Key West Lost and Found

＂Here’s a mystery that pushes all the right buttons -- dead bodies, drug deals, dames in distress, a take-no-guff police lieutenant out to save the day -- all taking place on that nowhere-left-to-go destination, Key West...＂ - Byron Rupert McCafferty, Online Critics Corner Key West, April 1966. What does missing mob money from the fall of Havana have to do with the death of old family friend and fishing guide, Sam Torres? Is restaurateur and reputed mobster, Sal Donatello, really the friend he claims to be or is he chasing his own agenda? And what has driven local newspaper editor, Andy Hardy, over the edge to threaten reporter Amy Petersen? Can Key West Police Lieutenant Tom Jackson keep her safe without jeopardizing their budding romance? Before the drug filled craziness of the 70’s and 80’s things were already getting warm at the end of the road, and it wasn’t just the temperature.

Bob Haines is a retired patent attorney or, as he puts it, ＂I was a lawyer but I got better.＂ He grew up in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, escaping in the mid seventies to attend college at Florida Institute of Technology in beautiful Melbourne, Florida. Earning a B.S. in Biology in 1978, he returned to the DC area where he started looking for a job in science, which would support further education, a necessity in that field. Landing what he thought was only a temporary clerical job at a local patent law firm, the Powers That Be recognized his abilities and convinced him to go to law school at night while working full time as an intellectual property researcher. Graduation from law school and passing the Virginia Bar (something he promises never to do again) permitted him to enter the exalted (?) ranks of practicing attorneys. Thirty-two years later he found himself able to retire from the practice of law (having never gotten it perfect) and return to the sunshine and warmth of coastal central Florida. Somewhere during those years he discovered that writing wasn’t all dry briefs and technical patent applications but could be fun, especially when a body was involved. Now, living on the Space Coast with Jeannie on his phone (＂Master, I have mail for you＂) Bob grows mangoes on two trees, makes a yummy jam and killer chutney from the fruit, is researching how to make a mango liqueur and tends his orchids (apologies to Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe) while thinking up new and interesting characters, stories and ways to eliminate people. Key West Lost and Found is his first novel, hopefully to be followed by many more.