The Dangerous Coast of Florida Collection: Books 1-3

The Dangerous Coast of Florida Suspense Series Collection, Book 1

By: Chase Waters

Narrated by: Rick Struve

Length: 20 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

This coastal mystery and suspense thriller box set includes the first three books in The Dangerous Coast of Florida suspense series!

Book one - Dead in the Water

John Godwin thought he’d left his life as an EMT in the past. These days, he was a private investigator who spent his days keeping tabs on cheating spouses and insurance scammers in sunny Miami. But it only takes one phone call, one unexpected job with a fat paycheck, to send him right back to where he started.

Death is stalking a privately owned luxury resort on an island just off the Florida Keys. The sudden death of the resort’s staff medic seems like an open-and-shut case - a crime of passion - but when one of the suspects turns up dead, John will have to use all of his skill and expertise to discover the truth before the bodies start to stack up.

On the cusp of a discovery that will blow the case wide open, John runs the risk of becoming a serial killer’s next victim, and with a hurricane bearing down on the tiny island, getting out alive is looking a little more complicated.

Book two - Burned in the Water

John Godwin thought he’d left his life as an EMT in the past. He thought he’s spend his time as a private investigator keeping tabs on cheating spouses and insurance scammers in sunny Miami. But John’s semi-retirement has been busier than he ever expected, and after helping solve a high-profile case, he’s also gained some unexpected notoriety and caught the eye of Miami homicide detective Jamie Greene.

Detective Greene doesn’t like private investigators, and something about John has rubbed him the wrong way. When a bizarre death of someone close to John lands him in detective Greene’s crosshairs, the only way out, is to dive into the seedy underbelly of Miami’s scene.

Drugs, murder, and the hunt for a tech-obsessed madman could be the only way to clear his name. The only problem? Getting out alive.

Book three - Poisoned in the Water

John Godwin thought he’d left his life as an EMT in the past. These days he was a private investigator who spent his days keeping tabs on cheating spouses and insurance scammers in sunny Miami. But after solving a few high-profile cases, his quiet retirement is proving to be anything but.

Now that summer has come to Miami, John is looking forward to kicking back and taking it easy. But death has a way of complicating things. A call from Miami homicide pulls John out of his idyllic holiday mode and right back into the thick of things.

When Damon Cosgrove, the eldest son of a wealthy Miami family turns up dead - poisoned by an exotic pet - John will have to discover if it’s really an accident or if the Cosgrove family is being hunted by a killer with a taste for poison.

In the middle of a toxic family feud, John and his friend Max will have to infiltrate the family compound to search for clues, but the Cosgrove boys are dropping like flies, and someone doesn’t want anyone snooping around. If John doesn’t find the killer soon, he and Max could wind up on the killer’s hit list. And he’s got a deadly bite.

©2020 Chase Waters (P)2020 Chase Waters

pathetic

the killer confesses everything at the end. Really? Also, other than the main character, the voices are really poor.

Has potential but is lacking on multiple levels

First, I have to say that I like the idea of the this series. It has potential, but it's too weak and needs better editing in my opinion. The author has good ideas, the plot was okay and this could have been a fun series, but there are several things that caused me to abandon the series completely. I really did try to stick it out because the storyline has such potential, but the books are amateurish and the writing quality is poor. I think a good editor could have made this series a fan favorite.

The first book was better than the second. The second book just started to unravel into a bizarre mix of a mystery novel and random Wikipedia-like notations explaining things that require no explanation. I got a quarter way through the second novel and just couldn't continue.

1. The author is too wordy. That may sound odd when discussing a written work, but why take three paragraphs to describe inconsequential details that have no bearing on the story and frequently distract from it? Boosting the word count?

2. Constant sidelines to lecture and explain things that require neither. E.g.,, lecturing on the purpose and importance of malpractice insurance in the middle of a paragraph about something else. Odd to say the least.

3. Overexplaining things. The author seems to feel the readers are ignorant of many things and frequently stops mid story to explain it in a lecturing tone, then continues with the story. It's bizarre.

4. The narrator was all wrong for this book. He wasn't awful, but doesn't do different voices well, resulting in the character Max, sounding like a doddering old man. He actually did better on the female accents than the male accents. He did however, do a great impression of actor Graham Greene when performing one of the male voices, but it was a poor choice for the character.

I like the the idea of the character and some of the storylines enough that if a reedited version were to be published, I'd give it another try.