The Story of the Sarasota Celery Fields and Other Mysteries

This is the second in THE FLORIDA FABLES series. The first is The Story of the Sarasota Assassination Society.

The Story of the Sarasota Celery Fields and Other Mysteries continues the story of a town speeding towards its future as a tourist and agricultural paradise, as told by Deputy Sheriff Gawain MacFarlane.  The explosion of wealth brought by Bertha Palmer and other visionaries not only spurred a vast real estate boom but also an irresistible market for bootleggers, marauders such as the John Ashley Gang, and an unexplained tragedy - the murder of Harry Higel, the town's three-time mayor and most prominent booster in 1921. The gruesome bludgeoning that left Higel almost unrecognizable occurred near his home on Siesta Key, the beach he was developing, and historians have long puzzled over who committed this heinous crime. MacFarlane's relentless investigation produces a disturbing outcome and a final resolution to the mystery.