Editors Pick

When Jesse McDermitt retires from the Marine Corps at age 37, he has no idea what he will do for the rest of his life. He only knows he doesn't want to spend the coming winter anywhere cold.

 

His greatest skill is killing people from up to a mile away and he knows there aren't many job opportunities in the civilian world for that. However, he also knows his way around boats and has an old friend living free and easy in the Florida Keys. Being an experienced diver and angler, he immediately heads south toward Key West and the end of the road.

 

With a single comment, a waitress in a waterfront restaurant in north Key Largo shakes loose a long dormant dream and Jesse runs with it. With the help of friends, new and old, he buys just the right boat to live on and soon starts a part time charter business. Danger lurks in the sleepy little town of Marathon, in the middle of the Florida Keys, as well as in the swamps of the Everglades.

 

But danger doesn't expect to run into a man like Jesse. A man who will not only respond swiftly in facing it, but with a vengeance unexpected. 

Jesse McDermitt lives alone on an isolated island in the Florida Keys where he runs a charter fishing business. Retired from the Marine Corps for six years, he wanted nothing more than to relax, fish, dive and enjoy the laid back lifestyle of the islands. Russ, his former Platoon Sergeant and old friend, dies unexpectedly in a mysterious scuba diving accident and Jesse becomes suspicious.

 

When his friend's son comes to south Florida to ask Jesse if he would take him to a remote reef to spread his father's ashes, the two men discover that Russ was murdered and agree to hunt down the psychotic killer together, unaware that their manhunt will lead them to a Caribbean terrorist cell.

 

The prospect of finding lost Confederate gold, several high speed boat chases and dodging demented killers, won't stop Jesse from revenge. Surviving a powerful hurricane puts everything on hold as a top secret government agency tries to recruit him into their fold.

Jesse's back in this exciting sequel to Fallen Palm. Grieving over the loss of a loved one to terrorists, Jesse's been holed up on his island home for months, numbing his mind and body with endless, mundane tasks. A friend comes to him asking Jesse to help her dad who's been pressured into running drugs for a Cuban smuggler.

 

Jesse finds out the smuggler is also an arms merchant for Hezbollah, the terrorist organization responsible for the death of someone close. Once again, Jesse looks to settle the score.

 

Fast boats, beautiful underwater scenery, and blazing guns abound in this fast paced romp through the Caribbean, with stops in Cuba, Key West, and Cozumel, Mexico.

In this fourth installment of the Jesse McDermitt series, Jesse faces an antagonist unlike any other. A friend’s son, who was dishonorably discharged from the Corps, is suffering from post-traumatic stress.

 

With Jesse’s help he learns to cope with his demons and gets his discharge overturned, so that he can once again serve the country he loves. Meanwhile, another foe is out to get Jesse, Deuce, and anyone else that gets in the way, including a highly placed government official.

 

When it’s learned the foe is one of their own, all hell breaks loose around the Florida Keys. Half the proceeds from the sale of this book are donated to Homes for Warriors in Brevard County, Florida, to help build and remodel homes for our injured military men and women.

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written. I wear a lot of hats, always have. I’m a husband and dad first and foremost. I’m Pappy to going on five grand-kids. I’m a Marine veteran. I’m a biker, boater, sailor, scuba diver, rum critic, farmer, builder and fixer of things broken. Apparently, I’m a fair story teller, too. I’ve spun tales of my experiences in the Florida Keys and around the Caribbean to my kids, grand-kids, friends, and family. Meeting up with some old friends recently, my wife and daughter were shocked to find out all those stories weren’t fiction. After being urged by quite a few people to write, I decided to try again. I’d written a handful of short stories about a young guy, fresh out of the Corps who moved to the Keys, back in the eighties. Those were never published, though I submitted them to dozens of publishers and agents. So, I compiled the best three, updated the young Marine to a 45 year-old retired Marine and wrote two novels, Fallen Palm and Fallen Hunter, publishing both in 2013, through my own publishing company, Down Island Press.

 

In 2014, I published three more novels, one a prequel to the first two. That book, Fallen Out, was an immediate, huge success, selling almost 10,000 Kindle copies in the first 90 days. I currently have six novels in the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series, with a seventh due out this summer and the first in a spin-off series due out in the fall.