Bitter End - Hardcover

Kling, Christine

4.2

676 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345479033 ISBN 13: 9780345479037

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 2005

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In her acclaimed novels of suspense, Christine Kling gives readers good reason to believe that if Travis McGee and Kinsey Millhone had ever hooked up, their child would have grown up to be Seychelle Sullivan: a beautiful, savvy heroine with a knack for steering her salvage tugboat into South Florida’s most troubled waters. In Seychelle’s new caper, she may just be in over her head when murder and corruption come bobbing to the surface.

Since kindergarten, Seychelle and her best friend, Molly, had been as close as sisters. Molly even dated Seychelle’s brother. But it all ended suddenly when Nick Pontus, a slick, older, up-and-coming entrepreneur, came along. A smitten Molly quit school, married her new beau, and never spoke to Seychelle again. After thirteen years, it still stings.

Seychelle didn’t see the sniper who picked Nick off at the helm of his yacht, but she knows that there are plenty of people in South Florida who wanted to see the gambling-boat tycoon dead: the Russian mobsters looking for a piece of his casino action, the Indian gamers who resent his competition, and the ecological activists fighting his plans to develop Fort Lauderdale’s waterfront. But it’s Molly whom the cops zero in on. And despite her bitter feelings and against her better judgment, when her back-from-the-blue friend asks for help, Seychelle can’t just weigh anchor and cruise. She’s got to dive in.

What she finds is a money-skimming scam aboard Nick’s flagship gambling boat, Nick’s new trophy wife turned merry rich widow, and Nick and Molly’s teenage son, a scared kid with a big secret . . . and a killer on his
trail. Protecting the boy, proving Molly’s innocence, and navigating between squalls of gunfire add up to a tall order as salvage jobs go. But like any good captain, Seychelle will never abandon ship. Even if it means risking her life.

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Review:

"'Bitter End' is a well-written and enjoyable novel...Kling
handles plot, setting and characterisation with aplomb." -- Mystery Women Magazine June 2007

About the Author:

Christine Kling is the author of Surface Tension and Cross Current. She spent more than twenty years on and around boats and has cruised the waters of the North and South Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Caribbean. She received her M.F.A. in creative writing from Florida International University in Miami. She lives in South Florida with her teenage son.

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