DETECTIVE FICTION

A serial killer is on the loose in Naples Florida an enclave of wealth and privilege on the Southwest Gulf Coast At first the murders have been disguised as accidents but when Police Chief Wade Hansen becomes suspicious Mayor Charles Beaumont orders him to apprehend the killer before the truth becomes public knowledge Hansen reaches out to retired Chicago homicide detective Jack Starkey Starkey who has been shot three times twice on the job and once in the army is enjoying every cops retirement dream but at the same time misses the thrill of the hunt so he accepts the job As the bodies stack up like cordwood Starkey searches for anything that the victims might have in common He decides to go undercover as a member of the Naples elite in an attempt to get himself noticed by the killer drawing the attention of Count Vasily Petrovich who operates a hedge fund named for the Atocha a Spanish galleon that sank in a hurricane off the Florida Keys in 1622 When Starkey discovers that all of the victims so far had been investors in that fund and that the count is not a count at all but a member of the Russian mafia he suspects that the Atocha Fund might have a substantial penalty for early withdrawal Meanwhile William Stevens a Chicago Tribune police reporter has been writing a series of bestselling crime novels based upon his pal Starkeys career Starkeys alterego is Chicago homicide detective Jack Stoney Things are not what they seem plot twists abound and the bullets begin to fly Starkey in desperation reaches out to the fictional Stoney to help him catch the killer