Slack Tide

by George Harmon Coxe

A marina owner gets caught up in a murder investigation. The girl in the water is unfamiliar to Don MacLaren. This is odd since, as the owner of the island's only boat dock, he knows everyone who steps foot on the small spit of land. He hoists the young swimmer out, and is helping her get warm when Oliver Kingsley, the island's wealthiest citizen, comes to collect her, claiming he's her husband. The girl refuses to leave with Kingsley, resulting in a brawl between the two men.

In the morning Kingsley is found dead, and after the cops learn about the fight, they peg MacLaren as their chief suspect. As MacLaren struggles to understand the mystery behind the rich man's death, he finds that even the smallest island can hold deep secrets.

189 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

George Harmon Coxe was an American writer of crime fiction.His series characters are Jack "Flashgun" Casey, Kent Murdock, Leon Morley, Sam Crombie, Max Hale and Jack Fenner. Casey and Murdock are both detectives and photographers. He started writing officially from around 1922, his work being for nickel and dime pulp fiction of the time. To earn money, he originally wrote in many genres, including romance and adventure stories, but was especially fond of crime fiction, his character "Jack (Flashgun) Casey" becoming a popular radio show through to the 1940s. He wrote a total of 63 novels, the last being published in 1975. He was associated with MGM as a writer.

Married to Elizabeth Fowler in 1929, Coxe had 2 children.

He was named a Grand Master in 1964 by The Mystery Writers of America.