Sabal Bay consignment shop owner Eve Appel is fit to be
tied--family tied. Just as she is basking in the warmth of a
renewed relationship with her long-lost Uncle Winston,
disaster strikes. He and his less welcome companion,
Darlene, have come for a visit, and their request to
participate in one of rural Florida's most popular tourist
activities, an airboat ride through the swamps, ends with
her uncle being shot in the head. The killing looks
suspiciously like a mob hit.
Turns out Uncle Winston was "connected." Was he simply a
bag man, or something more? Who is Darlene, really, and how
did Winston acquire three Russian stepchildren, one of whom
has been kidnapped by yet another mob family--this one
Russian? Winston claimed to prize family above all else, but
what "family" was he talking about: his niece Eve, his
relations by marriage, or his mobster employers?
When Eve's best friend Madeleine is kidnapped, Eve doesn't
know where to turn. Her mob-boss buddy Nappi Napolitani? Her
new Miccosukee Indian friend, the long, lean, and luscious
Sammy Egret? Her ex-husband, Jerry, who is in Nappi's
employ? With two mob families on her tail and her boyfriend,
PI Alex Montgomery, mostly away on assignment, Eve has to
act fast. Before whoever wrecked her car and left her to the
mercy of the alligators finishes the job they started.
Dead in the Water is the second book in the Eve Appel
Mystery series, which began with A Secondhand Murder.