Matt Royal Mystery - 03 - Blood Island

### From Publishers Weekly Set in Longboat Key, Fla., Griffin's third mystery to feature semiretired lawyer Matt Royal (after 2006's *Murder Key*) proves bad things can happen in beautiful places. Matt, who's traded suits for shorts, now does mostly pro bono investigative work. When his ex-wife, Laura, shows up, needing help in locating her stepdaughter, Peggy, who went missing in Sarasota while on spring break, Matt dives into a puzzle with a quickly rising body count. Matt becomes really worried after Laura goes missing. Is her disappearance linked to Peggy's? The suspense rises as the trail leads to Key West and the Heaven Can't Wait Spa, where Matt uncovers a connection to Rev. Robert William Simmermon, a crazy preacher with a hidden agenda headquartered on nearby Blood Island. Griffin's breezy first-person narration brings the likable Matt, with his killer reflexes and wry sense of humor, vividly to life. *(Dec.)* Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ### From Booklist The gold standard in Florida crime fiction was established by John D. MacDonald with his color-coded Travis McGee series back in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, it’s often been said—and meant as a high compliment—that Randy Wayne White’s Doc Ford was the closest successor to McGee. Well, move over Doc because H. Terrell Griffin’s Matt Royal may be cut in even more of the McGee mold. Royal is a former Green Beret and former lawyer living in Sarasota (where McDonald resided), though this adventure, which involves finding his ex-wife’s missing stepdaughter, takes place on Blood Island in the Florida Keys (where McGee occasionally moored his houseboat). Royal displays the mixture of street smarts, physical prowess, and hypersensitivity that made McGee a paperback icon. Some of MacDonald’s less admirable features, such as amazingly lethal old friends who pop up when the plot requires their presence, also find their way into Blood Island; but even so, this is a thoroughly entertaining, old-school Florida mystery novel that fans of the region and the genre will love. --Steve Glassman