Florida P.I. has a problem: he's been called to duty involving a murdered female Park Ranger. And she was a close relative of a female rival police detective.
P.I. Tony Lowell is a Navy SEAL veteran who served in the Gulf War and those experiences have turned him against carrying a weapon. Facts are most P.I.'s don't, it's just inviting trouble, like keeping a gun in a house with children. He also smokes weed with his Creek Indian friend Perry Lightfoot, between gigs.
In 'Night of the Panther' Lowell has been asked by Police Detective Lena Bedrosian, an occasional partner in crime-solving--always reluctant on both sides--to investigate the case because she cannot because the victim, a female park ranger in Corkscrew Swamp north of Big Cypress, was her best friend and first cousin.
Lowell heads south, with Perry accompanying him. Both sense they may be heading into big trouble, because that is redneck and ultra-right territory. Soon they find themselves tangling with an Evangelical campout (complete with target shooting), and then an ultra-exclusive gun club including some of South Florida's wealthiest men (only men allowed, of course) including a heavyweight politician, and a major citrus grower.
What Lowell and Lightfoot don't know--and will soon learn--is that the gun club is bent upon adding a Florida Panther, of which less than 30 still exist, to their wall of trophies.
Excerpt
Marge hesitated, her pulse quickening. Then she heard the low guttural laugh of a voice she recognized. A voice that chilled her the way no weather change ever would. Along with the cold grip of fear that her sudden knowledge brought was the even more terrifying knowledge of why they had come.
When authorities find the body of Wildlife Officer Marge Pappas in Big Cypress Swamp, Florida, Police Detective Lena Bedrosian takes it very hard. Marge was her cousin and closest friend, so she feels frustrated and powerless when her boss, citing a conflict of interest, demands that she take an administrative leave and keep away from their investigation of Marge's death. Unable to sit by and do nothing, Lena reluctantly calls her friend and professional rival private investigator Tony Lowell to ask for help. Lowell would rather tinker with his ailing sailboat, but he agrees to lend a hand, and he quickly regrets ever getting involved.
Lowell convinces his Creek Indian friend Perry Lightfoot to accompany him to Big Cypress Swamp, where none of the swamp dwellers or regional politicians seem too interested in finding the killer of a female wildlife officer. It soon becomes apparent to Lowell that many local higher-ups, along with poachers and a dangerous militia group, stand to lose if the murderer is found. And then he and Bedrosian become the quarry in a deadly earnest manhunt.
Professional Reviews
Tampa Bay Times
“This spring three Florida mystery writers weighed in with new books. Two of the state’s best, James W. Hall and Randy Wayne White are coming off big successes. E. C. (Gene) Ayres, still working his way up the ladder might, just might, have produced the best book of the three.
Ayres manages to combine many of the Florida issues of the day into one relatively taut novel. Night of the Panther is a project that succeeds on some levels and falls short on others. It isn’t the first story that ever tried to work with two protagonists, but to pull it off, they must have equal time on stage. Panther sells one of them very short , and unfortunately that one is Tony Lowell, Ayres’ continuing series character.
Games and Fresh Water Fish officer Marge Pappas, who lives among the wildlife in her charge, is murdered mysteriously. Her first cousin, Lena Bedrosian, a Manatee City police detective, is devastated by Marge’s death, and she is quickly taken off the case by a boss who says she is too close to it. So she calls on Lowell for help, which he agrees only reluctantly to give.
The story develops into a tale of a local militia, a hunt club that caters to the politically powerful, local corruption and an inevitable manhunt that puts the protagonists’ lives on the line.
Ayres knows his subject matter and does a wonderful job of giving his story a sense of place and realistic Florida texture.”
St. Petersburg Times
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