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| Category: Fiction:Mystery |
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| About the Book | |
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The book is set in Southwest Florida and tells how a retired geology professor, Peter Matthews, discovers a link between abandoned phosphate mines in the area and chemical contamination of a number of freshwater springs. He further discovers, with the help of an epidemiologist from The University of Florida, Dr. Samantha Baer, that people living in the vicinity of the springs are getting cancer at an unusually high rate. Matthews enlists the help of his neighbor, Max Hand, a retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant. They live in the small fishing village of Cortez in Manatee County. Max provides the beef Matthews needs when Peter discovers that the mines are being used to inject toxic wastes in the groundwater. Peter brings a further complication into their lives when he meets a beautiful young, New England bred woman, Lisa Melvin, who runs a kayak and canoe livery on one of the affected springs. She discloses to Peter that she has just been diagnosed with breast cancer and has to start radiation and chemotherapy. Peter likes the girl and insists that she stay at his home while she undergoes treatment. He and Max take Lisa to the hospital every day, at the same time pursuing the mystery and the criminals involved. Things get serious as Peter figures out what is happening. Eventually his prodding leads to the assassination of three employees of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and one of the mine operators. Peter and Max discover that the illegal injection of toxic waste into the aquifer that feeds the springs is the work of a Canadian based multinational corporation and shady companies that earn big bucks to dispose of these materials. Peter becomes the target of the corporation and is attacked in his own home by the same hit man that killed the others. In a dramatic scene, Peter is looking down the barrel of the man's gun.
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| About the Author | |
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A native of Guyana, Terry Logan is retired professor of environmental science at The Ohio State University. He also ran several businesses and is Editor-in-Chief of Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology. He is the author of four published works of fiction. He lives in Sarasota, Florida. |