When a skeleton turns up in a car long-submerged in a drainage canal, Troy Adam, multi-ethnic northern-born police chief for the seaside town of Mangrove Bayou, Florida, finds himself entagled with wealth, politics, and a governor's race.As usual, on his way to solving the murder, Troy has to take care of a few side-problems as well, including encounters with a military school that looks like a Mussolini pep rally, and a gang leader with a degree in Shakespearean drama. Life is never dull in Mangrove Bayou.