A Deadly Calm in Cedar Key

They killed a kindhearted elderly man ... and a disgraced lawman wants revenge.WINNER: Mystery-Sleuth Fiction - PenCraft Book Awards, Spring 2026 WINNER: Crime Fiction - International Firebird Book Awards, 1st Quarter 2026FINALIST: Debut Fiction & Crime Fiction - Independent Author Awards, 2026FINALIST: Hard-Boiled Crime - American Book Fest - 2026FINALIST: Book Cover Design - Independent Author Awards, 2026_____________________WHEN A BELOVED COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER is brutally murdered in the small fishing village of Cedar Key on Florida's Gulf Coast, disgraced former police chief Kemper McRae feels an urgent desire to return to the badge and find the killers.Joining the investigation might restore his standing in the community, but it also risks exposing things from his past that he needs to keep buried, including actions surrounding his involuntary separation from law enforcement years earlier. Federal agents, local politics, and meth traffickers from a desperate drug gang create a powder keg of competing interests where no one escapes unscathed.As justice for the victim slips further away, Kemper must choose between the law he once upheld with its promise of redemption or doing what he knows is right because some crimes demand a different kind of reckoning. With a hurricane bearing down on Florida's Big Bend and time running out, Kemper faces an impossible decision that may cost him everything, including his life.This award-winning hard-boiled crime thriller explores the morally complex, razor-thin line between justice and revenge in a community where everyone knows everyone and some debts can only be paid in blood!