The Root of All Evil

This story is a murder mystery set in Sarasota in the mid-1920’s during the city’s real estate boom and bust. Content consists of a short preface entitled ＂Of the Time and Place,＂ eighteen chapters, and an Author’s Note describing conditions after the story’s period.

Fundamental to the narrative is the historical context. All details of the settling were carefully researched and are factual and accurate. They include information on the rapid influx of people and sudden population growth, the conflicting visions of the community’s character and future, the uncontrolled real estate development and construction projects, and the aggressive sales methods and high prices in the real estate market, and the inadequate oversight of banks and their failures amid the real estate collapse.

Each chapter begins with a short passage establishing the broad situation. The rest of the chapters consist of conversations or dialogues that develop the narrative in the manner of printed plays and some modernist fiction. In each conversation, the comments by participants quickly identify the speakers and their location. There are no descriptions by the author. Readers’ imagination must furnish any further details they wish about both the places and the characters’ appearances.

Characters reveal themselves slowly through their words and what is said about their behavior. While some basic information about them emerges in the dialogues, characters are neither described in detail nor analyzed by the author, leaving readers to form their own judgments from the evidence.