The beach is the perfect place to retire; It's also the perfect place to disappear. A Gus Boling MysteryFormer LA police detective Gus Boling found the perfect place to retire with his third wife - as a smalltown cop in Carmel. What possibly could go wrong? Welcome to Pebble Beach - expensive, exclusive . . . and evil. Former LA police detective Gus Boling keeps his past well hidden. There are those secret trips to his bank in Boise. A burn phone stashed in his den. Various guns and ammo, some registered, most, not. Only Boling has the key to a certain safe deposit box and to his own soul.Only Boling knows the full story, and he's not telling.Now, peacefully settled at the beach, the semi-retired cop has left the mean streets of LA for sleepy Carmel, California, where he spends his time writing speeding tickets and checking on neighborhood noise violations. Interrupting his quiet existence with his new golf cart and third wife, Boling is called back to action as he uncovers an unexpected core of corruption and decaying gentility in the normally placid town. Suddenly, a series of bloody crimes and misdemeanors break out in the exclusive Pebble Beach enclave. A Carmel-By-The-Sea summer like no other kicks off with the arrival of two tourists: a young, African-American pro basketball draftee and a serial killer 'wearing' live snakes beneath his black jersey. The tall African American NBA athlete gets the bends as he falls for an under-age spirited girl and attempts to acclimate to his new celebrity status among the 'locals.' Across town, the devious and malevolent 'Snake Man' worms his way into local society, succeeding in passing himself off as a clean-cut man with impressive connections. Protecting one man while chasing another, with his past threatening to overtake him, the cop must pay with his own blood...
