When day workers start vanishing from assembly places near home repair stores, multi-ethnic, northern-born Troy Adam, police chief of the seaside town of Mangrove Bayou, Florida smells a serial killer. Then he learns the killers are living in Mangrove Bayou. Last, he learns just how perverted they can be.Along the way Troy deals with a rape, online and real-life protestors, a wandering ambassador's wife, a Hollywood actor he uses as bait, and, of course, Martha Sizemore's prized plantings. Life is never dull in Mangrove Bayou.