Tortoise Stew

by Patricia Camburn Behnke

Kelly Sands, a reporter in north Florida, finds a bomb on her desk the night she has covered a controversial annexation hearing in the small town of Calloway. Developers hope to build a movie studio and landing strip within the city limits. Dead armadillos and gopher tortoise carcasses are left as calling cards to those opposing the development as the commission meetings erupt into all-out warfare. With the murder of one commissioner in Calloway and the suicide of that commissioner s wife, Kelly begins an investigation that threatens to topple the carefully laid plans of the developers and politicians. When a young girl is killed by a semi from Monster Mart, the environmentalists become even more vocal against the planned airstrip. Amidst it all, Kelly and her colleagues fight to maintain journalistic integrity while attempting to bring justice to the crazy world of Florida politics.

335 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2006