The once pristine waters of Everglades National Park are being looted once more. Invasive pythons have taken over as the top predator. Water levels have dropped to an all-time low to maintain the agricultural industry. And a rusting hulk has been lying undiscovered for eighty years. Until Billy Rainwater stumbled upon it.
After several years, mountains of paperwork, and a healthy dose of South Florida “good ol’ boy” palm-greasing, Billy and his two closest friends, Jesse McDermitt and Rusty Thurman, have begun the tedious recovery of the U-320, a World War II Nazi submarine, which had been driven deep into the Glades by a great hurricane.
A fortune in Nazi gold is at stake, and the trio of long-time friends and adventure seekers don’t know they’re sitting on it until it’s almost too late. At the same time, but on a different front, evil stalks a middle schooler and Jesse has to find a way to bring the man to the kind of justice Jesse's known for.
Can the wealth of a great city be recovered and returned? Or will it sink into the muck along with the instruments of war which brought it? The stakes rise exponentially as lives are threatened, and the tranquil waters of South Florida once more erupt into chaotic violence.
Wayne Stinnett is an American novelist and Veteran of the United States Marine Corps. After serving he worked as a deckhand, commercial fisherman, Divemaster, taxi driver, construction manager, and commercial truck driver. He currently lives in the South Carolina Lowcountry on one of the sea islands, with his wife and youngest daughter. They have three other children, four grandchildren, three dogs and a whole flock of parakeets. He's the founder of the Marine Corps League detachment in Greenville, South Carolina, where he met his wife, and rides with the Patriot Guard Riders. He grew up in Melbourne, Florida and has also lived in the fabulous Florida Keys, Andros Island in the Bahamas, Dominica in the Windward Islands, and Cozumel, Mexico. Wayne began writing in 1988, penning three short stories before setting it aside to deal with life as a new father. He took it up again at the urging of his third wife and youngest daughter, who love to listen to his sea stories. Those original short stories formed the basis of his first novel, Fallen Palm. After a year of working on it, he published it in October 2013. Since then, he's written more novels and now this prequel in the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series and the spinoff Charity Styles Caribbean Thriller Series. These days, he can usually be found in his office above Lady's Island Marina, where he also keeps his boat, working on the next book.