Deadly Sweet — Sterling Watson

Corey Darrow had come to Eddie Priest for protection. She was being harassed for raising the ecological flag in the rich, dark ooze of Florida's Okee County--land of sugar cane, neo-colonialists, and rattlesnakes as big around as your thigh. Not sensing a serious threat, and distracted by Corey's black Irish beauty, Eddie didn't know how desperate she was. Then Corey Darrow's body was dragged from the canal where she had drowned, her hand still clutching a cocked .357 Magnum--and Eddie Priest was running on regret.

Enter Sawnie Darrow, Corey's sister, with the same million-dollar voice and dangerous taste for the truth. She doesn't care about Eddie's wife, searching for her center in California, or his vaunted football fame, or why he'd traded lawyering for selling boats. She wants him to find out if her sister was murdered, even if the answer might be rotting under a rock too deadly to kick over. And this time Eddie can't say no....