The Dry Tortugas

Read Chapter 1 on the author's website larryschnell.com



Adrian Wright sails into Guanaja harbor in Honduras, hits a reef and becomes mired in a captain's effort to save his daughter from vengeful drug dealers. This is no time for smuggling aliens into the United States, so Adrian sets course for the Dry Tortugas, where in the solitude of the remote island he hopes to develop a plan for her clandestine immigration. The Dry Tortugas, however, has become a rehabilitation center established by New York Senator Roger Caulfield, himself a closet alcoholic and philanderer who has remained in office by dodging reporters, Republicans, and police. Following a car accident in Cooperstown, New York, Caulfield's luck has run out. His aide and lover, Jennifer Alexander, arranges for his rehabilitation treatment as his political enemies hone their strategies for his demise. Capitalizing on the decline of Fort Jefferson and other national monuments, Caulfield recruits recovering addicts to staff the rehab center, counsel patients, and restore the monument. The island retreat seems ideal for rehabilitation as well as romance, camaraderie, and purpose until political forces infiltrate the island. As betrayal, assault and murder surface, the senator and his followers repudiate the law and redefine justice. A cast of characters from Upstate New York, Washington, D. C., Florida, and Honduras struggle with alcoholism, politics, greed, and deception as their paths lead them inevitably to the Dry Tortugas.