When a buddy asks convicted murderer-turned-detective Morgan Hunt to help him with a deep-sea diving class, Hunt never expects to be drawn into a case of greed over booty from a sunken Spanish galleon
#3 in the Morgan Hunt series. This entry is #3 of 4 in a short gem of a series featuring another in the pantheon of Florida protagonists - think Travis McGee, Thorn, Doc Ford, Zach Chasteen, etc..
Morgan Hunt is a Viet Nam vet rescued from a prison sentence by the intersession of attorney Nat Semmes, for whom he now works as intermittent investigator. Morgan Hunt's diver friend Phil Garvey has problems including a harassing lawsuit from a lawyer and harassment by the Coast Guard. Hunt finds the Coast Guard activity was prompted by a false tip from the lawyer and solves the problem; but Garvey has medical bills for his son and gets into a sunken treasure scam with dangerous partners.
Written in the mid-90's. It's interesting how dated it felt Lo these 20 years hence. Pacing was a step too slow, dialog a bit off, and the bad guys were just not bad enough. Still I was motivated enough to hang in there to the end to see how it would end, and I learned some things about deep diving and the Florida panhandle along the way. This is just the kind of book that could salvage a rainy day in a remote lake cabin.