of some other customers.
Luke leaned closer to me and said, "Miz D, was he
hitting on you?"
"Well, you don't have to say it like it's the most
far–fetched thing in the world. Anyway, I think he
was hittin' on both of us."
Luke frowned. "What are you . . . You mean . . .
Whoa!" He looked around. "What kind of a town is this?"
"Free–spirited," I told him.
"I'll say. And he thought that you and I – "
"Again, don't push it."
"Okay, okay. Guess I'd better circulate and make sure
none of our folks need anything."
"Be discreet," I told him. "Some people come on tours
like this because they're romantic."
"I don't see how anybody could be romantic in a madhouse
like this."
I thought he had a point, actually. I would have found
it a lot more romantic strolling along one of the white
sandy beaches scattered around the key, hand in hand with
somebody I cared about. Problem was, I didn't have anybody
like that right now. Back home in Atlanta, I'd been dating
Dr. Will Burke off and on for a couple of years – he's the
literature professor sort of doctor, not the medical kind –
but we were more off than on at the moment.
I figured that was mostly my fault. At my age, with one
divorce behind me, even a largely amicable one, I was a
little commitment–shy. I had a reasonably successful
business and an adorable daughter and
son–in–law who were going to make me a grandma
one of these days. I didn't really need any more in my
life than that, did I?
Luke wandered off into the crowd. I sipped on my
bottled water and did some people–watching. And
there were all kinds of people to watch, let me tell you.
Key West drew them from all over, all ages and shapes and
sizes. I saw gung–ho business types, male and female
both, with Bluetooths in their ears and smart phones in
their hands, probably checking the overseas markets and
making deals right here in the middle of Sloppy Joe's.
Next to them were tie–dyed,
sandals–and–granny–glasses–wearing
sorts who looked like they were stuck in a time loop where
it was perpetually 1967. Fishermen, artists, high rollers,
tourists looking to lose the pallor of a Midwestern
winter . . . everybody came to Key West sooner or later,
and once they got here, everybody came to Sloppy Joe's.
I liked it. It was a good break for me, I thought,
getting out of my comfort zone like this.
"Ms. Dickinson?"
The man's voice made me turn around. I was pretty good
at putting names with faces, so even though I'd known them
for only a few hours, I recognized George and Kerry
Matheson. He was in plumbing supplies, the sort of balding
former athlete who was starting to put on more than a few
extra pounds, and she was a pretty, perky housewife with
short brown hair who looked like she could have played that
part on a sitcom. Nice enough people, from what I knew of
them so far.
"Ms. Dickinson, this is great!" George went on. "I love
this place!"
"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," I told him. "We'll
have plenty of free time while we're here, so you can come
back if you like or explore some of the other nightlife."
"Oh, I'm sure we will," he said. "Right, hon?"
Kerry nodded. She didn't look quite as enthralled by
Sloppy Joe's as her husband obviously was, but she seemed
to be having a reasonably good time.
"I'm looking forward to seeing Hemingway's house
tomorrow," she said.
We were going to be in Key West for four nights and
three days. A visit to the Hemingway House was first on
the itinerary the next morning, and the rest of the first
two days would be devoted to seeing all the other historic
sights and museums on the island. The third day would be
free time for the clients to shop or just enjoy the beach
and the other amenities of the resort where we were
staying. Then the next morning it would be back to Miami,
where we would all go our separate ways.
"It's really interesting, all right," I said in response
to Kerry Matheson's comment. "I guess you must be a
Hemingway fan."
She rolled her eyes. "Sure, but not as much as Mr.
Harvick."
I knew what she meant. There were four couples on this
tour and four singles, and Walter Harvick was one of the
singles. He was as big a Hemingway fan as anybody I'd ever
run into. In fact, he had told me that he'd been here to
Key West half a dozen times before on his own, as well as
visiting Hemingway's haunts in Paris, Spain, Cuba, and
Idaho.
"But I thought it might be fun to see those places with
a group for a change, so I'm starting here," he'd said to
me in the van that afternoon.
I hoped he would enjoy himself. He probably wouldn't
learn anything new, but that wouldn't matter to him. I
knew from experience that certain readers who are really
devoted to a particular author can go back again and again
to the places where that writer produced his or her work.
There was something about just being there that was special
to them.
Then something happened that made me wonder if there
really are such things as omens. Kerry Matheson had just
mentioned Walter Harvick when Luke appeared beside me,
touched my arm, and leaned close to me to say, "Trouble,
Miz D! It's that Harvick fella, and I think he's about to
get his butt whipped!"
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