[Will Harper Mystery 01] • Million Dollar Staircase

A VERY GOOD FRIEND…

WOULD HELP YOU HIDE A BODY

This irresistible Florida mystery opens with a bang and never stops: “Start the boat! We’ve got to get rid of this body.”

That’s Will Harper speaking, ex-journalist, budding detective, and very very good friend, thinking fast when he discovers his girl friend’s the victim of a frame-up. He sees instantly why they can’t go to the cops—the mayor, the city manager, and for all Will knows, every official in town could be in on it.

It’s the latest offensive in a case of municipal bullying that’s busted many a bank account and broken many a heart—something that sounds so boring you could doze off just reading the words: Eminent Domain. But it’s anything but boring when it enters your life as the legal justification for waltzing in and power-grabbing your property—business, buildings, and all.

It’s just happened to Will’s very good friend Sandy, who’s worked like a demon to build her marina business and now learned the city’s claiming it-- at a fraction of its value—for a big development that just about every fat cat in town has invested in. Sandy’s fighting the play like a hellcat and knows all too well that the murdered man on her boat is someone just like her—a pawn who got in the way. Anyone could have done it. Everyone’s out to get her.

Good thing she has a knight in shining armor who happens to be an ace investigator!

Author Crosby does an outstanding job of exposing the unfairness of the doctrine and the emotional havoc caused by small town corruption and greed, getting right up in the face of the human loss and tragedy it can cause. And all that raw emotion’s served up with healthy portions of action in this hard-boiled mystery with a heart.