Helpful Score: 5
This is the first in a mystery series featuring Luanne Fogarty, a professor of linguistics at Florida State University and a skilled cave diver who is called upon by local authorities in North Florida for her diving expertise. The body of an elderly woman is found deep in the recesses of a freshwater spring in Florida's Palmetto River (in actuality the Wakulla Springs Cavern south of Tallahassee FL). Fogarty investigates; another murder follows, and Fogarty becomes more and more enmeshed in the mysterious events. She is not a glamourized heroine: Mid-forties, single, rural heritage, and as confused with life as most of us are. She lives in a decrepit old house in the swamp near the springsan old family home where she was brought up. She is trying to rehab it as time allows, which it seldom does. Alam lives in the area she describes; her depiction of North Florida and its history is knowledgably and forthrightly presented.
