High Water Hellion: A Luanne Fogarty Mystery

I've read the other reviews so I'll keep this short and to the point. This is the best yet in Glynn Alam's series about LuAnne Fogarty. The familiar characters are still in the story and it is like meeting old friends to read of this latest mystery. Early in the book I wished there was a map showing the positioning of the houses along the lake, but I quickly realized that it was not important. I wish parents with teenage children would read this book. There is a lesson in it and it might help someone get help for a troubled teen if they could see what happened in the story. All that aside, it was a excellent read. Once I got to the middle of the book, I could not put it down. Now I await the next in this excellent series!

The fifth in Glynn Marsh Alam's mystery series about professor and scuba diver Luanne Fogarty, "High Water Hellion" is the best story yet. The characters we have grown to know from previous books - Luanne, Tony, Vernon, and Pasquin, among others - have temporarily moved from the swamps of north Florida to an interesting new Central Florida locale. Nothing is what it first appears to be as the deaths of feisty older women that were first thought to be from natural causes may be anything but natural. The mysteries deepen as more is learned about the dead women's neighbors, and the threats to potentially thwart the investigation grow more intense, including aggressively mating alligators, snakes, and high winds and water from a powerful hurricane. Threats from nature turn out to be the least of Luanne's problems as the story unfolds. As always, Alam's descriptions of her Florida settings are vivid and the reader can truly see and feel the houses along the lakefront (especially what it must be like to ride out a hurricane), as well as easily imagine being in the area's roadhouse eating ribs and slaw and visiting with a rattlesnake in the fireplace. In terms of style, story and character development this is a winner.

Luanne was admittedly a little reluctant to go help Tony Amado. His aunt, Miss Keen, has just died, and rumor had it she had thrown something into the lake near where she lived. Tony needed Luanne to come and dive in the lake to find whatever it was his aunt threw in there. The problems come almost as soon as Luanne arrives. Being early May, the alligators are in the middle of mating season. Miss Keen insisted on an autopsy, and the coroner finds foul play. And there's a hurricane coming, bringing its own damage and danger. When I realized the action of the book was going to move from Luanne's home in the swamps outside of Tallahassee to central Florida, I was worried we wouldn't get to see the recurring characters. I had nothing to worry about as they all logically show up over the course of the book. Since the setting is not in the area around Luanne's house, it allows the author to create a host of new characters. They are brought fully to life. There were a few characters I truly felt sorry for by the time the book was over. And several of the characters really creeped me out. The plot moves along well in the first half. The hurricane becomes an important part of the story and not just an add on to make things more interesting. There was one major plot point I saw coming long before the characters did. I did feel they should have suspected what was going on long before they did, and I did grow a little frustrated with them in the second half. Then, the climax seems a little rushed as it tries to tie up all the plot threads. Ms. Alam's writing is as strong as ever here. She expertly paints pictures with words while continuing to move the story forward. The descriptions kept me on edge through much of the book, adding suspense to an already good story. Fans of the series will find another winner here. Anyone who loves a good tale well written would do well to check out this series.

Glynn Marsh Alam captures perfectly the steamy, shrouded northern Florida swamps in her first four books of this series. In this installment she sets professor and scuba diver Luanne Fogarty near Central Florida's city of Ocala during hurricane and alligator mating seasons while continuing to paint a death-perfect tropical landscape. There, as a personal favor to enigmatic friend Tony Amado, sheriff's detective and sometimes boss, Luanne helps him search for clues to his aunt's death. The love-starved alligators are not the only predators surrounding his aunt's little lake-front cottage, but who killed her? Was it the reclusive, well-fed New Jersey family who had clandestine deliveries? Or maybe the handy man who showed up at the oddest times with his brain-damaged and abused sister in tow? Or maybe it is the wealthy old man and his land-grabbing son down the road? Whoever it is serves up another neighbor to the alligators before Luanne and Tony have gotten very far into their investigation. The author serves up clues and red herrings while giving long time readers a tasty tidbit or two into the life of Tony Amado. Her lover Vernon comes to assist and Luanne's best friend and swamp neighbor Pasquin offers his expertise in swamp psychology and Cajun cooking. You can almost hear the mosquitos buzzing and the alligators bellowing from the pages of Alam's fifth book of her delightfully deadly series.

Alam's fifth mystery featuring Luanne Fogarty, this mystery moves from the panhandle area of North Florida to the more central area in Ocala. Luanne has agreed to help her sometime boss Tony in a personal matter since her classes for the semester have ended. She heads down to Ocala with her scuba gear in the middle of gator mating season, only to end up right in the middle of the current hurricane territory. Tony's aunt had died leaving instructions to have an autopsy no matter what the situation, which raised eyebrows but managed to bring attention to a dubious state of affairs. After discovering a neighbor's body floating in the lake after a storm, Luanne and her friends are convinced that something suspicious is going on in the backwoods neighborhood, between the missing animals and the mysterious deliveries to the New Jersey neighbors, the Bonos. But will they be able to unearth enough information to piece everything together? Alam's work is very descriptive and weaves together an exceptional cast of characters. Having grown up in the north Florida area and lived there for over twenty years, I find Alam's work a wonderful way of visiting the area without having to travel there in person.