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About This Book
Remember Travis McGee? MacDonald’s lanky, battle worn hero described in the twenty-one adventures of how life isn’t always played fairly. That tarnished white knight-errant, that beach bum-private eye who lived on a houseboat in Fort Lauderdale. Remember how Travis found ways to recover stolen articles or correct the misfortunes that had been done to the people who crossed into his life? Ever wonder what happened to him?
Sure, we all know that the great, yarn spinner; John D. MacDonald passed from our lives back in 1986, but there are many of us who were left empty and wondering by the loss… until now.
Residing some two hundred miles, northwest of Bahia Mar Marina in Lake County, Florida, is a man named Jake Snow. The son Travis never knew he had. Jake curiously possesses some of the same traits and skills as his father. That inherent knack for understanding how things work, the ability to figure out why things happen the way they do and the tenacity to right the wrongs that have been bestowed on those who seek his services.
In this fourth chapter in the continuing saga of Jake’s life, he receives a phone call from a craggy voiced, old Irish, sponge salvager, claiming to have found his father’s boat; The Busted Flush. The boat is sunk in the deep waters off Marathon Key. His natural curiosity sends him to south Florida, where Derek O’Dowd and his crew convince him to lend financial support and join their diving expedition. In search of whatever treasures they can find on a sunken Swedish cargo freighter found near McGee’s houseboat. In trade, Jake will be given a window of time to explore The Flush.
During the dive to the houseboat, they have a frightening encounter with deadly intentioned, Tiger sharks and have to develop an innovative way to lure the monsters away. What he and Siomara, the young, female, salvage rigger discover, shines light on the ugliness that took place nearly fifteen years ago and sends them crisscrossing the Florida Key off shore lighthouses to unravel the story. They are also in search of clues left behind by one of the original men who worked with Lt. George Meade’s lighthouse construction efforts just prior to the beginning of The Civil War. Clues, which not only lead to the men who perpetrated the death of Travis and his friend Meyer, but also point to the real reason for the outbreak of the war. Clues, which have been hand stamped, in poetic form, in areas of the lights which are not easily accessed. Each stanza spells a new revelation in the story and lends insight to the location of the next.
Upon the discovery of their motive, they encounter resistance from an ancestor of the killers, who masks his real life behind an association which is supposed to be in business to save and protect the off shore lights. The local Sheriff is soon engaged and Jake and Sio find themselves dangerously close to being locked behind iron bars.
The truth about the events evolving in Washington and in Charleston, South Carolina during the days and weeks just prior to the first shots being fired on Fort Sumter, paint a new picture about the fifteenth President of the United States. The truth about his real life, his personal relationships and the real reason why the war began. These facts have been kept hidden from the world until now. The prominent politicians who ridiculed him, the blackmail he was facing and the true reason he never replenished the Union effort are told. These revelations link forward more than one hundred and fifty years to one of the most controversial topics in society today.
Ansell Craddock discovered these truths while snooping through the written correspondence of George Meade in the Florida Keys. Meade would later come to fame during his encounter with Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg. Ansell traveled to Charleston to tell what he knew to the southern governing bodies who had gathered there, after the succession of the south. The storm of war had been brewing for some time. But a secret pact
Sure, we all know that the great, yarn spinner; John D. MacDonald passed from our lives back in 1986, but there are many of us who were left empty and wondering by the loss… until now.
Residing some two hundred miles, northwest of Bahia Mar Marina in Lake County, Florida, is a man named Jake Snow. The son Travis never knew he had. Jake curiously possesses some of the same traits and skills as his father. That inherent knack for understanding how things work, the ability to figure out why things happen the way they do and the tenacity to right the wrongs that have been bestowed on those who seek his services.
In this fourth chapter in the continuing saga of Jake’s life, he receives a phone call from a craggy voiced, old Irish, sponge salvager, claiming to have found his father’s boat; The Busted Flush. The boat is sunk in the deep waters off Marathon Key. His natural curiosity sends him to south Florida, where Derek O’Dowd and his crew convince him to lend financial support and join their diving expedition. In search of whatever treasures they can find on a sunken Swedish cargo freighter found near McGee’s houseboat. In trade, Jake will be given a window of time to explore The Flush.
During the dive to the houseboat, they have a frightening encounter with deadly intentioned, Tiger sharks and have to develop an innovative way to lure the monsters away. What he and Siomara, the young, female, salvage rigger discover, shines light on the ugliness that took place nearly fifteen years ago and sends them crisscrossing the Florida Key off shore lighthouses to unravel the story. They are also in search of clues left behind by one of the original men who worked with Lt. George Meade’s lighthouse construction efforts just prior to the beginning of The Civil War. Clues, which not only lead to the men who perpetrated the death of Travis and his friend Meyer, but also point to the real reason for the outbreak of the war. Clues, which have been hand stamped, in poetic form, in areas of the lights which are not easily accessed. Each stanza spells a new revelation in the story and lends insight to the location of the next.
Upon the discovery of their motive, they encounter resistance from an ancestor of the killers, who masks his real life behind an association which is supposed to be in business to save and protect the off shore lights. The local Sheriff is soon engaged and Jake and Sio find themselves dangerously close to being locked behind iron bars.
The truth about the events evolving in Washington and in Charleston, South Carolina during the days and weeks just prior to the first shots being fired on Fort Sumter, paint a new picture about the fifteenth President of the United States. The truth about his real life, his personal relationships and the real reason why the war began. These facts have been kept hidden from the world until now. The prominent politicians who ridiculed him, the blackmail he was facing and the true reason he never replenished the Union effort are told. These revelations link forward more than one hundred and fifty years to one of the most controversial topics in society today.
Ansell Craddock discovered these truths while snooping through the written correspondence of George Meade in the Florida Keys. Meade would later come to fame during his encounter with Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg. Ansell traveled to Charleston to tell what he knew to the southern governing bodies who had gathered there, after the succession of the south. The storm of war had been brewing for some time. But a secret pact