Rising Force — Wayne Stinnett

Paradise has a price. For Jesse McDermitt, that price is his moral compass and a bullet.

The retired Marine and charter skipper takes on a passenger in Nassau, a young woman who is a breath of fresh air. She introduces him to the laid-back cruising crowd on an idyllic small cay in the Berry Islands. Jesse takes to the relaxing lifestyle like a fish to water.

Living each day on its own terms is a new experience for Jesse, but it doesn't last long. Trouble always seems to find him. When Jesse gets word that someone is destroying nearby patch reefs and poaching sea turtles -- and that all this is happening in the same area where a trio of sadistic murderers may be hiding -- it triggers his instincts for investigation.

Has Jesse's urge to find out the truth cost him everything? He came to the Bahamas on a fool's errand to reconnect with a lost love. The image of her on a beach in the Virgin Islands fills his mind as he passes out from loss of blood...