Wreckers' Key: A Novel of Suspense [Hardcover]

Christine Kling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2007

In her Seychelle Sullivan novels, Christine Kling has brilliantly rendered the world of South Florida, as seen from the teeming waters around it. From harbors of Key West to the wilds of Biscayne Bay to the night lights of Miami, Kling’s tough-minded heroine has carved out a life that is uniquely her own. Now, this fiercely independent woman is at a turning point . . . and in a dangerous duel with an unseen enemy.

In the 1800s, Key West was built by wrecking skippers who in feats of derring-do raced to shipping disasters to save valuable cargos from the ocean depths. Today, as too many boats chase too few wrecks, salvage has turned into a cutthroat corporate enterprise. Seychelle Sullivan, who pilots a tug her father built by hand, is unable and unwilling to compete. She is overwhelmed by issues of love, trust, motherhood, career, and family. But when a friend is killed, Seychelle begins to suspect a chilling scenario: that modern-day wreckers are causing yachts to crash onto the reefs–and killing off whoever gets in the way.

Nestor Frias was piloting a billionaire’s luxury power yacht on its maiden voyage when it ran aground. A few days later, Frias was dead. His eight-months-pregnant widow is distraught, and a host of questions surround both Frias’s death and the ship’s accident. When another man dies while asking questions, Seychelle navigates the dangerous shoals and channels of the case and her life, unaware that a greater danger is looming: a murderous human storm designed perfectly for her.

With its vivid, colorful characters and rich sense of sea and land, Wreckers’ Key is a brilliant addition to Christine Kling's fascinating, entertaining, and thrilling Florida mystery series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Kling's salty if at times meandering fourth Florida suspense thriller (after Bitter End), tugboat captain Seychelle Sullivan, who inherited her dad's business three years earlier, is still resisting advanced GPS technology. Her more successful competitors, like upstart Neville Pinder, have no compunction about using it, while such unsavory developments as an increase in insurance fraud (an unhappy client is suing her) have her questioning her future. When her friend Nestor Frias runs a millionaire's yacht aground in Key West, Nestor insists the GPS navigation system was somehow compromised. While Seychelle is towing the yacht to Fort Lauderdale, Nestor's killed in a windsurfing accident that his pregnant widow insists was murder. An unexpected reunion with an old childhood friend, Ben Baker, once a nerd, now a hottie, provides some romantic tension. A shocking resolution to this solid tale of nautical adventure will catch most readers by surprise. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

When tugboat captain Seychelle Sullivan agrees to tow a friend's disabled yacht from Key West to Ford Lauderdale, she is confronted with a mystery: Was the yacht deliberately run aground by pirates? Then, when her friend is murdered, Seychelle decides that this might be her final case; the prospect of getting out of the salvage-amateur sleuth business is looking pretty good. But first she has to solve her friend's murder, and that proves to be tougher, and more deadly, than she anticipated. This is the fourth installment in this interesting (if not especially remarkable) series, and although fans will dive right in, newcomers might wonder whether the character warrants an entire series built around her. Recommend this one to fans of the series and perhaps to devoted readers of nautical mysteries. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034547905X
• ISBN-13: 978-0345479051
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,172,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have spent more than thirty years living on and around boats and cruising the waters of the North and South Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Caribbean. I've written articles and stories for many boating publications including Sailing, Cruising World, Motor Boating & Sailing, and The Tiller and the Pen.

It was that sailing experience that led me to set my first nautical suspense novels on the waterfront in Fort Lauderdale. Featuring Florida female tug and salvage captain, Seychelle Sullivan, there are four books in the series, SURFACE TENSION, CROSS CURRENT, BITTER END, and WRECKERS' KEY. I'm now retired from my day job as an English professor at Broward College, and I am living the dream of full-time cruising on board my 33-foot Caliber sailboat Talespinner. My latest book set in the Leeward Islands is titled CIRCLE OF BONES: a Caribbean thriller, and features a female solo sailor, Maggie Riley, and a maritime archeologist (and conspiracy nut) Cole Thatcher, who are racing against an elite inner circle of Skull and Bones to recover the secrets found in the wreck of a World War II submarine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MYSTERY, INTRIGUE, & SEYCHELLE SULLIVAN IN "THE FLORIDA KEYS" & BEYOND, March 12, 2007

By 

RBSProds "rbsprods" (Deep in the heart of Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Wreckers' Key: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

Five MESMERIZING Stars! "Wreckers' Key" by Christine Kling is a highly entertaining novel full of mystery, interesting people, and great scenery. Seychelle Sullivan is a tall unmarried tugboat captain with an artistic eye and deep yearnings inside. And she's got her strengths and vulnerabilities: man problems and legal problems, among them. She comes to Key West from Fort Lauderdale to assist a friend and tow a damaged boat back. Such is the background of this standout novel that starts out interestingly and then hits a high gear of intrigue when tragedy strikes and there is a death. And we are inside of Seychelle's interesting mind the entire way, as her past keeps catching up with her, the mystery deepens, and interesting men catch her eye-but what about B. J.? Quite frankly, the high level of Ms Kling's writing artistry was such that I couldn't put the novel down. And truth be told, Seychelle's life seems to enjoyably overpower the storyline at times, although it's subterfuge. But it's fun just to watch Sey 'navigate' through the storyline.

Those familiar with the Key West part of the storyline will recognize places such as Duval Street, Turtle Kraals, Schooner Wharf Bar, the Dry Tortugas, the incredible sunsets from Mallory Pier and will feel right at home as she populates her landscape with interesting and unique characters both there and later in Fort Lauderdale. We are also introduced to a facet of boating that may be new to many of us who have visited there. And that's where the trouble starts and develops, and for Seychelle Sullivan it gets way too personal. The specific writing about the Gorda/Grady-White incident is spellbinding. In "Wreckers' Key", Christine Kling has conjured up a taut, carefully-plotted tale with interesting twists and turns that are the basis of an engrossing page-turner with a surprise resolution. But watch out! You may fall in love with the amazing Seychelle Sullivan. I did!! And the Florida Keys as well. Highly Recommended. Five MYSTERIOUS Stars!!

(Note: this review of "Wreckers' Key" is based on an unabridged digital download in secure eReader format.)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great Seychelle mystery, February 28, 2010

By 

Victoria Allman (Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wreckers' Key: A Novel of Suspense (Mass Market Paperback)

Wrecker's Key was the fourth book of Christine Kling's I read in quick succession. Once I started with her characters of Seychelle Sullivan, B.J., and Pit I was hooked. Actually, what really got me was the setting. Kling writes about apart of South Florida that comes alive in her description and history. She explores more of Fort Lauderdale and Key West than just the beaches so that the rivers and canals become as much a character as the people in her stories.
I thoroughly enjoyed Wrecker's Key, as much as any other of her books in the series and can not wait to read more.
This is a great series for anyone interested in delving a little farther into Florida's colorful characters and past, while at the same time enjoying a well-written mystery.

Victoria Allman
author of: SEAsoned: A Chef's Journey with Her Captain

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Mystery with Satisfying Blend of Boating, Florida History/Culture and Personality Development., May 1, 2010

By 

Quadradox (United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Wreckers' Key: A Novel of Suspense (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first of Ms. Kling's novels I've read. I stayed engaged with her blend of action and her development of characters, plots and broader subplots sufficiently to feel hooked and finish in one day. Her writing is smooth, direct and easily followed. Conversations seem mostly realistic without an inordinate amount of profanity -- and the latter seemed to fit quite appropriately where it was used.

I read the Kindle version. I found rare, almost inevitable typo's that were not really distracting to me. I suppose these could be handled in future editions via a copy editor (as suggested by a prior reviewer), but no major grammar, spelling, layout or other problems leapt out at me in the electronic version.

REGARDING AUDIENCE:

My guess is that the book would attract persons who would enjoy learning about boating, Florida history, mixed with some local flavoring (of past and modern Keys culture) with the benefit of being carried along via a story line rather than searching out similar material in a dryer nonfiction work. While it may indeed be predictable to provide a "Who Dunnit" strategy for such a task, I feel the author does a good job with this modality.

She builds a reasonably plausible and intriguing set of plots. The primary female heroine displays her strengths with respect to cognitive work, intuition and respectable physical prowess rather than brute force in solving the crimes. Thus, I suspect this novel might appeal more to persons who appreciate her knowledge of local life, language and boating expertise than those craving fast, rapidly changing and highly violent contests of raw power. There is also a fairly satifying degree of psychological depth to her character development. (Though there are a few angles of the twists and turns through mental illness I might rather see done differently). She also dips into some exploration of familial and relationship conflicts/values, particularly with respect to modern changes in both male and female roles as they are evolving in her setting.

The ending was rather precipitous -- a strategy that annoys some readers who might wish to at least end with tidy, clear resolutions, if not a "happy therafter" feeling. This novel either intentionally leaves room for her next sequel or shifts the responsibility to the reader to resolve several final tensions through their own imagination.

SUMMARY:

Overall, I experienced a well-rounded novel with intrigue, intellectual stimulation, and an opportunity to learn along the way. There was enough richness in content to feel like I could take a refreshing break, journeying for awhile within the story, her characters and the critical scenes without feeling overly bogged down in prolonged descriptions of environmental, technical or personal detail. It seems to me that it could particularly appeal to a relatively broad range of female readers, to outdoor and sealoving adventurers, and to male readers who are open to exploring the deeper twists and turns of complicated modern relationships.