Asbury Park

Ten weeks ago, Homicide Detective Sailor Doyle worked his first solo case, a gruesome double murder in a remote farmhouse in Virginia. And things turned very nasty for him. . .

Now Sailor is recuperating with his family at a beach house in Belmar, on the New Jersey shore. He's struggling with prescription drug withdrawal while trying to build up his shattered shoulder and leg, and he's also trying to rebuild his shattered relationship with his wife. Jenny, while pleased he's alive, is less enamoured with the idea of reconciliation.

Seeking refuge in a century-old beachfront resort hotel, Sailor meets an elderly man, Mark ''Moses'' Stillman, a former minor league baseball player whose wife and daughter drowned in the ocean off Belmar years earlier. Sailor's having nightmares about his previous case, and when he starts seeing things again, he realises that once again he's being guided to the truth. . . even if it's not what he wants to hear. And it's not long before he finds himself investigating those deaths.

“"Equal parts Stephen King and Scott Sigler . . . Scott's lightness of touch and unfussy prose deliver unto us a likeable hero, one who it's a dark joy to spend time with. . . . the best kind of ghost story."”

"SFX" on "15 Miles""

Rob Scott was born in New York. He has studied classical guitar, and completed a Masters degree in education. Following a 1994 concert series in Brazil, he moved to Colorado to teach and to complete a doctorate in educational leadership and policy study. THE HICKORY STAFF is his first work of fiction. He lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.

Welcome to Asbury Park, N.J. Ten weeks ago, homicide detective Sailor Doyle worked his first solo case, a gruesome double murder in a remote farmhouse in Virginia. And nothing was as it seemed. Now on administrative leave, Sailor works to rebuild his shattered shoulder and leg; he's also pushing to rebuild his shattered relationships. Then a suicide victim crashes headlong through his breakfast table and a teenage gunman attempts to bring devastation to a local school, derailing Sailor's plans. As he investigates, apparently mismatched pieces - a retired baseball player, an endangered Arctic bird, a string of Tahitian pearls - all point to October, 1975, when a young couple fell in love and set in motion a dangerous conspiracy that reached the heart of the US and Canadian governments. Have the dead retained Sailor Doyle to solve their unsolvable murders - and can a broken, suspended cop possibly bring justice to victims half a lifetime later? For he is about to encounter a tangled web of lies that only the dead can unravel. Join Sailor Doyle on the streets of Asbury Park, where, once again, nothing is as it seems. 'An imaginative and gifted storyteller' Blogcritics.org

Ten weeks ago, Homicide Detective Sailor Doyle worked his first solo case, a gruesome double murder in a remote farmhouse in Virginia. And things turned very nasty for him. . .Now Sailor is recuperating with his family at a beach house in Belmar, on the New Jersey shore. He's struggling with prescription drug withdrawal while trying to build up his shattered shoulder and leg, and he's also trying to rebuild his shattered relationship with his wife. Jenny, while pleased he's alive, is less enamoured with the idea of reconciliation.Seeking refuge in a century-old beachfront resort hotel, Sailor meets an elderly man, Mark ''Moses'' Stillman, a former minor league baseball player whose wife and daughter drowned in the ocean off Belmar years earlier. Sailor's having nightmares about his previous case, and when he starts seeing things again, he realises that once again he's being guided to the truth. . . even if it's not what he wants to hear. And it's not long before he finds himself investigating those deaths.

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