Night of the Panther

Book 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.